About time I started releasing some of the footage and photo’s taken from my Sound Energy (LON: SOU) trip. I’ve got literally hours of footage. This is the gas flare at TE7. AS CLOSE AS I COULD GET. The heat, not to mention the noise, was tremendous. I could only take the footage in 20 second bursts before my eyes started to see ‘glare’ bit like looking into a fire when one looks a way you see blotches or in this case blotches as big as a house…
You can feel the vibration in the ground from this flare. Raw energy coming up from beneath. Great spectacle at night.
The next big news here is the Tendrara 8 or TE8 drill. Remember no doubt that they’ll find gas at TE8 question is how big will it be. As I see it their share-price is basically under-pinned at the moment on expectation of TE8, Sidi Moktar and Badille. Any news on drilling of the above 3 assets should further inflate their sp. Now there’s a good chance that this sp could go on a charge in the run up to the TE8 drill. It’ll be the usual set of criteria that moves their sp i.e. TE8 Pad preparations, rig mobilisation, spud etc.
It’s been a long time in the planning and it’s cost a few bob, but when a private group of investor friends are looking to take a substantial position (substantial for us) in a company one has to ‘Get Busy’ that is to say you find out exactly if the company you are potentially investing in is an actual ‘Real Deal’ or just ‘Hot Air’. The Alternative Investment Market (AIM) is littered with lifestyle companies whose CEO’s are nothing other than corporate frauds. They use PR spin, bent Brokers, Shysters & glitzy girls wearing flashy sashes wrapped around hour-glass figures at events that are nothing other than organised pump & dump seminars, singing sweet tunes of untold riches which never come to fruition while filling you with free booze. We here don’t do that we get the information not from the companies but from our own research. Guerrilla Investing is totally independent. This article may piss off some within the Company and security will be beefed up. But the cat is now out of the proverbial bag. WATCH THE VIDEO OF MY TRIP BY CLICKING HERE
Most investors are constantly befuddled with incomprehensible guff, perpetually churned out online from self proclaimed (clueless) market ‘gurus’, surreptitiously recruited. The continual blogging, podcasting and tweeting of utter shite, which is at complete odds to the known facts and historical performance, always leads to most losing their ‘deposit’. It’s a transference of wealth from the ‘gullible’ to the not so gullible, i.e. The various corporate hyenas who feed off retail investor flesh. So it is with great delight that I write this piece on a company that is a 100% genuine oil & gas play. You have to go the extra mile or in this case 3600 miles. Manchester to Tendrara and back. Sound Energy (LON: SOU). What we’ve seen and what we’ve discovered.
Production pipe will be connected here.
We here at guerrilla investing do have our moments of madness. The trip wasn’t without its drama and risk. I was detained at Oujda airport for many hours, strip searched, with all my camera and video equipment confiscated because I hadn’t got the correct permissions to bring said equipment into Morocco. Suffice it to say the ‘securitate’ were, in general, not unpleasant and all equipment was returned in tact upon my exit of the country. It did complicate things but being ever inventive we reverted to the ‘Heath Robinson’ school of problem solving.
TE7 Lit up like a Xmas tree by gas flare.
I urge investors and traders, to take a good long look at the video compilation, article photos and digest the solid information reliably sourced from the ‘field’ that two days of sneaking around Sound Energy’s sub Saharan Moroccan gas play has revealed. I’ve no doubt whatsoever that Sound Energy are the ‘Real Deal’ and that Tendrara 8 (TE8) will discover gas. It is nailed on. It is the volume of gas that is unknown.
View from over looking hills.
Seven hours of Keystone cop driving, passing numerous Gendarmerie check-points with many wrong turns eventually got us to where we had to be. The site is accessed via a 10 kilometre road that has been carved out of the desert. There’s also a water pipeline of circa 9 kilometres connecting all the Tendrara drill sites and the accommodation blocks/camp. I did notice internet relay stations stretching out over vast distances. I also located the Sound Internet relay which has been constructed. One point of interest is that there’s a police outpost on the camp protecting the drill sites. Getting close to the drill sites during the day was nigh impossible so we circled the acreage staying well away. We decided that the best chance of getting the pics/footage would be to come down from the hills in the night time. We crept around all night taking hundreds of shots with video footage. As the night wore own we managed to get ever closer. I’ll release more of the footage/pics some time this week.
Huge sun like flare.
I counted approx. 35 different people working on TE7, (I believe at the height of the drilling there were up to 150 personnel). The flare in the night is spectacular, it lights up the desert for miles around. As you can see from the footage/pics TE7 is still on flow test. What we have discovered is that TE7 is still on a restricted choke, the pressure has not dropped one single jot. This could indicate that TE7 may be bigger than is being reported by Sound. If you look at the drills from the hills over looking the site TE7, TE6, TE5, you’ll see that they are all basically on a line which goes towards another set of hills, over those hills is the location of the TE8 drill. Speaking to locals was most enlightening. The gas was discovered circa late 1960’s and was then thought to be many TCF’s the problem then was that the gas wasn’t deemed economic. Not so now. I lost count of the amount of trucks carrying butane gas bottles. I spotted literally hundreds over my 5 days in Morocco. Every one uses gas…..
Day time shot. Drill site & flare.
TE8 is the game changer and the first in what I call the potential ‘Company Makers’. It’s on trend and on the same geology as the commercial discoveries thus far. That is to say it’s on the same gas seam which is believed to be substantially bigger, extending far beyond into the desert. Locals say that it’s been known for decades that Tendrara and the acreage surrounding has contained vast volumes of gas/hydrocarbons. So it doesn’t take a great leap of faith to realise that TE8 will hit gas and that strike could be up to 3 Trillion Cubic Feet (TCF). This is why there’s currently a Schlumberger team on the ground at Tendrara. Presumably finishing up flow testing and making preparations for the the TE8 drill. How do I know that? They drove past us several times over two days in their Schlumberger 4×4 which parked up on the Sound Energy accommodation blocks. The tie up with a world class oil field services company and the discovery of a Gendarmerie outpost on the camp is an indication of how important the Moroccans see Tendrara and this is exactly the same situation on the surrounding Shell acreage. It is the ‘Real Deal’. Gas will be struck on TE8. Local labourers are also being recruited/re-employed for the TE8 drill early 2017.
We did meet a Moroccan chap who had worked on the acreage for over 11yrs as a guard. His knowledge of the history of the acreage can’t really be under-estimated. He is 100% certain that TE8 will strike gas.
I’ve been around a few oil sites in my time over the years, the Tendrara drills are as real an investing opportunity as one can get. It’s not a nickel and dime operation it’s a full blown hydrocarbon play. A real opportunity with multi-bag potential. The team involved have the experience and the finance to transform SOU into a footsie 250 company. They are not a ‘one trick pony’ or a ‘roll of the dice’. Sidi Moktar, Badille etc. All are potential transformational assets. The lead up to the TE8 spud will move the shareprice and it’s my belief that the Company are being conservative with their news due to pressure from the AIM Regulators. Sound should move to a standard listing and ditch the Nomad. That’s if they don’t get taken over first. This will rise as the next drill approaches. Of course there’ll be lumps and bumps along the way but I can see £2/£3 easily on a successful TE8 drill which will derisk TE9, TE10 etc.
Investors and traders alike should ditch their ‘lifestyle company’ plays and get in on the Sound Energy action. It’s not a roll of the dice. The dice has been rolled, it’s the number it lands on that we await. It’s going to go mental in 2017!
It’s hotting up over in North Africa and I mean literally ‘hotting up’. Sound Energy (LON:SOU) behind the scenes are cock ‘o’ hoop and believe that their Moroccan gas play could deliver near term up to 4 trillion cubic feet of gas (TCF) with a major rerate of their share-price on the horizon. Long term this could end up multipules of 4 TCF. That is to say 10 Trillion Cubic feet+ (plus) which equates to a share price in excess of £10 per share on a net present value (NPV).
News has reached the ‘Danosphere’ that their Nomad has asked the Company to keep a firm grip on news flow and remain as tight lipped as possible. Interest in Sound Energy has been coming in from large financial institutions as well as 2 major oil companies. So much so that the Moroccan Ministry of Resources has placed a gendarme outpost on the direct access, and only road, that leads to the Tendrara drill site/s. That means that the Government of Morocco are all too aware of the Tendrara potential and are moving quietly to protect the National Interest with major oil company’s sniffing around.
Investors should also be aware that sources, and they are proven, believe that the company will be through the salt cap and into the Tagi gas reservoir within the next 7 days. It isn’t a question of rolling the dice for gas at this stage as it is 99% certain that another Gas Discovery will be announced. That discovery will be disclosed to be flowing at significantly higher rates than TE6, on or after clean up. Then it’s on to TE8. Currently there are over 100 employees on site in Morocco. It’s getting busy, very busy.
I’d expect news some where over the next 7-10 days via an ‘RNS drop’ announcing that hydrocarbons i.e. Gas has once again been ‘Discovered’ and that the Tagi gas reservoir has been breached.
In the words of their CEO ‘Jimbo’ Parsons “Tendrara really could be a super giant gas field” .
I’ve had a lot of meetings in London over the past 2/3 weeks with numerous sources and city contacts, chasing up news, views and opinion on various company’s. Theatre visits, wine bars, restaurants, emails, phone calls and posh ‘cafés’ have taken their toll on my wallet. Not to mention travel-costs and losing my Oyster card, (some where in the West End) which had £34 quid on it! Never an easy task trying to sort the wheat from the chaf. One always gets to hear of a lot of ‘personal’ chaf, some of It can be, funny some of it can be down right rotten. As you can read in the last séries of articles. Finally I can now blog on the last company I’ve been researching.
Tendrara Moroccan Gas Discovery. As big as Belgium?
Sound Energy (LON: SOU) Have had a phenomenal 2016 so far with their share-price smashing through 60p+ from 14p earlier in the year. They’ve come back a tad on profit taking and recent Director sales and Cornerstone Investor warrant conversions. There’s been the usual wailing and gnashing of the teeth among traders and investors who themselves, like me, have taken profit and derisked. Why some think that Directors and Institutional backers shouldn’t do what every man, jack and his wife has been doing (taking profit and derisking) is just one of those odd quirks of the retail investor community. Every one is in it to make money. And making money is exactly what the golden boy of the London AIM, Sound Energy CEO ‘Jimbo’ Parsons has achieved not only for his share holders but for all stakeholders. I believe congratulations are in order not only on the current Tendara success story but on a new addition to the Parsons family.
The sound energy team formed circa 5 yrs ago with a goal to build a Mediterranean oil and gas company. Parsons secured a partnership led strategy with a global oil field services company Schlumberger funding wells and a cornerstone investor securing the register. The company (unlike most on the AIM) are share-holder friendly and transparent in their communications. Some would say that they’ve been deliberately conservative, others think some what innovative in their approach (e.g. webcam) with shareholders which seems to be paying dividends. There’s actual trust in the company from Private Investors, their cash position is very robust.
The first well in Morocco, Tendrara TE-6 (Gas Discovery) has been a storming success and likely the making of the company. It is a commercial find and will get bigger. The whisper is that the Moroccan gas field could be as big as Belgium! Which would make it a huge connected discovery of Global Scale. That is what is on the cards here. A potential connected gas find the size of Belgium, with multiple TCF {Trillion Cubic Feet} potential. Which is why the share-price is not only defying gravity but the naysayers. The possibility of a significant gas column within a continuous extended structure. This structure may include and extend beyond the reservoir identified at TE-2, some 30km to the North East. A further well (the Company’s third well – TE-8) will be required at the edge of the potential structure to confirm this and is now being planned for later this year.The Company, together with Schlumberger, is now preparing for the second well at Tendrara (TE-7, located approximately 1.3km from TE-6) using sub-horizontal drilling techniques which are expected to significantly increase the individual well flow rate in a success case.
This is why sentiment is with the company and the market will run with it. Not forgetting that they still have Badile in Italy scheduled for Q4 2016 and the funding of Schlumberger.
The value of Sound Energy shares could be in pounds by the end of 2016. For each TCF of gas the rule of thumb is £1 per share. Sources are indicating that if Morocco turns out to be what the City of London and respected analysts are discussing then it’s a double digit share price in pounds rather than pence. That is to say it could be in excess of £5 to £10+ per share. And here is why. There’s a growing whisper that a global (Shell) oiler operating next door to the Sound Moroccan acreage is taking an interest in them. Indeed “I put it to you” as a well known blogger likes to say, Shell have surrounded the SOU position to the north, west and south in Morocco by picking up the adjacent reconnaissance licence and yes looking for gas. If Tendara is proved up, even by just two/three TCF then they will be taken over by Shell. Parsons has got the company positioned for success and almost certainly a target for being bought at some stage. There will be a bidding war, if the Moroccan gas discovery grows in size. My sources are also indicating that ‘Jimbo’ has been approached by a footsie 250 company, Jimbo has turned them down. Why? Share options, which are in the millions, stand to make him tens of millions of pounds should Morocco come in. Obviously he’s in it to win it.
The second Tendrara well (TE-7) is due to spud later this month. News is imminent on this. While the outpost well Tendrara TE-8 is pencilled in for spud in Q4 2016. Of all the resource companies on the AIM Casino SOU are one of a handful of genuine real deal resource plays, a professional management team with a potential Global Gas Discovery on the cards. They are on the cusp of a journey that could transform them and those who have the nerve should; Hold Your Shares! Big Play this guys!
2015 was a year of change for me personally, from being outside of the corporate tent pissing in I managed to get inside the tent and stopped those within it from pissing out. The team negotiated down millions of dollars worth of debt and managed to bring a revival in the SP with new finance and an asset deal that only needed signing off. I enlisted the help of many good CEO’s three in particular deserve a mention in dispatches. These men gave me advice and their valuable time without ever asking for one single penny piece or receiving any money whatsoever. They did it because they are decent honest men and knew the importance of aligning a company with shareholder value. So in 2016 I’d like to personally thank James Parsons (SOU) (who actually spent his own money on conference rooms, lunches, advice and introductions) and Matt Lofgran (NTOG) who must have spent hundreds of pounds on international calls. Although Matt has now been somewhat swayed into the arms of the Pump & Dumpers, he is a man of integrity. Lastly but not least Clem Chambers (ADVFN) who paid for his own flights, accommodation, meetings/lunches etc. In the USA and was instrumental in negotiating down $4,500,000 of bank debt.
Regardless of the shite that was fed by Sefton to the likes of Winnifrith (who by the way was offered a directorship in Sefton by me at the time we were organising) ShareProphets and LSE Trolls, (One Troll in particular was being lined up for a directorship by the now disgraced former management) to smear the requistioners, Clem with Mike Hodges have now once again taken up the Sefton cudgels on behalf of all shareholders, fighting to save the company and saved it was.
The Nomad, who was owed a huge sum of money, which was paid in full, told me post the lifting of the Bank of the West debt that “Quite frankly Dan no one gave you any chance of doing what the previous management couldn’t”. A previous management, some of whom, had been taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees, expenses and shares. Of course I’m referring to Sefton Resources. Now delisted and being re-structured. The moment myself and Clem Chambers departed leaving the company fully financed and in a position to deliver was the beginning of a return of those who had been fleecing shareholders for years. The now ousted board (Tom Milne being the exception) and departed employees, couldn’t give a flying fuck about their shareholders. What I discovered and always knew which was completely vindicated, was that the vast majority of AIM corporates have no regard whatsoever for their shareholders. It is on that basis that I am of the opinion that direct shareholder actions are the only way to influence these ‘corporate bastards’
At present we have several ‘Actions’ ongoing behind the scenes. Funds are being put in place for full frontal assaults on these ‘several’ AIM resource companies. More of which will no doubt become apparent over the coming months.
So the gist of this article is to make investors/traders aware that if you want to have any impact or influence on the companies you trade and invest in then you have to get out of your google/twitter/chatroom bubble. Change can be effected the secret is a union of shareholders. 2016 will be a year of fireworks.
We are activist share-holders and the role of activist share-holders is to create a set of circumstances where the management is working for the benefit of share-holders at the necessary pace to create success and it’s therefore good to see that the flurry of activity within the Company has increased exponentially within 2 days of the requisition being validated. That is share-holder activism in action. Share-holders will have to decide whether the people responsible for this change in pace i.e the activists and their nominated proven successful nominated board appointments or those responding to pressure should be running the business going forward re it’s turnaround.
It’s now game on for the hearts and souls (votes) of the long suffering Sefton Resources (LON: SER) share-holders. We had inundated Clem Chambers (Chief Executive Officer of ADVFN) et al over a period of time with emails and requests for help to call an EGM to get the company back on track. It has taken months of dogged determination not by one or two people but by a LARGE group of dedicated Sefton share-holders.The three names on the requisition represent over half a billion votes alone.
I personally decided to get re-involved as a share-holder activist. A share-holder who is entitled to protect his/her investment via legitimate share-holder action. Every thing thus far that has been done has been done in the best interests of all share-holders. The calls for an EGM have come from far and wide. The problem share-holders had is that the effort required to organize an EGM for a company registered in the British Virgin Isles is Herculean. BVI company law is specifically designed to thwart share-holders exercising their rights. For everyday folk it represents an impossible barrier. That barrier has now been smashed.
Retail investors (Most any way) are not millionaire playboys with time on their hands they have to work and bring up children, which in itself is a full time 24 hour job. Calling for an EGM is easy, actually committing to organizing one is a minefield of corporate law that can at each and every step blow up.
The failed Sefton board have now come out screaming like whirling dervishes. Throwing mud at the requisitioners, their very own share-holders! It is Clem Chambers and Michael Hodges who are running the show on all all corporate matters, not the 40 share-holders in the action group! We are quite rightly outside and will remain so.
Throwing mud is the last desperate act of a failed regime. A regime that should have closed off the Ellerton $500 ‘greenmail’ writ immediately. A regime that should have closed the Indo deal. A regime that should have closed the Kansas sale. A regime that has given $750,000 dollars to Rob Shepherd, whose name has now mysteriously vanished from all company RNS’s….. A regime that has at each and every turn stuck two fingers up to their own share-holders.
I am proud of ALL the SER holders who have tirelessly worked for this moment in time. Share-holders can if they collectively work together effect real change. Change that will bring in successful, proven financial corporate management with oil & gas assets that not only put production on the books, but allow for a huge exploration program that if successful will transform SER in to a genuine oil production company. The sector is awash with distressed oil companies/assets. Production can be picked up at low value while the oil price is at rock bottom. The new management team will come in and seek to close deals already tied up and further improve the quality of the board. It is my belief that big name CEO’s, have been approached. CEO’S with Oil & Gas backgrounds who know the value of the assets and how to develop them.
I’m voting for all the Resolutions at the EGM which will be held on 6 October 2015. I urge any and all share-holders to Vote for success and get Sefton Resources back on track.
A major indication of just how Sound Oil (LON: SOU) see their future dropped today via an RNS. A predatory takeover paper offer for the distressed and shockingly managed (into the dirt) Antrim Energy (LON: AEY). You’ll all know that I am a big believer with a large personal stake in the Company. I have skin in the game. I keep telling investors that the SOU story is one of success upon success, since the boy Parsons, took the helm he and the team have turned them into one of the best AIM oiler plays of recent years. Cornerstone investors, producing assets, cash in the bank, big exploration play and a flagship gas discovery (Nervesa) about to come on stream. Not forgetting that they’ve admitted they are in talks with a Global International Oil & Gas Company regarding a Major farm-in which could lead to a creeping full blown takeover at many times their current SP.
You’ll all recall that Antrim were at one point capitalised at £250,000,000 with solid production from their Causeway asset. The board ran up huge debts on Causeway, broke all their banking covenants, Credit Suisse called in the debt and hey presto the Canadian based Board flogged Causeway in a forced firesale. To cut a long story short Antrim ended up losing Causeway for a pittance so that the Board could keep lining their own pockets. Antrim are now basically a one asset operation quasi shell valued at approx. £5 million. 90p to 3p what a ‘performance!’ If only the Sound Oil team had been in charge then I can guarantee that Antrim share-holders would be sitting pretty on a hefty value accretive investment many, many times its current value. Instead of holding crabs.
This is a great deal for Antrim shareholders as they get access to a balanced portfolio in Italy, production and exploration; Good management, cost synergies (Out goes the failed BOD Hooray!) and a credible growth story with a possible take out of many multiplies of the current SOU share-price; 10.75p. How does 60p ‘sound’ to Antrim energy share-holders? Because folks that’s what the potential gain is on Sound oil. The Offer for each Antrim share, 0.3198 new Sound Oil ordinary shares values each Antrim share at 3.44p. This values the entire issued share capital of Antrim at £6.35M.
+ Takeover of Antrim!
As for Sound they pick up a high potential exploration asset in Ireland (diversifies pre Badile outcome) and over £10M in cash, all for just over £6M worth of paper (about 13% of the enlarged company). It’s a win, win deal for ALL stakeholders.
Take a good look at Antrim’s management. Over the past 2 stretch, they’ve done nothing but destroy value for their shareholders through miss-management. When a Company are trading below cash value after running the sp into the dirt, then you know that it has failed miserably. President and Chief Executive Stephen Greer, ‘resigned’ his position then immediately ‘assumed’ the role of Chairman of the Board of Directors. (Stephen Greed!) Here’s a question for AEY shareholders. How much cash did Gree(r)d get from AEY upon his resignation? Was it 1 years’ salary? 2? 3? Because I can tell you this he got a hefty settlement! Now he gets another chunk of the Antrim cash as the Chairman! What an absolute disgrace.
The Antrim Corporate troughers whose egos destroyed Antrim, have failed to respond to the Sound Oil offer, are the very same who f**ked up the Company for their own shareholders. While raking in millions upon millions in fees for themselves. They live in Canada! They’re detached from their own share-holder base. Proven corporate failures only interested in lining their pockets with what little money is left.
The combination of Sound Oil and Antrim as an entity will have a nice balance of assets, be focused entirely on Europe while being well funded and should be interesting to institutions given the increased scale. It’s a win, win deal for all stake-holders. Consolidation is in the air I expect that Antrim are not the only company that Sound are targeting. There’s more to come. Watch this space.
As most know we do not give buy, sell or hold recommendations on Guerillainvesting, much preferring for people to research for themselves to make up their own minds. However rules are there to be broken. If confirmation was ever needed for a stock to be in your portfolio then todays RNS was it. Buy SOU up to 16p and hold.
