News

January 14, 2009

Investors Hope 2009 Will See Northern Petroleum Start To Unlock The Value Of Its Promising Dutch And Italian Licences

Northern Petroleum ended 2008 on something of a roll, a trend that nervy investors – and who isn’t nervous in the current economic climate? – will be hoping to see continued into 2009 in order to unlock the value of a portfolio that both promises and frustrates. Promises because the potential reserve tally runs into the billions of barrels in the heart of the energy-hungry, politically-stable EU; frustrates because drillbit action to firm up those reserves has been sorely lacking.

The final weeks of 2008, however, saw the AIM-quoted firm make real progress in two areas of the portfolio that have long promised much but, due to bureaucratic inertia (the Netherlands) and funding constraints (Italy), made little headway last year. 

In the Netherlands, where the company is the second largest onshore holder of oil and gas reserves with 45.5 million barrels of oil equivalent recoverable to its name, state firm EBN announced it will back in to take on 40 per...