Thursday, December 08, 2005
Dana hints at success off West Africa
Dana Petroleum, the largest constituent in my portfolio, rose further on Tuesday. The company announced their first well in two years offshore Mauritania had encountered hydrocarbons during drilling.
This is the sort of news I've been waiting for Dana to deliver since buying at 224p in October 2003. Though results announced so far are only preliminary, the anticipation of Dana announcing a large find saw the shares rocket more than 10% higher.
Thus far, Dana has only found the presence of hydrocarbons at Faucon. This could be oil, gas or a mixture of the two. The next two weeks should see more information emerge from Africa on the likelihood this find is of sufficient quality and quantity to be commercially exploited. Good news could see Dana's share price rise to in excess of 1200p. Disappointment could knock the shares back to 850p.
But the whole picture for Dana has improved immensely with this news. Again, this shows that, similar to the find at Pelican in 2003, there are hydrocarbons in Dana's acreage offshore Mauritania. This dramatically increases the prospectivity of a previously unexplored area in which Dana holds a substantial stake. The chances Dana's other prospects in the region will now also be drilled has increased markedly as has the possibility of further investigatory drilling in Pelican.
Even if Faucon is ultimately a disappointment to those speculators buying on Tuesday in the hope of a commercial find, the prospect for substantial rises from this point onward have bought long-term Dana shareholders, like myself, immense cheer.
Fingers crossed for Faucon.
The Artful Dodger
This is the sort of news I've been waiting for Dana to deliver since buying at 224p in October 2003. Though results announced so far are only preliminary, the anticipation of Dana announcing a large find saw the shares rocket more than 10% higher.
Thus far, Dana has only found the presence of hydrocarbons at Faucon. This could be oil, gas or a mixture of the two. The next two weeks should see more information emerge from Africa on the likelihood this find is of sufficient quality and quantity to be commercially exploited. Good news could see Dana's share price rise to in excess of 1200p. Disappointment could knock the shares back to 850p.
But the whole picture for Dana has improved immensely with this news. Again, this shows that, similar to the find at Pelican in 2003, there are hydrocarbons in Dana's acreage offshore Mauritania. This dramatically increases the prospectivity of a previously unexplored area in which Dana holds a substantial stake. The chances Dana's other prospects in the region will now also be drilled has increased markedly as has the possibility of further investigatory drilling in Pelican.
Even if Faucon is ultimately a disappointment to those speculators buying on Tuesday in the hope of a commercial find, the prospect for substantial rises from this point onward have bought long-term Dana shareholders, like myself, immense cheer.
Fingers crossed for Faucon.
The Artful Dodger
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