Leni Gas & Oil plc (LGO) says it is "very enthusiastic about the oil potential of the Cedros Peninsula" in a statement on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).LGO Chief Executive Officer Neil Ritson said: "We are very enthusiastic about the oil potential of the Cedros Peninsula and have now completed an initial review of the data we acquired from Beach Oilfield Limited (BOLT).
"In LGO's technical view there is undoubtedly significant untested potential in proven reservoirs and in a structural style that is simpler than much of onshore Trinidad relating more closely to the prolific East Venezuelan Basin.As new data is collected and integrated with the existing data that we have acquired from BOLT it is anticipated that a number of potentially large drillable prospects will be mapped."In late 2013, LGO and BOLT concluded agreements to proceed jointly on studies in the area.
Payments under a data agreement totalling approximately �475,000 (US$750,000), through which LGO accessed all the existing geological, geophysical and well data in the area, were agreed to be spread over a four month period during which LGO assembled and assessed the data.
A final payment in the previously agreed form of �125,000 of LGO shares was made recently with the issuing of 14,218,605 ordinary shares and application has been made for the admission of the shares to trading on the Alternative Investment Market (London's junior stock exchange) from tomorrow.The consultancy agreement was signed in October for an initial period of 12 months so that BOLT's principal expert, Krishna Persad, could provide consultancy services to LGO.
The final definitive agreement, the farm-in agreement, which cross-assigns all deep petroleum rights between the parties such that LGO would become 100 per cent interest holder in all the private petroleum leases below 7,000 feet, is still being finalised as title due diligence has taken longer than was initially assumed, LGO said.The farm-in agreement secures LGO's access to a package of more than 7,500 gross acres of underexplored leases on trend with large oil discoveries in both Trinidad and Venezuela.
It has been agreed with BOLT to extend the existing knowledge of the Cedros with acquisition of a geochemical soil sampling survey.Locally field crews have now been trained by sampling experts from the United States and data collection is expected to be underway soon.Samples will be shipped to a laboratory in the US for analysis and will then be interpreted by experts from BOLT, before incorporation in the overall data synthesis by LGO.
The geochemical programme is estimated to cost �50,000 and is to be completed by mid-year.LGO is also in the final stages of negotiating with a specialist contractor for acquisition of a wide scale airborne Full-Tensor Gravity (FTG) survey to be flown over a large part of onshore Trinidad in a collaborative effort with the Ministry of Energy and several other active exploration and production companies in T&T.