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

To: Razorbak who wrote (814)	11/5/1998 8:09:00 AM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2742

"I was at a Sodra presentation yesterday". From GHH on the Hemscott site From Hemmington Scott Information Exchange Posted by GHHGHH on 05/November/1998 at 10:24 The bad news is that, although they still have $12.5m, Sodra seem very unlikely to drill another well in the current round. They say that they need alot more time to process the results to date in order to identify the next location. Their current thinking seems to be that maybe they should have drilled on the flanks. Sodra also thought it unlikey that Desire would drill in this round since they have only recently completed their seismic. The results to date: 1. The Amerada well encountered good source rock. 2. The Lasmo well encountered good quality sandstone reservoir but no source rock. 3. The Shell well encountered mature source rock and both oil and gas. (Strong rumours suggest that Shell encountered a large gas find that would have been commercial if in the North Sea.) 4. The Sodra well found good reservoir rock, but at too shallow a depth, and the source rock was too immature. 5. The second Amerada evidently encountered oil shows and reservoir rock. However the agreement to share info expired with well no. 4 so Sodra did not know the full details. 6. Shell have just started drilling the sixth well. This is evidently an 'appraisal' well. It seems that the problem is that, although all the ingredients to find commercial oil have now been established (i.e. source rock to provide the oil, good quality reservoir rock to contain the oil and a cap to stop the oil escaping), so far the reservoir rock has been at the wrong depth. As Sodra said ' We now know enough to say that its not going to be great but it could still be good'. Short term everything hinges on the current Shell well. I assume that they are 'appraising' an extension of their previous gas find? Since they did not need to drill this well, it is encouraging that they feel that they have found something sufficiently interesting that they wish to immediately drill another well close to it. Clearly in a virgin basin you can be more confident of the geology if you are drilling close to an existing well. Unfortunately Shell no longer have an obligation to share whatever info they find and it will be advantageous to keep the well results as quiet as possible. Consequently Desire, Sodra et al are unlikely to have much of a run in the next few weeks and could then fall off a cliff when Shell announce that they are going home and the current drilling programme has ended. However this could present the long term buying opportunity of a lifetime! To conclude, the Shell well looks the most interesting todate but can they keep it quiet. >>> Greywolf - can you please confirm the Shell location. >>> Pup - how do you interpret 'appraisal well' when the first well hit a major gas find? Would you assume that Shell have spotted another adjacent lower structure (hence could be oil) so the risk would be more on the reservoir quality. hemscott.com

To: Razorbak who wrote (814)	11/9/1998 6:21:00 PM
From: Tomas	Respond to of 2742

Adolf Lundin: From pioneer to patriarch... Upstream, October 23 Swedish oil company boss Adolf Lundin has chalked up an enviable tally of oil and gas finds around the world while keeping investors on their toes with his wily corporate tactics. ADOLF Lundin is straight from the "old school" of pioneering independent oilmen. He grew up with a burning ambition to turn his early wildcatting dreams into reality by running his own oil company. "For me, the best thing about the oil business is to put down a $10 million hole in the ground and hope you will find something worth $1 billion, that is still an irresistible attraction," he says. Recalling those early days in the oil business stretching back to the 1950s, the chairman of the family-run company bearing his name is full of stories about the spirit that drove the first wave of North Sea oilmen. Lundin fondly remembers many of the "great characters" of the time. "The entrepreneurs were more colourful in those days but I would say there was always a great professionalism about them." He is quick to pay tribute to the way the then British Ministry of Power decided to award the first early licensing concessions in the North Sea. "The British government had a fantastic man called Angus Beckett, an under-secretary in the petroleum division at the ministry, who distributed those early blocks. "He had a reputation for being scrupulously fair, dividing up the North Sea into blocks with maps spread across his front room floor at home," remembers Lundin. An early friendship led the Swedish-born oilman to team up in business with former Premier Oil boss Roland Shaw. They were rewarded in the UK's third licensing round in 1970, being jointly awarded a record 16 blocks, and eventually made discoveries on three of their concessions. Although his frequent changes in strategic direction over the years have sometimes unnerved the City of London, Lundin has built up considerable respect in the Square Mile for striking solid deals. "Some people in other oil companies still feel very aggrieved as Adolf has proved very clever at writing contracts," comments one City analyst, who added that "the difference between Lundin and Shaw was that Adolf was always in division one of promoters while Roland never managed to get out of division three". The two oilmen remained fellow travellers until Lundin formed Gulf Stream after being awarded his first oil concession offshore Qatar in 1972-73. "We got around one quarter of the giant North Field, which we discovered while drilling our first well there in 1976," he says. Lundin claims to have found "more and more gas in Qatar" and to have had an LNG project ready to go in the early 1980s. "But then, sadly, came a conflict with the Qatari government, which wasn't resolved until 10 years later." Although Gulf Stream, Lundin's first created and run oil company, never produced any oil, it did end up with a market capitalisation of around $180 million by the time he sold his stake in 1993. In the meantime he formed the International Petroleum Corporation in the early 1980s, which held acreage offshore Oman, onshore with the UK's Welton field, a gas field in Papua New Guinea and production on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. A further company, Sands Petroleum, sprung up from the 1995 purchase of Neste Oy's producing assets of around 10,000 barrels per day from Brae, Claymore, Ninian and Nelson fields in the UK North Sea. More recently it acquired a 20% stake in the Sedgwick field. "The thinking at that time was to get into promising concessions, develop them and then sell the interests at the highest possible profit," says Lundin. "We have had wildcat success but that has not always coincided with our need for money," he admits. The latest incarnation in the complex Lundin story came earlier this year with the merger of IPC and Sands to form Lundin Oil, a company with production interests in Malaysia and Vietnam, a new oilfield onshore Libya, exploration onshore Sudan plus the North Sea assets. Sodra Petroleum was recently spun off from Lundin to finance an exploration effort off the Falkland Islands. Although its first well proved disappointing, there are plans for a second try. "I think Adolf's main strength is a real instinct for what to do and when to put in the resources. He has also shown an ability to lead a reasonably lean organisation and grab opportunities while having the stamina to see a project through the inevitable ups and downs," says Lundin managing director Magnus Nordin. Today Ian Lundin, one of Adolf's two sons, has taken over the day-to-day running of the business as president and chief executive with his father becoming chairman. "Ian is running the company, shouting and screaming from time to time, while my other son Lucas runs our mining business." The 66-year-old patriarch admits there will now be a different approach with the change at the top. "Thirty years ago I wanted to start all my companies on wildcatting. Ian is a technical guy who wants to build Lundin Oil much more through production, and I know he is right." Lundin remains an optimist despite the inevitable bumps and bruises of life in the oil business. "I didn't expect the industry to be so tough when I started out in the 1950s but I don't mind the fact it has been hard." He says he has "a few laps yet to run" before retirement. "I still have a few ambitions, mainly just to make bigger discoveries." CHRISTOPHER HOPSON from Stockholm