News and AnalysIs for

Suroco Energy announced its 3Q12 results. The chart shows production net of Working Interest and Royalties was up 27% sequentially after having been stalled for two quarters. Alastair Hill, Suroco’s President and CEO commented, “During the third quarter we achieved a record average production rate of 1,111 barrels per day net to the Corporation after royalties and in September we experienced our best single monthly average with 1,232 barrels per day net to the Corporation after royalties. The three Cohembi wells drilled during the quarter helped us to delineate the north-western area of the field and extend the proven oil-bearing area.”

On November 22 Reyes Reinoso Yánez, a chemical engineer from Venezuela, took over as president (e) of the Cartagena refinery (Reficar). Reinoso took office after Orlando Cabrales Martínez quit for personal reasons.

We reported earlier in the week that the Pacific Rubiales-C&C Energy deal had given a boost to the share prices of other Colombia-focused companies. The question was whether the boost would be sustainable: would the “animal spirits” (as one of our experts put it) continue to hold or will the reality that PRE did the deal with C&C and not with someone else bring prices back to earth? As the chart shows, the answer seems to be that the boost was generally sustained.

Petronova published its 3Q12 results and the press release was mostly a review of its exploration activities since production is minimal at this time. Revenues were US$33,708 for the quarter. The company operates the PUT-2 and Tinigua blocks both of which are pending environmental licensing. Petronova also has non-operated working interests in Llanos blocks CPO-06, CPO-07 and CPO-13 where its partner is Tecpetrol. Petronova President and CEO Antonio summarized the company’s quarter saying, “PetroNova successfully closed a CAD$30 million private placement this quarter, which enables the progression of our active exploration program. We expect to drill eight additional exploration wells through mid-2013”.

El Colombiano reports that last October (2012) Ecopetrol’s shares were the fourth most widely traded in the Integrated Latin American Market (MILA), which integrates the equity markets of Chile, Colombia and Peru. The total value of Ecopetrol shares traded during October was approximately US$445M. In Toronto, the stock closed the month up over US$1.50 although the day before the initial phase of the 2012 Round of auctions it had been up over US$4.00.

Federico Renjifo was an Ecopetrol board member before he was appointed Minister of Mines and Energy at the beginning of September. He is still a board member as MinMinas but that opened his existing seat to another candidate. Ecopetrol has called a special general assembly for December 6, 2012. So far the only agenda item is election of the missing board member and the company proposes Jorge Pinzón Sánchez of the law firm Opebsa.

Petrodorado filed its 3Q12 financial results and MD&A. The company had no production because its only productive block, Moriche, was shut in pending a sale expected to be completed in 4Q12. Thus the focus is on exploration. The company has provided frequent updates on its activities and most are still at early stages. The most advanced is the Dorado-1X well in the Talora block which is in testing but with nothing to report yet.

Interoil published its 3Q12 results and they were not encouraging. There was a net loss in the quarter of US$7.1M and year to date Net Income is down by about 2/3 from 2011. Earlier we documented the continuing decline of Interoil’s Colombian production. Near the bottom of Interoil’s 3Q12 results was the statement “The production decline is a direct result of reduced investment activity due to liquidity constraints. To address this issue, the board has initiated a sales process in Colombia”.

National business newspaper La Republica reported that Ecopetrol says that despite the attacks of 17 November to Transandino pipeline, management expects to meet its goal of producing around 780,000 bpd on average by the end of this year. Note that this figure is likely production before royalties (see our November Monthly Report). We estimate it is the equivalent of about 655,200 bpd as usually measured (Net of Working Interest and Royalties).

Shona Energy Corporation reported its 3Q12 results. Production was up 22% sequentially to just over 16MMcf/d. EBITDA was up 43%. Year-over-year comparisons are dramatic but not really meaningful as the company was just getting production going last year. The company reported Net Earnings Per Share of 1 cent vs a 2 cent (US$) per share loss last year in the same period.