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

To: Tommaso who wrote (529)	4/2/1998 9:24:00 PM
From: Timelord	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2742

Message to webmistress on its way. Alex

To: Tommaso who wrote (529)	4/16/1998 9:09:00 PM
From: Tomas	Respond to of 2742

INTERVIEW - Swedish Sodra optimistic on Falklands oil By Michael Rank LONDON, April 16 (Reuters) - Swedish company Sodra Petroleum AB believes it has a one in eight chance of striking oil off the Falkland Islands, where it is to start drilling later this year, managing director Magnus Nordin said on Thursday. Sodra is 100 percent owned by Lundin Oil AB (LOILb.ST) and is planning to float on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) by July. Recognising the risk involved, the Sodra shares can be converted back into new shares in Lundin. Investors will get their money back even if no oil is found off the Falklands if the parent company achieves 90.50 crowns per share by the time of the conversion in the year 2001. Lundin is currently priced at about 42 crowns per share on the Stockholm stock exchange. Nordin said Sodra will be the fourth company to drill off the Falklands once drilling starts this month or next. The Borgny Dolphin rig is due arrive north of the Falklands in the next few days. ''We are quite confident that if any of the four wells to be drilled over the next six months encounter oil shows, then it's just a matter of time before a large commercial discovery is made,'' Nordin told Reuters in an interview. Lundin has a 100 percent exploration licence in tranche F off the Falklands and plans to start drilling in October. ''We do have so-called bright spots on our seismic (data) which is frequently an indication of the presence of hydrocarbons, but before a well is drilled we are all a bit in the dark,'' Nordin added. His company needed to find at least 200 million barrels of oil for a find off the Falklands to be commercial, he said. He described the area in the south Atlantic as ''high risk, high reward'' and said the Falklands have a ''very good fiscal regime.'' The Falklands Basin, 100 to 250 km off the islands in water depths of 150 to 500 metres, is one of the world's few undrilled sedimentary basins. Nordin said Lundin was in a strong position because tranche F is in the middle of the 12,800 square km of the North Falklands Basin opened up to oil exploration. Seven tranches, equivalent to 48 U.K. North Sea blocks, have been licensed for exploration. Operators in the other tranches are Amerada Hess Ltd (AHC - news; tranche A), Royal Dutch/Shell (RD.AS) (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: SHEL.L; tranche B), Lasmo Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: LSMR.L; tranches C and D) and Desire Petroleum Plc (tranches I and L). Desire, which is also a partner with Lasmo in tranches C and D, floated in London last week, raising 14.4 million pounds and valuing the company at 59.2 million pounds. "The response that Desire has received has been most encouraging for us," Nordin said. Lundin Oil, which currently produces oil and gas in the British sector of the North Sea and oil in Malaysia, was formed through the recent merger of Swedish company Sands Petroleum and Canadian firm International Petroleum Corp. Lundin last week announced the discovery of about 84 million barrels of oil (64.3 million net to Lundin) in the En Naga North field in Libya, which almost doubles the company's oil and condensate reserves. The Falklands are a British colony claimed by Argentina. The two countries went to war over the Falklands in 1982 after Argentine forces invaded the islands. biz.yahoo.com

To: Tommaso who wrote (529)	5/1/1998 10:04:00 AM
From: Tomas	Respond to of 2742

Oil could change Falklanders' lives (Financial Times, London, Friday May 1) Wildcat drilling in remote waters might bring financial autonomy but complicates the sovereignty dispute with Argentina and calls for novel technical solutions, writes Robert Corzine in Stanley. The often stormy waters off the north coast of the Falkland Islands were as smooth as glass this week, as a high pressure weather front gave oil explorers aboard the drilling rig Borgny Dolphin an extra few days to prepare for winter in the "Roaring Forties" of the South Atlantic. Over the next 18 months or so the Borgny Dolphin and her crew of 92 will undertake one of the most demanding tasks in the international oil industry: classic wildcat drilling in an unexplored and remote corner of the earth, with none of the technical back-up and support facilities found in mature oil-producing regions such as the North Sea. Jennie Young, one of the helicopter pilots who will undertake the long, weekly re-supply flights to the rig, said the challenge of flying in the area was not so different from that in the North Sea, "except here there is only one pinprick in the middle of the ocean to go to if you get in trouble". As so often occurs in the international oil industry, money and politics form the backdrop to the Borgny Dolphin's presence. If the rig is successful in finding oil, it could lead to the opening of a new petroleum-producing region, but one which will require novel technical solutions to cope with the area's harsh operating conditions and remoteness from world markets. Considerable investment will probably be needed in a new generation of giant floating oil production and storage systems, say company executives. Success would also transform the lives of the 2,300 Falkland islanders, many of whom recently crowded the rocky hills around Stanley for a glimpse of the Borgny Dolphin as it was towed to its first drilling location about 155 nautical miles north of the capital. The revenue from even relatively modest oil discoveries would give them financial autonomy. It could also allow the island's government to assume the cost of the defence burden now borne by the British taxpayer, a move that many islanders believe will secure their long-term political future. But success could also complicate the sovereignty dispute with Argentina, many of whose politicians view with deep suspicion the Borgny Dolphin's presence in the area. They claim the Falklands' government has unilaterally licensed the most promising offshore area to the north of the islands, while including the least attractive acreage in a proposed joint exploration area to the east. But for the four international oil consortia which are committed to drilling a total of five wildcat wells over the next 1« years, such concerns are outweighed by the sheer cost and difficulty of operating in the area. It took $27m and 72 days just to tow the Borgny Dolphin the 7,585 nautical miles from Aberdeen in Scotland to the Falklands. The day rate for the rig itself is more than $130,000, but the all-in costs of exploring in the area can easily exceed $300,000 a day, according to Andy Morrison, head of international operations for Amerada Hess, the US company which is operating the first well on behalf of its partners, Argos Evergreen, Fina, Murphy Oil and Teikoku Oil. Individual wells are expected to cost $16m-$17m each, which is about the same as those drilled in the most challenging UK oil frontier in the deep water west of the Shetland islands. The complexity of the Falklands operation has persuaded the lead companies in the four consortia - Amerada Hess, Royal Dutch/Shell, Lasmo and IPC - to form a strategic alliance to share resources. "It has been the key to an early start to exploration", says Mr Morrison. "There is nothing oil-related down here. We have to bring absolutely everything, down to the last nut and bolt, to the islands." Ten thousand tonnes of mainly heavy equipment was shipped to the Falklands from the UK on freighters earlier this year. But some of the lighter equipment, and the people who will operate it, will travel to the islands in considerable style. The companies have leased a luxury, long-range 747 jumbo jet - normally used to carry rock stars and entourages on tour - for a fortnightly service between the UK and the Royal Air Force's Mount Pleasant air base outside Stanley. They have also had to seek more down-to earth solutions as well, including persuading a local farmer in an especially remote location to add helicopter refuelling to his daily chores. Oil executives fear the mobilisation of such resources may convince some islanders that the exploration effort is without risk. That is just not so, said Mr Morrison: "This area poses a huge set of risks we know nothing about." Although he is optimistic that the wildcat wells will discover some hydrocarbons, Mr Morrison is certain about what will happen if they show no evidence that oil was ever generated in the region many millions of years ago: "If that's the case, then we'll probably just pack up and go home." http://January97:website@www.ft.com/hippocampus/q194c6.htm

To: Tommaso who wrote (529)	5/19/1998 4:50:00 PM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2742

The Falklands: Initial oil and gas shows from the well were encouraging!! Desire Petroleum plays down well hopes LONDON, May 19 (Reuters) - British oil company Desire Petroleum Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: DES.L) on Tuesday played down hopes surrounding one of its exploration wells in the North Falklands basin that had helped send its shares surging 23.21 percent to 215p in late trade. The company said in a statement that it had noted the significant movement in its share price, which it put down to ''market rumours'' surrounding the exploration well being drilled by Amerada Hess in Tranche A immediately north of Desire's acreage in Tranche C. Although Desire Petroleum said it believed initial oil and gas shows from the well were encouraging and demonstrated the presence of hydrocarbons, it emphasised the need for caution. ''Until Amerada Hess had completed their drilling programme it is far too early to predict whether or not hydrocarbons exist in commercially extractable quantities in this area of the North Falklands Basin,'' the company stated. When Amerada Hess announces the results of the exploration well, Desire Petroleum said it would make another statement.