damn...suddenly 100mil volume at 0.335 gone in a few seconds

thanks for all the feedback guys - now that I have some holdings in Sona, I'll be visiting this forum more frequently.

tradefox, i dare not say in here lah....1stly, dont want it to link back to my source, 2ndly, for all i know it might be just rumours/hearsay. Don't buy or sell based on my postings....make decision based on your own analysis.

mk88 - agreed, I saw the info that you mentioned too, but wonder if there's any pressure from their investors to sell 40% of their cash cow to Sona? That's a sure revenue coming in with their forecasted production rate.....unless they want quick cash, cash is king as they say.

have you been in a team where there are too many smart people and nothing is moving because everybody is arguing and have their own opinion on how to do things?....I think that's why cliq still doesn't have a suitable QA yet....i'm just saying out loud after looking at their management profile...jangan marah.

easymoney, I just did my due diligence based on info that I have on the field, ops etc before going in. Definitely trust the management, but still if I can check to satisfy myself, I check la. Sometimes because of too much analysis can somehow miss the simple-simple points.

derrickinvestor, I was advised not to invest in cliq....by an extremely reliable source in the O&G.

easymoney...wallop after my analysis...then 2nd thought creep up....damn for thinking too much.

now I hold Sumatec and Sona....Sumatec is my darling, Sona is my young concubine. Let's see who will perform better, haha

topaz, yes I did, wallop quite heavy between 0.48 - 0.50, within the last 1+ week.

O&G ventures is a high OPEX ops....SONA used all the money from IPO plus take more loan just to purchase the 40% stake. Now, question is whether the revenue from the production is sufficient to offset any OPEX to maintain the current production facilities as well as potentially additional cost for exploration well (Salamander will pay the cost of 2 exploration wells up to a cap limit). My cincai2 calculation points to the right direction, but still price go down....wonder if I am missing something crucial.

Just wondering what is SONA buying into....

Salamander Energy considering selling the stake in S.E.A ops due to "The last few years, the share price performance hasn't been particularly strong off the back of some operational performance and exploration that hasn't really delivered,"
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/01/salamanderenergy-sale-idUKL3N0NN12O20140501

Salamander Energy having losses 5 straight years in a row.
http://shares.telegraph.co.uk/fundamentals/?epic=SMDR

Anybody has any info that says SONA is going to benefit purchasing 40% of Salamander's stake in their Thai blocks? It seems to me Salamander is using SONA's fund to sorta bail them out....

Sona experts....I haven't been following the news...bila mau sign itu s&p agreement? Ada news ka?

Alexofb2b; ESOS for management usually ada terms and conditions mah, she cannot simply unload the shares....if not mistaken ada grace period....and any disposal must be reported to Bursa.

I like tenys1227's statement:

"tenys1227: Roshidah binti Abdullah -Chief Financial Officer of Sumatec Resources Berhad since April 1, 2013... She buy the "ESOS" at price of RM 0.244 meanwhile she have to give out RM 2,440,000 from her own pocket!!!
Chief Financial officer know everything of sumatec whether suma financial is healthy or not, i dont think she will buy if sumatec is not in the right path to out from PN17 ... "

haven't seen so much excitement about Sumatec until now....this is a buy and hold counter people...almost all the O&G personnel that I know who follows stock market are investing in Sumatec....I repeat, "investing".

stargazer1 - yup, you got the right link for artifical lift info....it's a proven method for sure.

http://sumatec.irplc.com/medianews.htm?filepath=SUMATEC/SUMATEC-TheEdge-27062014.pdf

Natural flow from 2 wells....11 more on artificial lifts....so, can meet target of 2000 bbls/day by end of the year la....

mid-long term holding people....price will go up, people will take profit hoping to buy back lower....but, what if, the price keep shooting up? menyesal nanti...hehe

ok, thanks all.

clj jun, thanks.

pathfinder2....this is during 19-25 Feb, not recently when they announced the QA. That time price went up to 0.60+, then within short period down to less than 0.50

I have a question to the SONA's regulars here...around19-25 Feb, Sona price went up to 0.60+, then suddenly within a week the price dropped to below 0.50. What was the reason at that time? Sorry folks, I did not follow Sona that time so a bit clueless....was it because of shark attack? or was there a QA plan that didn't materialize?

mk88, try to as everybody else - nothing is certain, win some, lose some :-)

Now I know why Salamander sold the 40% stake to Sona. Possibly, their 60% stake will be sold to some other parties as well....hopefully to someone who knows how to run the field.

This might be an old news (1-May-2014), but something interesting from Salamander's CEO's comments:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/01/salamanderenergy-sale-idUKL3N0NN12O20140501

Quotes:
Menzies, speaking to Reuters in March, said southeast Asia "hasn't been a great exploration province".

"The last few years, the share price performance hasn't been particularly strong off the back of some operational performance and exploration that hasn't really delivered," Werner said.

The company's average daily production, nevertheless, rose by almost a third last year to 14,200 barrels of oil equivalent. Pretax profit for the year ended Dec. 31, 2013 more than quadrupled to $47.3 million.

OK lah....I'm in. Bought some shares at 0.53, if price go down further will average down, if go up will keep for long term investment.

going up pulak....thought wanna pick up if drop below 0.50. Last week jatuh like crazy....well, this is how the stock market works I guess.

RayWong, anytime you reduce cost, it's always good.

investoraaa2006 - agreed with all those as long as it's economically sound to do so. I hope they use some sort of flow control gravel pack, if not the higher drawdown from the heel of the horizontal well will induce the higher influx there. I checked Salamander's website...did it say in there about the 40k -50k water handling facility? or is this from your own experience? I still think the water treatment part will be costly for them. True, there'll be future cost involve as well if they need to drill additional infill wells to tap other area.

RayWong, it says in the notes on page 11 that they'll use a cheaper FPSO starting from 2014...."Release of Rubicon Vantage FPSO and replacement with lower
cost FSO in 3Q’14".

That's why the cost in 2015 and 2016 will be lower..."Reduction in operating costs through crude burning power generation and lower FSO day rate"

pathfinder2 / sklyte / easymoney - you all have very strong valid points on whats going on with Sona, there's always 2 sides in the O&G, the technical part and also the finance part, O&G management should make their decision based on both - to get win-win scenario. I don't know what exactly Sona management was thinking...could be easy way out with just everything in 1 basket, could be they just want to make quick easy money, we'll never know what's being discuss during the board meeting.....but, for us ikan bilis in KLSE, and since we want to make money in the stock market, just need to find the right entry price for this counter, if you believe there's some value to their game plan. If you think, there's none, better stay away at all. I think there's some value in their QA...at the same time I also wonder of their decision making....so, that's why if I want to enter, it need to be at the price range that I'm comfortable with. The oil production is there...12k bbl/d...so, there's money to be make...and this oil price movement is so versatile...with the current world issues i.e ukraine etc, oil price could shoot up...so, as in any stock purchase, we are trying to make money by forecasting the future... good luck to all the investors in Sona.

easymoney...The rotary steerable technology (RSS) is so good nowadays...directional drillers can hit their target as small as 2 meters radius....I've met good DDs who can do that. Good luck with Sona, I will go in as well...but need to see how next week punya price movement, would prefer if can get at +/- 0.45. Somehow major holders are dumping probably due to ??? shark? Sona spending too much money on this field and will have to fork additional RM400mil ? perception that Sona is being screwed by Salamander ???

I don't know.

pathfinder2, oh yeah, I would rather handle gas production than water...gas is an asset, you can sell them and usually much cleaner. In the old days when environmental QHSE is not so strict, you can just flare the gas out and make hole in the ozone layer, haha. That's what Shell been doing for ages in Sarawak before Petronas imposed the ruling...well, that was ages ago. With water, haiya, so many things to consider, inhibitors/chemicals to deal with corrosion, water treatment, then probably need to reinject to dispose. Water handling, treatment and disposal usually represents the biggest operating cost for most oilfield operators. My 2 cents....

investoraaa2006, from the paper from my previous posting shows the oil column on the B3/38 is thin, didn't mention any thick oil column. The reservoir might be thick, but I'm more interested in the oil column. I haven't check Salamander's website yet. You are right, the 2 water wells were for water disposal - missed the point on strong aquifer, I thought they were for pressure maintenance. Agreed if the water handling module that they installed can handle the high water production rate, they can pump as much as they want. Hope they have good quality Electric Submersible Pumps (ESP) down there - not sure of the life cycle of the ESP at high rates for viscous oil in this field. With the water coning effect in a viscous oil (28.5 API) reservoir, with the reservoir being a water wet reservoir, the watercut will go higher and higher - much easier - as time goes by.

skybursa, and to you as well !

skybursa, I want to have some interest in Sona...since I'm in the O&G industry. But, before I go in I want to know more about this field that Sona is buying. Curious also, since I was about to buy some shares the next day after Sona announced the QA...and then I saw all these massive dumping that brought the price down to 0.515 closing Friday. That's where my research comes in...I could have study it and keep quiet and decide what to do next week. But, I feel like sharing the knowledge with fellow forumers...as some of them here are not versed in the O&G. Before we buy something, we need to know about what we are getting into, right? I learned from other experts when I bought non O&G counters...really grateful for their input. So, I'm just returning a favour. You are right in monitoring how next week activity is...if price falls further, could average down. As for me, a non-share holder at this moment...I have my price range to enter next week if further sell down happens. If no sell down next week, probably 0.50 - 0.52 is the right price for me to enter.

sklyte, if i have time to research more on hibiscus projects/fields, I will certainly do that.

stteck...with 40% interest, they are not operating. Salamander is running the show...but, I would imagine that Sona will have someone overlooking the operations and giving input/feedback if Sona see something that they don't like.

pathfinder2 - you are right. If this field is sure-easy cash cow for Salamander, they will not sell 40% stake. Don't get me wrong, based on latest evaluation, there are more reserves down there...but, with the water encroachment issue, it'll take time and more fund to effectively extract the remaining reserves. Good thinking Salamander to bring in a partner....Sona is thinking differently though, they need to get an acquisition...this maybe is their best option...get production right away from Bualuang field with potential new discovery on block G4/50. Even though they have to fork out additional RM400mil, the 40% revenue they are getting should help pay the amount...partially. From an engineer stand point, this is an interesting project though. From investor, probably need more info such as pay out time, ROI, etc...which I don't have at the moment. But, the oilman in me is wanting to invest a bit...only at the right price. So, I will see if the price drops further to 0.45 - 0.50 range...then can invest some.

We will find out on Monday-Wednesday next weekl if more people are dumping.

http://www.searchanddiscovery.com/pdfz/documents/2013/20189khanna/ndx_khanna.pdf.html

Alamak...the more details I read about this Bualuang field from the link above, the more I don't like this field. This is a challenging field - kudos to Salamander for using horizontal wells and sound pressure/reservoir maintenance program to optimize production rates.

Thin oil column (40-50m thickness) with viscous oil. No gas cap, and it's a water driven reservoir - this means water coning (or water encroachment) is a serious concern. They have drilled 2 water disposal wells, where the water that are being produced are re-injected for pressure maintenance. Even though it's a small field with thin oil column, Salamander drilled horizontal wells to optimize the production and placed the wells near the top of the reservoir to minimize water encroachment. Well BA-11H is producing 1500 barrel of oil/day with 70% watercut...which means at the same time the well is producing 3500 barrel of water/day.

Salamander already got some good production from this field before the water encroachment (watercut) went up to 70% before they agreed to sell 40% to Sona (note from link: The field came on stream in August 2008 and a month later had reached production of 17,000 bpd). Smart move Salamander. Based on the wells already drilled, formation evaluation and new seismic data, the field reserves has been upgraded to 70mil barrels of oil. It's a good move to get Sona in to have 40% interest (pay back to Salamander the cost they've spent as well as get fund for future additional work). And, all Salamander is selling is the potential reserves upgrade...in my opinion, to get these additional reserves with the current water production from existing wells will take some time...they probably will need to drill additional horizontal wells.

At one point in the future, Salamander/Sona will have to spent money to drill additional horizontal sidetracks to optimize production as water production increases....right now 70% watercut...probably when it's getting to 90% watercut. So, I think Sona needs to be prepared to pump in more money in the future...can use the money from the oil revenue.

Salute to Salamander for succesfully developing this thin reservoir field. Most big time operators will not waste their time developing this field. Sona has a good partner in Salamander. This is a good investment for new investors if we can get in at a good price (maybe between 0.45 to 0.50 ??) and it'll be even better if Salamander/Sona strike new discovery on G4/50 concession with the planned 2ea exploration wells.

jbb1676, the key word is holding power. Unless one has insider info...or a shark....then, who knows when a certain counter's price will go up or down, if not semua sudah kaya-raya already. If you see Sumatec has good potential future based on what they are doing now and their game plan, then it's worth while to invest and be patient a bit. It's a debt free company now....completed the regularization plan....should be able to apply for lifting of PN17 status after 2 consecutive quarters of profitability...just a matter of time when Bursa will give the green light. This is a mid-long term investment counter....if you are looking for contra gain, then it's easy to become frustrated.

how12345, after profit 2 consecutive quarters, can submit to exit PN17 already....that's what Sumatec's management is shooting for.... But, it's up to Bursa to decide when to give the green light.

if you ask me, for mid-long term investment, both Sumatec and Sona are good. Sumatec is at the right price now before the price goes up when it's near to PN17 exit....as for Sona, just need to get in at the right price.

RayWong is correct, for the amount of money that Sona paid they get a producing field with all the installations (production platform, pipeline, etc) readily available plus an exploration field. The Bualuang Bravo platform is not cheap....

The way I look at it NOW...you buy Sona, you are part owner of the 40% stake of the oil production on Bualuang Bravo platform on B8/38 concession, and part owner of the 40% stake on any new discovery on G4/50 concession. Semua sudah jadi tokeh minyak....hehehe.

RayWong...that's hard to say, we don't know what is the royalty that Salamander agreed with the Thai government....if it's 50% royalty, then Sona will take RM82mil less any operating cost (which I don't know what...no info). So, if can find out the royalty, yearly operating cost of the platform....then can estimate pay back period. But, with the latest update is the reserve (i quote "will carry to the next decade"), they have a good field. And this is just from primary production....in the future when production rates started to decline, they can do more work to get more reserve with Enhanced Oil Recovery methods.

Sona found themselves a good field with a good price....worth investing if you can get in at the right price. But, I don't know what is the right price...seems like lots of people are dumping, I'm not sure why...probably because of future funding?...rights issues? This is still a questionmark to me...

http://sonapetroleum.com/haji-akbar-tajudin-credential-2/

I know Tuan Haji Akbar personally when he was with Petronas Carigali...so, if he is OK with Sona's investment in this field, that carry some strong weight.....

This field just started production, haven't even peak and reach plateau production rates yet....good potential.

"First oil production from the Bualuang Bravo platform was established Dec. 14, 2012 in the Gulf of Thailand. Construction of the platform was completed in November and the first development well, the BB-04H, was spud by the Atwood Mako (400' ILC) soon after. The well was recently brought online and will flow at a rate of 1,500 bopd after the clean-up phase. Salamander owns and operates the Bualuang field and is engaged in a 15- well development program. Current daily production is over 8,300 bopd and is expected to ramp up to between 11,000 and 14,000 bopd in 2013." ...from Dec 2012 news.

RayWong...I haven't invested in Sona yet because I didn't know what their game plan is, but I think, for an offshore field (Bualuang) with the latest updated reserves, this is a good buy. Plus, they get G4/50 concession without having to pay for the exploration drilling cost...good deal. If they strike oil in the G4/50, it'll be even better....I will do more reasearch on this basin and probably will put some money in Sona.

anybody buying SONA?