President Petroleum the oil & gas exploration and production company, with assets in Argentina, jumped 16% higher to 41p before the start of lunch. The company announced it had found oil at the Pozo Escondido Field in northern Argentina. The field is estimated to hold approximately 20 million barrels of oil, but following a petrophysical review of old wells there, the company said it could hold an additional 50 million barrels. The company expects to start drilling a second well at the field shortly. Retail investors helped the stock trade 6 times the average daily volume by lunch. Even after this move higher, the stock is still a long way off its high from this time last year of 80p.
Mediterranean Oil & Gas continued its rich vein of volume, trading another 20 million shares by lunch. That was on top of the 59 million shares traded from yesterday. Retail investors got the bit between the teeth, on speculation a large seller had been cleared up. First thing this morning they got the confirmation of that, along with an announcement that said 'the gas sales contract between its subsidiary Medoilgas Italia SpA and Elettrogas SpA covering the entirety of the company's net gas production from the Guendalina gas field, has been transferred to the Italian utility Energetic SpA, commencing on and from Feb. 1.' Shares traded as high as 5.25p (+12%) during the day. The stock is a long way from its 23p high this time last year. One for the watch list.
Sticking with the, huge volume that could equate to a large seller being cleared theme, Petroneft Resources, a stock that tends to trade approximately 1 million shares a day, the 35 million shares traded before I had finished my lasagne did happen to catch my eye. The shares are a long way from the lofty heights of 70p back in January 2011. The last operations update was back on the 6th of December when the company said 'An additional five well hydraulic fracturing program planned on Pads 1 and 2 in January / February 2012.' So we will be watching this one for any developments.
Caza Oil & Gas the Oil & Gas exploration company, with assets in south and central United States, has been drifting easier since its last update in November. Volumes have been slow and the stock has been rather uneventful. Support does look to be at 9p and scanning the RNS from the 15th of November last year I came across this little snippet 'Caza has five additional proven undeveloped locations to drill on the San Jacinto property. The next two wells on this property were planned for the fourth quarter of 2011, however, the scheduling of these wells may be subject to change in the context of a more comprehensive drill plan for 2012.' Now unless I have missed an update, the two wells planned for the San Jacinto last year never materialised. The stock was trading at 25p this time last year, so a fair way off those levels here at 9p. I will be watching this one carefully to see if we get any update on when these are planned for.
Tower Resources, which has been rooted to 3p for some time, finally broke out with decent volume to boot. The stock traded as high as 3.44p up 15% around lunchtime. Possibly retail investors are positioning ahead of this little snippet from the last RNS 'Tower's wholly owned subsidiary, Neptune, has reached agreement with all interested parties to use the OGEC K900 drilling rig, currently committed to Tullow, to drill Mvule-1. It is planned that site preparation will begin shortly with a view to spudding the well by the middle of February 2012. The well is anticipated to reach a total drilled depth of about 600 metres within two weeks of spud. The well is testing estimated recoverable resource potential of 80 million bbls.' One for the watch list.
Kea Petroleum kept on running today, pushing another 16% higher during the trading day to 5.75p. Volumes have continued to catch the eye compared to historical trading volume, and I am a firm believer that volumes are a big indicator. Bulletin boards were awash with possible reasons for the move, but I would not be surprised if the reason behind it was the potential spudding of the Mauka-1 well.
Gasol moved a touch better today, pushing 3.3% better to 0.44p by lunch. The volumes were the eye catcher here, trading 2.3 million by early afternoon. For a stock that trades a few hundred thousand a day 2.3 million is a decent day of trading.
Written by Steven Asfour, Sales Trader at Fox-Davies