The Myra and Sarah licensees have asked the Petroleum Supervisor for a two-month postponement to begin the exploratory drilling in the licenses until February 28, 2012. The terms of the licenses currently set a deadline of January 1, 2012, to begin drilling.
Israel Land Development Company Energy Ltd. (TASE: IE) and Emmanuelle Energy Ltd. own 48% of Myra and Sarah, Modiin Energy LP (TASE:MDIN.L) owns 19.3%, Canada's GeoGlobal Resources Inc. (AMEX: GGR) owns 5% through its Indian unit, Israel Petroleum Company Inc. (IPC) owns 13.6%, and Blue Water Oil and Gas Exploration owns 7.9%.
On July 3, the licensees announced that drilling operator GeoGlobal had completed terms with a third party for hiring a drilling rig for Myra and Sarah. Sources inform ''Globes'' that the rig operator is Noble Corporation (NYSE: NE), which will provide its Noble Homer Ferrington deepwater rig. Noble Corporation is no relation to Tamar and Leviathan licensee Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL).
The Noble Homer Ferrington is currently in Moroccan waters, and is due to reach Israel by the end of the year or in early 2012, and is due to stay here for six months. The rig's official rent price is $500,000 per day, but the licensees may have bargained a discount. Last month, ILDC Energy chairman Ofer Nimrodi implied that the cost of the rig was $160 million.
The Noble Homer Ferrington is due to drill two exploratory wells in Myra and Sarah's two main geological structures, which may contain between 1.1 trillion cubic feet and 4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, respectively, according to an analysis of the 3D survey by Netherland Sewell & Associates Ltd. (NSAI).
ILDC Energy's share price fell 3.7% in morning trading to NIS 1.12, giving a market cap of NIS 978 million, and Modiin Energy's share price fell 2.3% to NIS 0.043, giving a market cap of NIS 697 million. Both share prices have lost a third of their value since the announcement of the size of the gas reserves earlier this month.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 12, 2011
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