Oklahoma-focused shale producer BNK Petroleum Inc. (BKX) lost one cent to 27 cents on 90,000 shares. Yesterday, the stock saw much heavier volume of 1.7 million shares, which turned out to be the result of purchases by the Toronto-based Harrington Global Ltd. (formerly Salida Capital International Ltd.). Harrington announced yesterday after the close that it (through Harrington Global Opportunities Fund Ltd.) had bought 1.6 million shares at 27.44 cents. It now owns 24.8 million of BNK's 232 million shares, or almost 10.7 per cent.
The name Harrington will ring a bell for oil investors who also follow mining stocks. Harrington spent much of this year waging a dissident campaign against Eco Oro Minerals, a would-be gold-silver explorer in Colombia. (Its principal asset is actually an arbitration claim against the Colombian government related to the loss of a gold-silver project in the country, but that is another story.) In February, Harrington and Courtenay Wolfe (the former president and CEO of Salida Capital) requisitioned a shareholder meeting that they hoped would result in a complete overhaul of Eco Oro's board. Eco Oro scheduled the meeting for April. In March, it issued millions of shares through what it deemed a debt conversion, but what the dissidents deemed "a desperate and unacceptable attempt to manipulate the voting process" ahead of the meeting. Months of ugly back-and-forth followed, with both sides even filing lawsuits against each other (the dissidents against Eco Oro for its alleged "outrageous attempt at entrenchment," and Eco Oro against the dissidents for alleged defamation). Eco Oro ended up settling with the dissidents and appointing new directors (including Ms. Wolfe) earlier this month.
Now Harrington has turned its attention to BNK. As most recently discussed in the July 31 Energy Summary, BNK is currently working on the second well of its 2017 drill program at its Tishomingo field. Excitement about this well has helped send BNK's 27-cent stock up from 17 cents since the start of last month, even though the well is running several months behind schedule. It was originally supposed to be fracked in May. Last week, BNK announced that fracking was finished and that the well was forecast to be "highly productive," as president and CEO Wolf Regener declared. Investors should find out shortly. BNK expects to have stabilized rates from the well next month.