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Gold/Mining/Energy : Lundin Oil (LOILY, LOILB Sweden) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Greywolf who wrote (1357)	11/9/1999 11:09:00 AM
From: Tomas	Respond to of 2742

Investors Chronicle: Falkland Islands Oil - Investors Regain Desire For South Atlantic Oil Probes From this weeks issue of Investors Chronicle, published November 5 Falkland Islands oil is as flammable as ever. This mysterious liquid has yet to see daylight, but the merest whiff of it sent Desire Petroleum's shares soaring over the past week. Pride of place in the company's interim statement went to the British Geological Survey's (BGS) views on the North Falklands basin. According to Desire, the BGS says the source rock is one of the two richest in the world. The volume of crude oil generated and expelled by the rock could be between 5bn and 15bn barrels, again according to the BGS. That was enough to send Desire's shares from 20p to 56p even though the company has just announced pre-tax losses of pounds 1.09m (pounds 150,000 profit) for the half year to June 1999. The news also dragged up the shares of Gaelic Resources - currently the subject of an all-share bid from Desire. They have jumped from 1.25p to 3p. Oil and gas explorer Westmount Energy and minerals explorer Greenwich Resources also saw their shares soar. Each of these companies has stakes of less than 14 per cent in Desire - although that is prior to any issue of shares to pay for Gaelic. Westmount shares rose 10p to 34.5p and those of Greenwich added 2.5p to 8.75p. Desire's only current source of income is interest generated by its pounds 4.5m cash pile. With that little money Charlie Sharp of T. Hoare Canaccord says Desire will never be able to start drilling alone. So far there has been no rig drilling to confirm feasibility. 'They'd need to get Amerada or Shell back down there,' he said - even presuming that those 5bn to 15bn barrels are still retrievable. Desire shares went as high as 445p last year, mostly on sentiment and rumour. 'If you're sitting on a profit with these shares,' said Mr Sharp. 'I'd take it now.' That looks to be good advice.