AWE Limited (AWE) Company Announcement

AWE Limited (AWE) is a small oil and gas explorer and producer. The majority of its operations are located in Australia and New Zealand, though the company is becoming increasingly interested in international operations.

The company’s major projects are the onshore Casino gas field (Otway Basin, SA), Cliff Head project (Perth Basin, WA) and the BassGas project (VIC & TAS) and now, in the Perth Shale Gas Basin. AWE is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and is a member of the S&P/ASX 200.

AWE announced that it has it has been advised that the Western Australian Minister of Environment has dismissed the states EPA appeal against its operations in the Perth Basin.

The company said that based on current availability of equipment, it expects that the hydraulic stimulation activities on all three wells will commence during the second quarter of 2012.

Managing Director Bruce Clement said that he is pleased with the decision, and looks forward to test the potential of the wells.

Click to Receive FREE Daily Trading Recommendations!

WorleyParsons (ASX:WOR) provides professional engineering and management services to the energy, resource and complex process industries.

It offers a broad range of services, from feasibility studies to design and project services, and is exposed to a number of sectors.

The group is a leader in its industry and has established long-term relationships with a number of blue-chip companies.

Despite facing obstacles in FY11, WOR was able to grow its profit and revenue, with the Hydrocarbons business driving the result.

Moreover, WorleyParsons is ideally placed for the future, as the lure of high energy prices is likely to drive demand for its services from the bigger oil companies.

Hyper about Hydrocarbons

The majority of WOR’s earnings are in the Hydrocarbons (oil and gas) division.  WOR’s leverage to the energy market is a key attraction, particularly as demand for oil and gas is expected to strengthen due to emerging market growth.

The oil supply/demand imbalance (dwindling oil supplies vs. growing energy demand) is only expected to worsen due to this growth.

The lure of energy price appreciation is likely to encourage oil companies to ramp up capex spending, which puts WorleyParsons in an ideal position to accelerate its contract win rate.

WOR has had a positive start to 2012, winning two major contracts in January.  The first was a US$115 million contract with ExxonMobil, and the second was a US$180 million contract with Chevron (split with a 50/50 JV partner).

LNG is the future

The big oil companies have recognised that the world is moving towards more unconventional sources of energy such as LNG.

There are a number of massive projects being undertaken throughout Australia, and WOR has had a hand in some of the key ones such as Pluto and Wheatstone.

WOR’s experience in developing LNG projects, coupled with the established relationships it has with its blue-chip clients, makes it ideally placed to benefit from this increased focus on alternative energy.

Outlook

As the global growth engine continues to shift from developed economies to the developing regions, there will be increased demand for commodities.

As mining companies look to meet this demand, there is going to be a significant increase in capex activities over the coming years.

This will strengthen the market for WOR’s services, providing it with plenty of growth opportunities, especially in the hydrocarbons space.

WOR is in a sound financial position and is expected to continue the positive earnings momentum into FY12.

Based on one year forward earnings, WOR is trading at a more than 50% premium to the industry average.

Whilst this may appear to suggest the company is overvalued, we feel the premium is justified when considering WOR’s relatively stronger growth prospects, cash flow generation and a five-year average return on equity of over 20%.

The long-term relationships WorleyParsons has fostered with its blue-chip clients is likely to yield considerable benefits for the company, particularly as miners look to capitalise on rising commodity prices as well as the world’s shift to alternative energy sources.

We believe that WOR is poised for growth, and is defiantly a stock to watch for 2012.

Receive Daily FREE Trading Recommendations, click now.

Energy Resources of Australia (ASX:ERA) is a uranium company which mines, processes and sells uranium oxide from the Ranger mine in the Northern Territory and uranium concentrates sourced outside Australia to nuclear electric utilities in Japan, South Korea, Europe and North America. ERA also provides environmental consulting services.

Australian shares, Energy Resources today announced that it will book a loss of $153.6 million for the CY11, compared to a profit of $47 million in CY10.

The company cited that production at its flagship mines was suspended for five months due to heavy rains.

Energy Resources is forecasting a uranium oxide output of between 3000 and 3700 metric tons for 2012, compared to 2641 last calendar year.

For FREE Daily Trading Recommendations, Click Here!

Oil Search (ASX:OSH) is an oil and gas exploration and development company that has been operating in Papua New Guinea since 1929 and is listed on the ASX 200.

The group now explores, develops and produces oil and gas in Papua New Guinea and Australia, not to mention Yemen, Libya, Iraq and Tunisia.

Oil Search released its fourth quarter production figures today, which showed it produced 1.64 million barrels of oil in the Q4 up 10% on Q3, but down 14% from the year earlier.

The company said that it produced 6.69 million barrels of oil in CY11 compared to 7.66 million in CY10.

However OSH said that its revenue increased to US$654.3 million in CY11 from US$517.3 million in CY10, helped in part by a rise in the average realized price for oil.

For FREE Daily Trading Recommendations, Click Here!

Santos (ASX:STO) explores for and produces natural gas, crude oil, condensate, naphtha and liquid petroleum gas. The Company conducts major onshore and offshore petroleum exploration activities at oil and gas fields in Australia (Cooper/Eromanga Basins), the United States (Gulf of Mexico), Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. STO is Australian based and is member of S&P/ASX 200.

Santos revealed its fourth quarter production was down 9% on-year, whilst revenue was up 25% in the same period to $750 million.

The company also reported full year production down 5%, with a 14% increase of revenue to $2,530 million.

STO reaffirmed the 2012 guidance provided in November, which was a production range of 51-55 million barrels of oil.

Click to Receive FREE Daily Trading Recommendations!

Paladin Energy Ltd (ASX:PDN) primarily explores for uranium in Australia and Southern Africa.

Shares in energy stock Paladin Energy have soared today after the company announced a 47% increase in first quarter production compared to the previous quarter.

PDN also said that spot price for uranium is beginning to show signs of strengthening as new demand emerges.

Paladin also re-affirmed its full year production target and earnings guidance, making it one of the days hot stocks.

Click for FREE Daily Trading Recommendations.

Whitehaven Coal Limited (ASX:WHC) is a coal producer in the Gunnedah Basin. The Company is engaged in the development and operation of coal mines in New South Wales. Whitehaven operates five mines in the region: Narrabri (underground), Rocglen (open cut), Sunnyside (open cut), Tarrawonga (open cut) and Werris Creek (open cut). The company is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and is part of the S&P/ASX 200.

Whitehaven Coal and Aston Resources have reached an agreement that will create the largest strictly coal producer in Australia.

The deal, in which WHC offers 1.89 of its shares for each of Astons share, will create a company with a market value of approximately $5.1 billion.

The merger which has been billed by the companies as merger of equals has the unanimous support of both Aston’s and Whitehaven’s boards.

For FREE Daily Trading Recommendations, Click Here.

AWE Limited (ASX:AWE) is a small oil and gas explorer and producer. The majority of its operations are located in Australia and New Zealand, though the company is becoming increasingly interested in international operations.

The company’s major projects are the onshore Casino gas field (Otway Basin, SA), Cliff Head project (Perth Basin, WA), the BassGas project (VIC & TAS), and now in the Perth Shale Gas Basin. AWE is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and is a member of the S&P/ASX 200.

AWE today agreed to sell a stake of its Bass Basin gas project to Toyota Tsusho for a cash consideration of $80 million.

The company stating that the sale will inject cash into the balance sheet, and also reduce the risk-exposure to the capital expenditure requirements for the Bass Basin project.

AWE also announced a special $0.05 fully franked cash dividend.

FREE Daily Trading Recommendations, Click Here!

Oil Search (ASX:OSH) is an oil and gas exploration and development company that has been operating in Papua New Guinea (PNG) since 1929 and is listed on the S&P/ASX 200.

OSH now explores, develops and produces oil and gas in Papua New Guinea and Australia, not to mention Yemen, Libya, Iraq and Tunisia.

Oil Search said the large gas export venture in Papua New Guinea with Exxon Mobil has had a budget increase of US$700 million.

The company announced today that the increase was due to the impact of the high Australian dollar.

Oil Search said that it has ample liquidity to increase its equity contribution to the project.

Click to Receive FREE Daily Trading Recommendations!

Nexus Energy (ASX:NXS) is small cap emerging oil and gas producer, with operations focused on the Gippsland Basin, offshore Victoria and the Browse Basin, offshore Western Australia.

In 2009, NXS transitioned from explorer to producer with the start-up of the Longtom gas project.

The Longtom project was plagued by production problems in late 2010 due to the detection of mercury in its gas.  However those issues have since been resolved and the project has been delivering record production of late.

A lot of interest currently surrounds NXS’s 85% stake in the Crux liquids project (15% Osaka Gas-owned), which is Shell-operated and has a reserve estimate of around 75 million barrels of oil.

With liquefied natural gas (LNG) seeing global demand as an alternative fuel source, NXS and its peers are in good standing owing to the LNG boom and recovering commodities market.

The company is in the midst of securing financing for its share of Crux’s development, and a final investment decision (FID) is expected by the end of the year.

The Crux of the matter

Nexus is looking to commercialise the Crux project, but before a FID can be reached, it must secure financing.  The group is currently trying to obtain up to US$1 billion in financing, with the lenders currently conducting due diligence.

Encouragingly, NXS has also identified a potential JV partner for the project, and is expecting a binding proposal in the next few weeks.

NXS’ proposed 35% sell-down of its equity stake in the project, combined with the potential US$1 billion in debt financing, are signs that the group is on track achieve the FID by the proposed target date.

The economics of the project have already been confirmed under varying capex and schedule sensitivities.  Construction of the project is expected to total around $1.78 billion.

Therefore, achieving FID by the target date will help alleviate concerns over NXS’ ability to fund the project’s developments costs.

Whilst the stock has rallied ahead of the FID, we believe the market has yet to fully price in the huge revenue potential of the project (assuming a positive FID).

The Longtom and short of it

In late October, NXS reported Longtom gas production of 6.4 petajoules (PJ), which was 7.4% higher than the previous quarter.

Saleable gas production totaled 6.2 PJ, which was up 6.7% on June quarter output. This drove revenue up from $27 million to $29 million in the same period.

The increase in Longtom output has continued the turnaround in this asset, which faced production issues early in the financial year due to mercury detection in the delivered gas.

The installation of mercury removal equipment has so far allowed Nexus Energy to meet gas nominations under its contract with customer, Santos.

Future growth will come from the exploration of Longtom South, which is a prospect located 4km south of Longtom.

Given the proximity of the two fields, it wouldn’t cost NXS as much to develop Longtom South. If gas is ultimately discovered, it will provide another source of cash flow, thus increasing the company’s value.

Outlook

NXS has had a fantastic turnaround in the past few months, as anticipation builds ahead of its proposed FID by the end of the year.

The company is in the midst of securing financing for the project and is also in negotiations to sell down part of its stake.

That’s not to say either of these will definitely happen, as there is always the chance of NXS failing to obtain the required funding.

However, NXS hasn’t indicated any issues with the FID process thus far.  Therefore we believe the potential payoff from taking a position in Nexus Energy is worth the risk.

For further FREE Trading Recommendations, Click Now!