Operations at Zenith Energy (LON: ZEN) are finally beginning to bear fruit. Todays RNS on their well M-195 workover is very good news for the Company and its share-holders, you can read that RNS by clicking HERE.
However it’s not todays good news that I’m writing on it’s the rumour/s that Zenith Energy are in detailed discussions with Echo Energy ((LON: ECHO). Now I don’t know what the discussions specifically involve but using my powers of northern common-sense, rather like Sherlock Holmes, it’s elementary my Dear Watson… Zenith must be after the Echo East Ghazalat 25% concession. We know that it’s up for sale, we know that it’s currently producing circa 100 barrels of oil per day and we also know that it’s in legal dispute. And we also know there’s other production opportunities on assets in that portfolio.
There’s no chance of the current holders of the concession ever sorting out the problem which they created. But there is a good chance that if Andrea Cattaneo, ZEN CEO, gets the asset he’ll be seen as a ‘clean pair of hands’ and will be able to quickly remedy the dispute with the new top Chinese official now parachuted into Egypt to sort out the dispute. Cattaneo is a smart cookie and well known as a man who can negotiate. Just look how he’s ended up in Azerbaijan with a field now on it’s way to producing 1,000 barrels of oil per day…
Now here’s me thinking out of the box. What could possibly be the deal? Well I’d expect that cash and ZEN shares or some form of future cash payback once the dispute and production is sorted out and back on track. Revenues currently owed to whoever gets the asset amount to circa $1.3M, sadly this is offset by the Chinese operator claiming production expense of circa $2M, but this like all bits of the dispute, can be and will be negotiated down by the right ‘clean pair of hands’. Now here’s a thing if ZEN offer ECHO shares in the deal then obviously Echo Energy would become a Major Share-holder in Zenith. There’s one thing I do know and that is that Echo would rather take ‘/cash/paper/promissory note’ in a genuine producing oil company than a Toxic POS like Nostra Terra Oil & Gas. Now if Echo were a major share-holder in Zenith what would they do with the stock? Could they then go on to buy them out or stick a Director on the board or maybe just quietly sell, who knows but it’s an interesting discussion I’ll be having with many a source this week. I’ll be in London Wednesday.
Viva!
Daniel
