COMPANY SNAPSHOT: Egdon Resources, Solo Oil, Nostra Terra Oil & Gas, Silence Therapeutics and Blacks Leisure
Friday, 6 January 2012 – Proactive Investors
The waters around the Isle of Wight seem to be of great interest to the market's intrepid band of small cap oil and gas explorers.
Egdon Resources (LON:EDR) said this morning it is taking a 7.5 per cent stake in a licence area off the coast of the holiday destination, which it has acquired from EnCore Oil (LON:EO.).
It is the third company in three days to consolidate its position in this small, but particularly sought-after stretch of the English Channel.
Wessex Exploration (LON:WSX) and partner Norwest Energy landed five blocks nearby, while Northern Petroleum (LON:NOP) has acquired offshore acreage bordering its onshore licence on the holiday island.
All are hoping the licences will share geology similar to nearby Wytch Farm – Britain's largest onshore oil field, which at its height pumped 100,000 barrels of crude a day.
The oil explorers dominated the small-cap headlines this morning with news from Solo Oil (LON:SOLO),Nostra Terra Oil & Gas (LON:NTOG) and Aminex (LON:AEX).
Solo has drawn down £350,000 from the three-year £10 million equity Line facility arranged in November last year with Dutchess Opportunity Cayman Fund Ltd.
This is the first drawdown from the facility and it has issued 59,322,034 new Solo shares at a 5 percent discount to the market price, in line with the agreement.
Earlier this week, the company reported the spudding of the Airport North exploration well in Ontario, Canada. Its associate Reef Resources (CVE:REE) began drilling on December 29.
Solo currently has a 23.8 per cent working interest in the Reef properties and it will increase that stake to 38.1 per cent in the near future.
Elsewhere, US focused Nostra Terra Oil & Gas (LON:NTOG) told investors that it will receive a US$1.3 million loan payment from a former partner by the end of this month.
A loan note was issued to NTOG last April as part of a deal with Hewitt Petroleum, in which NTOG assigned its interests in a number of joint venture projects to Hewitt.
The deal also saw Hewitt relinquish its stake in the Bloom property. As a result, Nostra Terra retained full ownership of the property. Hewitt has subsequently renamed itself Richfield Oil & Gas
NTOG has granted Richfield a 30 day extension to the repayment period and settlement of the outstanding amount is now anticipated on or before the end of this month.
Another small cap Aminex (LON:AEX) said it had completed the subscription by Asian investors, announced just before Christmas, and raised US$3.1 million through a placing at a 45 per cent premium.
The group had agreed a placing of around 38.9 million shares at par value of €0.06 with Empire Asia Group Co Ltd and Dr Chanchai Ruayrungruang of the Reignwood Group.
Empire Asia and Ruayrungruang have subscribed for half the shares each.
Separately, Tangiers Petroleum (ASX:TPT), currently listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, today unveiled plans to list on London's AIM market.
The firm said it expected the shares to be admitted to the London market on or around February 3. It isn't clear whether the group plans to raise funds.
Tangiers owns the Tarfaya oil area off the coast of Morocco, which has an un-risked prospective resource of 867 million barrels, with a high-end estimate of almost 5 billion barrels.
Its other major interest is a potentially mega gas prospect in Australia's Southern Bonaparte Sea, some 250 kilometres south-west of Darwin.
In other news, Silence Therapeutics (LON:SLN) announced the successful completion of two collaborations with AstraZeneca (LON:AZN).
Under the first, Silence and AstraZeneca identified and formulated novel siRNA molecules for selected targets and carried out five research programmes, it said. Three of these have been declared "accepted programs" by the pharmaceutical giant and can now be moved into pre-clinical development.
The second collaboration led to the development of a new delivery system for the firm's therapeutics called DACC, for which Silence retains the full rights.
Chief executive Thomas Christély said: "In particular the delivery collaboration has enabled Silence to make significant progress in developing a new technology that delivers RNAi to target cells.
He added: "The DACC delivery technology is proprietary to Silence and can be applied to the other projects that we are pursuing by ourselves and with partners."
Finally, Blacks Leisure (LON:BSLA) said today it is to enter administration as part of the process of selling off its assets.
The announcement was made this morning as the group said it was still holding discussions with "selected parties" who have submitted final offers for parts or all of the group.
Blacks is headed for a pre-pack administration, where the insolvent company has already found a buyer of its businesses and brands. As a result, shareholders will receive nothing.
Original article published on: http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/market_reports/37538/company-snapshot-egdon-resources-solo-oil-nostra-terra-oil-gas-silence-therapeutics-and-blacks-leisure-37538.html