The Oil Man: Saffron/Coro, Range Resources, Genel Energy

Saffron/Coro - James Menzies joins the Holy Trinity…

Saffron has announced today that James Menzies is to join as CEO with effect from the first of May.

James was founder of Salamander Energy, later taken over by Ophir Energy in a transaction worth $850 million (£602 million) in 2015. Menzies will join the board with Sara Edmonson as Deputy Chief Executive and will lead the process of building the business in SE Asia where I am sure a number of opportunities are well advanced.

This appointment is a real game changer for Coro and will surely mean that the company is set for dynamic growth in the region and the aim of building a business of 'material size' becomes a genuine reality.

James Menzies can provide the team with deep regional knowledge and, combined with the local experience from Chairman James Parsons, will provide a launch pad for the company that even the most optimistic shareholder might not have dreamed of.

Range Resources

Two pieces of good news from Range. Yesterday, they announced that RRDSL had been successfully been awarded a contract with Shell Trinidad for a one-well work over and that rig 19 started operations on 19th March and will take approximately 10 days. This is most important as if your rig is good enough for Shell then…

And today they announced an update from Indonesia where an early production focused work programme has been agreed, earlier than I had expected.

First oil production is expected to get under way in mid-2018 at 200 barrels of oil per day gross and field work will also start with well reopenings and workovers. With an experienced team now in place and two offices opened Range can look forward to 'unlocking the full potential of this asset'.

Genel Energy

I will comment further on Genel in the next day or so after I have spoken to the CFO hopefully tomorrow morning.

Results today were good and Genel continues to pleasantly surprise, today they confirmed strong free cash flow after a year of consistent payments by the KRG, and latterly by the Receivable Settlement Agreement which will add to that.

Guidance for production is unchanged at 32,800 barrels of oil per day which will mean more free cash flow in the future.

Whilst the company mention the potential de-risking of the gas resources, as I said last time it is the high value and shorter term oil resources which may appear in the production earlier than the market expects.

Finally, the drilling successes at Peshkabir must not be underestimated . At nearly $70 this us another share that is significantly under valued and I look forward to interviewing COO Bill Higgs on Core Finance next week.

SDX Energy

Yesterday, SDX Energy updated the market on the SAH-2 well results which produced 12.9 million standard cubic feet per day and a maximum of 13.5 million standard cubic feet per day on a restricted choke of 40/64".

This is indeed good news and as Paul Welch says, "underpins guidance of 8-10 million standard cubic feet per day by the end of the year".

The company has already spudded the LNB-1 exploration well on the Lalla Mamouna permit which should take 15-20 days to drill. These are good times for SDX and the market at the moment is totally oblivious of the success they are delivering.

Malcolm Graham-Wood is an independent oil industry expert and freelance contributor, not a direct employee of Interactive Investor.

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