News

March 12, 2010

Conference Report 1: New Guinea Energy And Dominion Petroleum Offer Wildcat Excitement In Far-Flung Frontiers While Xcite Energy Targets Heavy Barrels Closer To Home

By Amy McLellan

Oilbarrel.com’s 32nd conference started not with a bang but a cloud of smoke as a fire on the City limits, from which oilbarrel’s HQ was not immune, sent smoke drifting across the Square Mile. Still oilbarrel.com delegates are a hardy lot: they coughed their way through the smoky streets to hear presentations from six very different companies, with stories that ranged from wildcatting in the foothills of Papua New Guinea to the more prosaic business of pumping oil near Scunthorpe

First to Papua New Guinea, where ASX-listed New Guinea Energy has assembled an impressive footprint spanning some 53,000 sq km in an area that has seen something of a land grab over the last year.  The company, which has a market cap of A$116.5 million, has not been immune from this black gold rush, agreeing in September 2009 some favourable farm-out terms with Talisman Energy for two of its six licences in the country.  This was important for two reasons: first, it will accelerate...