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lug, we have a group of MM who are trading our stock and apear to be working to hold the price down. I don't know what you would complain to the SEC about. Notice how the bid and ask are always 2500 shares? They sell back and forth to each other and work the price.
jake, drilling fluid or mud was originally a bentonite clay mixture, but I don't know if that is still in use anywhere. It might be in smaller shallower wells, especially because of cost, but there is a lot of alternative substances such as the stuff you are talking about. I think they still call it mud & it serves the same purpose "cool lubricate and support" the bit and drilling assembly.
Stass, don't I remember someone posting it took three wells into the same formation to prove oil?
Jake, would "cause a rapid loss of drilling fluids" not pressure. I think they are talking about sands that are very shallow and would be at less depth than the first casing would extend when cemented in.
Sombody that knows more about drilling than me, especially deep water drilling, needs to answer this for sure.
prince, my opinion is the SP is being controled to keep it under $1. If the share price was $4.60 you might not be happy with a $5.00 offer, at $.62 most of us would be estatic.
Pinto, when they talk about drilling fluid they are referring to what is referred to as drilling mud.
"In geotechnical engineering, drilling fluid is a fluid used to drill boreholes into the earth. Often used while drilling oil and natural gas wells and on exploration drilling rigs, drilling fluids are also used for much simpler boreholes, such as water wells. The three main categories of drilling fluids are water based muds (which can be dispersed and non dispersed), non aqueous muds, usually called oil based mud, and gaseous drilling fluid, in which a wide range of gases can be used.
The main functions of drilling fluids include providing hydrostatic pressure to prevent formation fluids from entering into the well bore, keeping the drill bit cool and clean during drilling, carrying out drill cuttings and suspending the drill cuttings while drilling is paused and the drilling assembly is brought in and out of the hole. The drilling fluid used for a particular job is selected to avoid formation damage and to limit corrosion "
Are you telling us they are doing something different? If so why does the Deepwater Pathfinder have the following equipment:
Derrick: Dreco 170' x 40' x 40'; Capacity: 2,000,000 lbs
Drawworks: Hitec / Dreco AHDD
Mud Pumps: 4 x National Oilwell 14-P-220 triplex, 2200 HP?
Ray, thats what I said in another post they have to keep a tight control or share price because if they let it drift up it may explode beyond their ability to reign it back in.
John, didn't you say when they are drilling they mix the mud on the thin side untill they know what pressures they will encounter and may have to drill slower? This time they know what they will find at each formation, correct?
Fishdog, a stock registration would also account for all the cleanup work being done on past SEC filings. All would have to be up to snuff before the new stock would be allowed & would face review that they have not had being from a inactive company with five staff and no ongoing business.
b or c, the mm have been able to keep SP in that range
tryoty, I think the are two main reasons the stock price is being kept under $1 when it should be in the $1-2.50 range. First is to keep it off the radar, at $.64 most institutional investors will not give it a thought. Somebody posted that the "myth" that they will not invest in stocks under $1.00 is just that. I have seen it in writing. Most funds define what they will invest in, I have seen several who say they will invest in "investment grade" securities and investment grade securities were defined as have a market value of at least X per share. I have never seen one that says "we invest in stocks listed in the over the counter market" I have seen "we invest in stocks listed in the major exchanges"
Second, if the stock price is allowed to rise it will take much more capital to control it, at $3.00 it would take five times as much as at .60, if "news" of our discovery hits they might find it impossiable to control the price. Other speculators might jump in and they would not be able to control the trading. just IMHO, if they let go they may loose control & not be able to regain it, they have to hold it where they can & have.
emdyal, it might account for why there seems to be a group of market makers controling the share price.
tryoty, I was in a stock called Storage Technology that made a anouncement that they were going to develop a disk storage unit like the tape management units they built and sold. The idea was hot and their share price went from $15.00 to $75.00 in a couple of weeks. The problem was they had not developed the product and never did. People were buying the price up on this wonderful product, that was just in development and was not forcast to be in testing for almost a year.
Like many of my suscessful investments, I made money off the 100 shares I had, I got out at about $60.00, I have never had enough invested in any position to make any really significant profits (or on my not so succesful investments loose my but).
If the share price goes wild, SEO might not be able to make a buyout deal & trying to sell off his block of stock would dilute the share price. Keep the share price restrained at under $1.00 and we would all be happy with $10.00, if the share price was $10.00 how much more would we have to get to keep everyone from filing suit to stop the deal.
balance_builder, this has been my theory on any buy out from day one. My belief is that Exxon walked away from the JDZ because his price was too steap for what they were used to paying. He also was not flexable enough for them.
Addax/sinopec was brought in because they were willing to consider the numbers Offor wanted, but not without having actual drilling results to go with the seismac data.
Offor knows what he can and can't get away with. What he does while everyone is watching is going to be clean. He already has half the shares, what is the profit off another million or two worth. Not reputation and not jail.
Now other Nigerians may not be in the spotlight, and things may be happening in the shadows.
emdyal, I know I am neither buying or selling. I believe there are a lot of the stock owners doing the same, I have two friends in this stock also and neither are doing anything.
I know all my mad money is already here & even with drilling going on I don't know anything that is going to make me liquidate anything else without more knowledge. I have money to put in WHEN we know what is going on, even at twice the price or three times the stock price, IF we hear something that makes me think we have a gold mine.
I am waiting and hoping Offor knows what he is doing.
emdyal, having insider knowledge is not illegal, trading on insider knowledge is. Offor is undoubtably in the know and knows his actions will be reviewed and keeping his position squeeky clean.
My theory is nobody knows enough to take the chance that they won't get a profit back if they run the price up. Is Kina enough to make us rich? We have had rumor of 450 ft of net pay from Oily but know nothing for sure. We have heard that casing was set on both Kina and Bomu, but know nothing for sure. Unsurity is what is holding the price down.
Pup, petrobas is also in the process of acquiring 40 drill ships, some to be owened others maybe to be leased, the first 12 were contracted out to foreign ship builders the next 28 are planned to be built in Brazil, even if they cost more. The first one was 1.3 billion built in Koera
"In 2008, Petrobras took bids for 12 rigs of the total 40 forecast for the pre-salt. The entire lot, all for charter, is being built overseas. Since they belong to the companies, the work is not being monitored by Petrobras. But the remaining 28 drill ships, however, expected to be acquired by the end of this year, will have to be constructed in Brazil. The speculation is that seven will be owned by the company, which will require the direct participation of the engineering department."
Strass, the current deals were negoated when no one even knew if there was developable oil. Once the JDZ results are know we may be in a much better negoating position.
Yes, I just revisited his post and he is talking two different anouncements a PR on the drilling this week and actual well results in november, I ran the two of them together.
snayeman, I interpeted marks message to say the JDZ was going to do a PR in the first half of november when Limba would be done and they would report on block 2 3 and 4 wells. Is anyone elses understanding different?
Strass, I too belive there is a buyout in progress, I question wheather both sides will come together. I have been encouraged by what has not been anounced about our wells yet. When they have a DH or an unproducable well they know pretty quickly, the two I have invested in before the first one took 24 hours for them to anounce we did not have a well and the other they knew the day they hit TD and had found nothing worth further study.
I did not expect that any prospect would have a well that was a stand alone producer. Thats not what Addax's geologists predicted. I have no problem with ERHE just setting back and collecting their share of oil production and making payouts to stockholders for the next 20 years, we don't need to be a "real" oil company.
I would just like to get some of the "real" information the big boys are studing & end this period of uncertainity. How many ft of net pay, pump test results, anything.
If we decide that there is no buyout deal in the works, what time line are we looking at for actual production from our blocks? Akpo was discovered in 2002 and is about half finished in 2009 but is producing oil, I found this article about the drill ship shortage.
Petrobras' success in deepwater oil exploration has lead the company to invest zealously: as of May 2008, the company had contracted 80% of the world's deepwater rigs, driving up dayrates for the sector as other companies like Exxon Mobil and BP competed for the remainder.[25] Even after the collapse in the price of oil, fleet utilization has remained at 100%.[2] The reason is fivefold:
Projected deepwater rig shortfall[52]Most E&P companies are stuck in deepwater drilling contracts with time periods of six months to six years.[3] Add together the contract costs of not drilling with lost oil revenues, and E&P companies have an incentive to continue drilling, even if they do so at a loss.
The cost of new production hovers in the range of $90 a barrel,[53] but it takes deepwater operations about 10 years to start producing. After 10 years, the Energy Information Agency forecasts that prices will be above $120 a barrel.[48]
There is a lack of shipyard production capacity.[54] Before 2008 few thought that oil would break $100 a barrel. Even half a year into oil's decline since the peak in July of 08, long term forecasts remain higher than before.[48] Not anticipating that oil prices would be so high, and that there would be a surge in demand for deepwater rigs, shipyards have been slow to build additional production capacity.
The large oil & gas companies have investment grade ratings, and even then still have deep pockets.[55] The cost of capital has risen for all companies, but many E&P companies have the resources to continue bidding up dayrates.
Traditional oil producing basins have matured, particularly on land, and exploration & production companies have been forced to look for new reserves in ever more challenging environments like the deepwater environments off the Coast of Africa and in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (beyond the Continental Shelf) in order to maintain production and profits.
For these four reasons, a deepwater rig shortage has been forecast through 2009 until 2011.[52]
Does rigzone show a waiting list? I know they post the actual contracts for the existing ships. Another article says that 80+ rigs are coming on line in the next two years, 2/3 of which are booked by Brazil. It looks like just coming up with crews would be a chalange, Depwater had a crew of about 240.
tryoty, it was, I have been looking at other wells in the gulf and their drilling depth and was questioning our requirements.
Mahogny 2 was drilled to total depth of 3443 meters (11296') in 1080 meters of water (3543') that ment going 7754' below sea floor.
Odum 1 was drilled to total depth of 3587 meters (11657') in 935 meters of water (3038') which is 8619' below sea floor.
I was trying to find something on the charts indicating depth the scale on it starts at 2650 for sea flor level, but 2650 what, just not enough information
That would clear it up, if they only had to drill to 3522 below sea level to meet their oblgation they are counting the 4965 ft of water. This is what confuses me, kina is in over 5600' of water so its depth below sea floor is going to be 700' shallower.
John, thats what is confusing me. I may be in 1400 meters of water but do I drill it, dosen't drilling start at the sea floor. I just put together 1400 meter of casing till I get down there and attach to the well head?
Rigzone says that Deepwater Pathfinder can drill in 10,000 ft of water with a drilling depth of 30,000 ft. Sedco 702 can drill in 6500' of water with a drilling depth of 25,000, do these totals include water depth?
YankeMike, thanks this is what I was talking about. I have read the 3500 meters subsea to mean 3500 meters below the sea floor. Since the water depth varies at each one of these sites measuring from sea level could make over 1000' difference in total depth.
"San Ramon, Calif.-based Chevron said the well set a variety of records, including the deepest well successfully tested in the Gulf of Mexico. Chevron said the well was drilled more than 20,000 feet under the sea floor below 7,000 feet of water for a total depth of 28,175 feet."
This is the way chevron posted drilling results on a Gulf of Mexico well. I looked a several anouncements and no one used the term subsea.
The dictionary says subsea is normally used for development below the sea floor, using shallow as less than 1000' of water and deepwater for anything over. Since we have been only given the most minimal disclosure does anyone know what the JDZ means by "subsea"
Ray, I think $3 would be a reasonable number based upon current stock price and what we know of drilling. I don't think SEO scared XOM off with reasonable numbers.
Again, nobody knows what SEO's number is on this board. No one on the board knows officially what drilling results have been. Any number we toss around is just that, pulled out of the air and thrown aginst the wall to see if it will stick.
The only thing I know for sure is its SEO's call, when he gets a number hes happy with we will have to be also, because we won't have a choice.
John, are you sure about the depth of this well? I was under the impression that the JDZ requirements were 3500+ meters below the sea floor, making all the wells about 16,000' from sea surface to total depth. 5400' water and 11000' below sea floor.
Can someone with the JDZ requirements check this for us? I may have read the drilling requirements wrong.
Jake, of you are going to buy, you need to do it now whule nothing solid is known about the drilling. If the JDZ anounces drilling results in the first half of November like Mark has posted and the results of Kina and Limba are as good as the Nsai numbers there may be a feeding frenzy
majic, if you look at Obo-1 it took 2 1/2 months before they announced they had found hydrocarbons and taken samples to study and that it was too early to know if they had a commercial find. We have already heard that and we are only two weeks after drilling.
The only thing I think they can be anouncing is more detail on first two wells what they found at Limba and that SNL is making a offer for ERHE. That would be news.
I had thought of them or Offor keeping the share price controlled so "friends of Offor" could buy in at a low price when the buyout offer was close
Just my suspicious mind at work
I was thinking it was the Nigerian Riviera, with a view of Sal Tome and Principa, with the Deepwater Pathfinder drilling on Kina-1 in the foreground.
Mark, keep posting many of us value the information you find and don't have the time to do all the foot work you do to find it. Some of us value the things you don't post also. Some times a lot of information can be passed out without actually spelling it out.
Interesting to actually see what you look like, on a board like this you have no idea what many posters look like or where they are from, some of the people here might be passing each other everyday and not know it.
Sorry amj, my reply was was to answed Jake1279's question about if this drilling was really planned this way.
The JDZ rights agreement required the operators to drill one well each in block 1, 2 and 3 and three in block 4 by a date in march of 2010. The two additional wells to be drilled in block 4 after the Limba prospect in bloc 3 is completed fufill the round one contractual requirements. One additional well is required in each block in the nexr two year period. If the operators don't drill these wells they would be required to pay the JDA a penalty to keep their rights.
I agree, negoations don't have to be disclosed untill a deal is reached and formalized. In this case with one majority stockholder there may not even be a negoation, just a communication of what terms would be acceptable. Management may not even be involved untill a formal offer is made.
SEO could have let his "number" be known through many different avenues. I am sure SNL knows what he wants from any buyout deal. I currently think they are gathering information to decide that they are going to make that offer.
sneak, it is my opinion that SNL is drilling to get enough information to feel reasonably safe in their offer to Offor. We will soon have information from wells drilled in four blocks and there is the issue of apearance. If your offers are being turned down by everyone its easier for someone like Ghana or nigeria to also turn you down. SNL and CNOC need some positive news, they need someone to say yes to their offer.
They are also going after oil assets that other companies have claim to and none will relinquish ther claims without a fight, XOM is already in court with Nigeria over some of the offshore blocks CNOC wants. Nothing is going to be settled soon.
With a happy SEO there is also the chance of partnering with crome and getting some of the onshore leases that will be reallocated under the new law
I am thinking that some sort of acquition is in the works. The chinese companies have been hit with a lot of bad news on the oil they have been trying to acquire. Every deal they have tried to make leaves them looking at court if they somehow succed, The JDZ is someplace they can buy up some existing oil without having to fight through the courts for years. There idea is to move dollars that are loosing value to resources that are gaining value. This won't happen if you are tied up in court with XOM over right to oil, they also don't get the oil they want and need. Our share of the JDZ is available and obtainable.
pete, is this JDA anouncement the "upon drilling results" Mark alluded to that will triger our news?