News

July 15, 2009

Volga Gas Prepares For Key Sub-Salt Spud On Its Karpenskiy Licence In Russia

Ever since its debut on AIM in 2007, shareholders in Volga Gas have been awaiting a long-promised test of the sub-salt structures on its Karpenskiy licence in the Volga region of Russia. That ambition took a significant step forward last month when the AIM firm raised US$27 million in a “comfortably oversubscribed” placing. Those who took part in the June placing, which represented about one-third of the issued share capital, should be feeling rather pleased with themselves as the share price has almost doubled since then.

The proceeds will be used to fund the Grafovskoye-1 sub-salt well on the Yuzhny Ershovskoye field in the Karpenskiy licence area, an event that chief executive Mikhail Ivanov said “was one of the key motivations for the formation of the company”.

The company has identified two promising sub-salt structures, Yuzhny-Ershovskoye and Yuzhny-Mokrousovskoye. (It has also spied sub-salt potential in the nearby Pre-Caspian Licence, which it says is “showing equally compelling...