Gulf Keystone non-exec buys 2 million sharesGulf Keystone non-exec buys 2 million shares amid encouraging reports from Shaikan oil and gas project
Iraq and Algeria operating Gulf Keystone Petroleum (AIM: GKP)reported that its non-executive director Jeremy Asher has purchased 2million shares in the company representing 0.41% of its issued sharecapital at an average price of 94 pence per share through Asher FamilyTrust owned company Agile Energy.
The transaction gives Agile Energy a 2.9% interest in thecompany. This beneficial interest was pledged as part of the securitypackage for a revolving credit facility for the Asher Family Trust.
The average purchase price represents a roughly 7.5% discount to the stock’s Friday’s closing price.
GulfKeystone has performed incredibly well lately, rising from 13 pence inAugust to the current 106.5 pence, mostly due to the reports from itsoil and gas projects in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.
Broker Fox-Davies Capital (FD-Capital) has recently upped itstarget price for the stock to 200 pence after the company announced anadditional Triassic discovery from its Shaikan-1 well in Kurdistan,reporting flow rates of 10,000 boepd (barrels of oil equivalent perday), resulting in an aggregate test rate of 20,000 boepd from theJurassic tests done in the well thus far.
Gulf Keystone has previously reported test results from theJurassic zone, where tests indicated production of 7,000 bopd.Therefore, the cumulative Jurassic and Triassic zones have demonstratedthe potential to produce approximately 31,000 boepd. The company hasdiscovered over 1000 meters of oil column and over 200 meters of netpay, but had only tested less than 30% of the net pay zones.
Shaikan-1 was sealed off at 2950 meters to due higher thananticipated bottom hole pressures, meaning the third exploration targetin the underlying Permian Zone will be appraised in the middle of 2010when the company drills the Skaikan-2 well.