One of today’s main stories by Proactive Investors took a close look at Tangiers Petroleum (ASX:TPT, LON:TPET), which made its debut on the AIM market today.
The group, which owns potentially company-making assets in Morocco and Australia, is hoping to negotiate farm-in deals on both.The plan then is to have two wells on each by the end of this year.In parallel the group is also on the look-out for “open acreage” to add to Tangiers’ already enviable portfolio of projects.If chairman Mark Ceglinski is daunted by the task in front of him he revealed little hint of it when we spoke.He told Proactive Investors: “Our ethos is to work hard and create value, and we do that by executing and delivering.”Today’s listing on the AIM market was preceded by a well received placing with investors here in London and over the Pond in the US.It provides the company with the funds to further its exploration programme, as well as leaving some for working capital.Tangiers recently completed its latest seismic campaign on the Tarfaya, offshore Morocco.The group holds a 75 per cent stake in the block, which has an un-risked prospective resource of 867 million barrels, with a high-end estimate of almost 5 billion.“We have been successful in finding leads and maturing them into prospects,” said Ceglinski.“So we will be further elaborating on the prospectivity of Morocco.“It is not one prospect, it is multiple prospects and they are different types of prospects.”However the major event in Morocco will be the farm-in deal, with the partner expected to drill two wells before the year-end at an estimated “$25 million per hole”.The area has become a magnet for foreign investment thanks in no small part to its fiscal regime.The state receives 25 per cent of any project and a 5 per cent royalty if gas is produced, which rises to 10 per cent for oil. A ten-year corporate tax holiday is offered on each discovery.This means the government take is never more than 35 per cent.Contrast this with Algeria, where the authorities take 92 per cent and you can see why foreign investment is flooding into Morocco.Total, Repsol and Anadarko are just three of the larger operators in country.In Australia, the company is following a very similar template to that of Morocco, in that an extensive exploration programme will be followed by farm-in. The group owns 90 per cent of two potentially mega gas prospect in Australia’s Southern Bonaparte Sea, some 250 kilometres south-west of Darwin. They are Nova and Super Nova and are sitting below already existing oil fields.Based on work carried out by Schumberger, Tangiers cites what it calls a “probabilistic estimate” of un-risked gas in place of 71 trillion cubic feet to 148 Tcf – which makes the pair potentially huge on anyone’s register.“We are working towards farming out sooner rather than later. And of course this will be a major, major catalyst,” said Ceglinski.Other three feature stories published by Proactive Investors today were dedicated to mining stocks
