Oilman Jim's Letter - June 19, 2024

Tamboran Resources (TBN.AX TBNRL) announced the launch of its NYSE Initial Public Offering with an offering range of $24 – 27 per share for a total of 6,500,000 shares of common stock. The company is seeking to raise capital to fund the drilling, completion and infrastructure requirements to reach plateau rates from the proposed Shenandoah South Pilot Project. Final Investment Decision is targeted in mid-2024. Additional capital will fund the proposed NTLNG pre-FEED activities, other Beetaloo Basin activities and general working capital. Upon the successful completion of the IPO, Tamboran will trade on the NYSE under the ticker TBN. Per Managing Director and CEO, Joel Riddle, the US market has deep knowledge of the development of shale gas resources and a long history of supporting gas companies to fund their developments and the board believes the US listing will deliver Tamboran shareholders a greater reflection of the value of company’s assets. The IPO is expected to fund Tamboran’s next six wells in the Beetaloo Basin, which will all be drilled to approximately 10,000 feet (3,000 metres) and are planned to deliver gas to the Northern Territory Government via the company’s proposed 40 million cubic feet per day Shenandoah South Pilot Project. Separately, the company announced that the development of the Beetaloo Basin has been awarded Major Project Status by the Northern Territory Government. This provides Tamboran with significant benefits…more

Arrow Exploration (AXL.V AXL.L) announced an update on operational activity at the multi horizon, Carrizales Norte field on the Tapir Block in the Llanos Basin of Colombia where Arrow holds a 50 percent beneficial interest. The company has put on production the first of four Ubaque horizontal wells planned for 2024. The first horizontal well on the Carrizales Norte "B" pad, CNB HZ-1, is exceeding expectations and is being restricted to a current flow rate of 3,150 barrels of oil per day gross with less than 1% water cut while still recovering load fluid. CNB HZ-1 was spud on May 14, 2024, and reached target depth on 8,448 feet (true vertical depth) on June 7, 2024. The well was drilled to a total measured depth of 11,680 feet with a horizontal section of approximately 2,042 feet. The pay zone is a clean sandstone exhibiting consistent 28% porosity and high resistivities, similar characteristics to those seen in previous wells. The well is flowing and has been choked back in keeping with conservative reservoir management as well as ongoing development of adequate water disposal capabilities. The rig has now been moved to the second cellar on the Carrizales Norte B Pad where the company plans to drill a dedicated water disposal well and, thereafter, Arrow expects to drill three additional horizontal wells on the B pad, followed by the Baquiano-1 exploration well, which is on trend with the Carrizales Norte field. The three follow up wells will have longer horizontal sections, which are expected to result in enhanced rate and ultimate recovery. Arrow's cash position was approximately $12.1 million on June 1, 2024…more

Baron Oil (BOIL.L GHA.F) announced an update on the status of the TL-SO-19-16 Production Sharing Contract, offshore Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste. The PSC, which Baron operates through its SundaGas subsidiary, with a 60% working interest in partnership with state-owned joint venture partner TIMOR GAP, entered Contract Year Three today. Contract Year Three contains a commitment to drill an appraisal well on the Chuditch gas field, an obligation which was previously subject to seismic data reprocessing confirming the presence of a significant structure associated with the field. The successful conclusion of the 3D seismic reprocessing project, and subsequent interpretation of those data and other technical studies, has removed that subjectivity and Chuditch has been demonstrated to be a field of significant scale, interpreted to be more than 20 km long with a Pmean contingent resource of 1.16 trillion cubic feet of gas. Baron continues its discussions with additional potential funding partners regarding participation in the drilling of the appraisal well; these parties include potential strategic investors into the Chuditch project and enterprises with an interest in developing and / or taking the gas resources to market. Progress is said to be encouraging, and the board is confident of the financing being in place in time to enable drilling of the Chuditch well as planned in early 2025…more

Longboat Energy (LBE.L) announced that it has reached agreement to sell its 50.1% holding in Longboat Japex Norge to joint venture partner Japan Petroleum Exploration. Cash consideration is $2.5 million plus Longboat's share of drawn debt under the JAPEX Acquisition Facility, currently $8.5 million net. JAPEX will assume all future financial obligations of the joint venture. Proceeds will be used to fund Longboat's working capital and operations in Malaysia. The plan now is to pivot Longboat's strategy to build a business in Southeast Asia. Significant industry interest has been received in Malaysian Block 2A and a farm-out process is to be launched in H2 2024. There is also the provisional award of a cluster of material, undeveloped gas fields capable of near-term development offshore Sarawak. Longboat Japex Norge sale proceeds will provide working capital to run the company through the end of Q1 2025 and cost savings in excess of $1.25 million are being achieved with a now streamlined board and management team…more

D3 Energy (D3E.AX) announced that it has executed a contract with Van Zyl Boorwerke to undertake drilling operations at RBD12 located within ER315, onshore South Africa. VZB was the drilling contractor for D3 Energy’s maiden two well drilling program at ER315, which confirmed world class helium concentrations of 5.0% and 5.1% respectively. The wells were drilled to confirm the geological model and the fact that gas (both helium and methane) migration was a function of faulting and associated fractures below the base of the Karoo formation at this location. RBD10 drilled on the west of the Virginia Fault was production tested and flowed at an average stabilized rate of 126 thousand cubic feet for a 36-hour period without any evidence of decline. D3 Energy plans to locate the RBD12 well to the west (hanging wall side) of the Virginia Fault and close to the historical RBD03 borehole, which is also flowing methane and helium at measurable rates and has been doing so since 1984. Upon successful intersection of gas, RBD12 will be production tested with samples collected to ascertain helium and methane concentrations. It is anticipated that this will form the basis of a larger and longer production testing programme which will start with testing of legacy gold exploration boreholes RBD01 & RBD03 as soon as early next month. RBD12 is budgeted to cost around AU$200,000 to drill and complete, which notwithstanding costs will be much lower during development, demonstrates the low-cost nature of D3 Energy’s South African assets. RBD12 will be a future potential development production well, which, because these wells flow naturally without artificial lift or pumping, have low to negligible operating costs throughout the extensive life of the well.

Comet Ridge (COI.AX) announced that the company has been selected by the Queensland Government as preferred tenderer for an additional gas block in the Mahalo Gas Hub area. Comet Ridge will be operator of the new block on a 100% equity basis. PLR2023-1-1 (which will be called Mahalo Far East Extension) covers an area of 66 km2 and sits immediately north of Mahalo East and west of Mahalo Far East, approximately 85 km south-east of Emerald. The southern portion of the new block sits over the Mahalo Gas Hub high-quality fairway which will add future production wells into the development plan. The new block does not contain any Queensland Government domestic market supply obligations.

These are opinions only of the individual author. The contents of this piece do not contain investment advice and the information provided is for educational purposes only and no discussions constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities of any company. All content is purely subjective and you should do your own due diligence. No representation, warranty or undertaking, express or implied, as to the accuracy, reliability, completeness or reasonableness of the information contained in the piece is made. Any assumptions, opinions and estimates expressed in the piece constitute judgments of the author as of the date thereof and are subject to change without notice. Any projections contained in the information are based on a number of assumptions and there can be no guarantee that any projected outcomes will be achieved. No liability is accepted for any direct, consequential or other loss arising from reliance on the contents of this piece. The author is not acting as your financial, legal, accounting, tax or other adviser or in any fiduciary capacity.