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Proactive weekly oil and gas news summary including Genel Energy, Bridge Energy, Nostra Terra and Leni Gas & Oil

Published: 04:00 21 Sep 2013 EDT

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In the oil and gas space last week, investors saw a landmark agreement inked by Genel Energy (LON:GENL) and partner DNO International that will see the first commercial gas supplied from the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

The agreement is for around 100 mln cubic feet of gas per day from the Summail field in the Dohuk licence.

Gas produced will be sold on a take-or-pay basis for the duration of the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) or until deliveries reach one trillion cubic feet. 

The price of gas will range between $3 and $4 per thousand cubic feet over the life of the contract.

Gulf Keystone Petroleum (LON:GKP) released half year results last week, which showed it produced an aggregate of 183,000 barrels of oil to end June, of which 179,063 barrels were sold into the domestic market.

Commercial production by early September was in the order of 12,400 barrels of oil per day, GKP revealed.

Further upgrades to the field’s infrastructure will see the installation of a second production facility, which will be capable of lifting output to around 40,000 barrels per day. The facility is expected to be complete in October.

Exploration, appraisal and development drilling continues across the portfolio as well.

On Monday, Bridge Energy (LON:BRDG) shares rocketed after it recommended a premium priced takeover offer from Norway’s Spike Exploration.

Bridge said 62% of its shareholders have accepted the offer, while 34% have given irrevocable undertakings.

The AIM quoted stock jumped 28% to 156.5p in response to the all-cash bid, worth 162 pence a share, which values it at £103 million.

Spike is backed by sole shareholder Hitecvision, a private equity group that has already had success in building Norwegian oil and gas companies.

One of its last E&P businesses, 

Spring Energy, was sold to Tullow for US$372mln in 2012, and formed the basis of the FTSE firm’s strategic entry to Norway.

On Thursday, Falcon Oil & Gas (LON:FOG, CVE:) confirmed it has now purchased 2.46 mln shares in its majority owned subsidiary Falcon Oil & Gas Australia (FOGA).

It now owns 98.1% of FOGA after the share-based deal, which sees the sellers receive 2.25 listed Falcon Oil & Gas shares for each FOGA share they own.

The deal was done on the same terms as the group’s earlier purchase of a 24.2% stake in FOGA from Sweetpea Petroleum.

FOGA is the registered holder of four exploration permits in the Beetaloo basin, in Australia’s Northern Territory.

Meanwhile, this week, the third well on Nostra Terra Oil & Gas (LON:NTOG)'s Verde prospect in Colorado is being completed, with production pipe run in, the firm told investors

 The pipe will be run into the hole and cemented into place. The development came after two drill stem tests were carried out in the primary pay zone.

The second test resulted in free gas nearly reaching the surface and recovery of several hundred feet of  liquids, a mixture of gas and oil, plus oil and gas cut drilling muds, the majority of which was oil," the firm said.

Leni Gas & Oil’s (LON:LGO) last week said its operations at the Goudron field in Trinidad will be boosted by tax changes in Trinidad.

A number of policy changes by revealed in the finance minister’s budget statement earlier this month will have favourable implications for the oil firm, with tax breaks relating to capital expenditure on exploration and development.

Coming at a time when LGO is stepping up its activity at the Goudron field, where it plans to drill 30 new wells, the benefits are expected to have an immediate positive impact on cashflows.

The company would, based on its plans, have a £1mln a year benefit from the changes over the next three years, LGO said.

It also says that the changes will also enhance the group’s planned exploration, although the amount of work and timing has yet to be confirmed.

Meanwhile, the re-booted SacOil (LON:SAC) business will be debt-free and significantly stronger, according to recently appointed chief executive Roger Rees in last week's year end results.

Rees is one of the six new senior management appointments at SacOil as part of its ongoing restructuring.

This includes financial changes - including a £36mln rights issue and the settlement of loans of around US$24mln for new shares. And it is planned that these changes will put the group in a position to advance key projects in Africa.

Australian Strategic Materials signs US$600 million LoI

Rowena Smith, CEO and managing director of Australian Strategic Materials Ltd (ASX:ASM, OTC:ASMMF), joins Jonathan Jackson in the Proactive studio to discuss the company’ s Dubbo Project, in Central West New South Wales. This project aims to extract and process critical minerals and rare earth...

3 hours, 38 minutes ago