Taken from Mar.28/13 Energy Report Amin Hauge interview:
TER: Another Nigerian play that you talked about last time was Mart Resources Inc. (MMT:TSX.V). It has restarted production there and has some other things going on. What's happening with it now?
"Brent price has shown strength and averaged over $110/bbl in 2013."
AH: Mart lost about 50 days of production in Q4/12 and about 40 days in this quarter. For any oil and gas company, not being able to produce from its single asset for such a long time is bad news.
However, Mart has enough cash to pay dividends and complete its 2013 development program, which is going on full swing. It recently shared some news about its 10th well, UMU-10. It also plans to drill three or four wells during the rest of 2013 so that by the time the alternative pipeline is ready, there should be enough production to take advantage of the extra pipeline capacity. So far, things seem to be going well on the development front.
TER: What do you see for upside on the company at this point?
AH: One is higher production from the current field. Second, there's the plan to drill an exploration well either on the eastern or the western flank of the current field. If it makes a discovery, that would be very encouraging. Third, with increased production, Mart would have a large cash position, which it can use to acquire new assets. We keep hearing about the next marginal field bid round in Nigeria.
Mart would be in a good position to take advantage of a new bid round.