Petro Matad (PRTDF)

[douginil]

From Malcys Blog

January 23, 2019

https://www.malcysblog.com/2019/01/oil-price-genel-igas-block-zenith-petro-matad-and-finally/

Petro Matad

I met up with Mike Buck, CEO of Petro Matad last week whilst he was in London and it seems that preparations for the summer drilling campaign are very much up and running. Despite the misfortune of last year’s drilling programme there appears to be perhaps more confidence about this year and this time with a potential four well programme.

Fully funded by the $35m capital raise last year, drilling will start in Q2 this year targeting 277 MMbo mean prospective recoverable resources with a likely three wells in block XX and a fourth well in block V. Going into block XX first is common sense, the Chinese data from their discovery on block 19 indicates that it is very close to the block boundary and enters MATD acreage to the south and thus makes their Heron well to be effectively an appraisal prospect. Opening up the campaign in this manner gives the company pretty much every option and assuming success it can not only bring forward work to ensure early production but to make the rest of the programme more de-risked.

Should this be the case then one can imagine that a well might next be drilled on the Gazelle prospect which is adjacent, before contemplating further options. Staying on block XX gives the company a short (by Mongolia standards) move to the Red Deer prospect, assuming that Antelope doesnt shout loudly to be drilled.

The company have made it quite clear that however prospective the block XX seems, they are definitely going to drill one well on block V this season and following post Snow Leopard studies will drill either Fox or Raptor as the last well in the campaign and the weather window runs well into Q4.

So in conclusion I am surprisingly happy to see MATD pursuing the plan of action that it has staked out for this year. It is fully funded for the remaining four wells and has adopted a sensible approach of going to block XX first and then finishing with block V. There is no magic to this selection but it is one with which I concur, getting under way with a potential development at Heron early in the season makes plenty of sense and block V can go ahead after evaluation of the ‘encouraging results of Snow Leopard’. The balance in the summer’s programme is clear and shareholders need not worry about further capital raising, in the case of success nearby infrastructure has adequate spare capacity giving straight forward early test production and ‘rapid commercial development’.