Albania’s largest foreign investor, Bankers Petroleum (BNK:TSX) is continuing to bet on its Albanian oilfields by announcing they intend to spend at least $313 million in capital next year up from the $247 million the company spent in 2013.  The bulk, $216 million, is to be spent on drilling 150 to 170 wells on the… Continue Reading

Parex Resources (PXT:TSX) and Petroamerica Oil (PTA:TSXV) have provided an update on the exploration and development work going on in some of Colombia’s most prolific light oil fields.  Parex is excited about the developments on the El Eden block (60% operated working interest, Petroamerica 40% working interest) as they have begun long-term production from the test facility… Continue Reading

On Monday, the Mexican senate approved a draft energy bill which would allow, for the first time in 75 years, private foreign investment into the oil and gas sector in their country.  Mexico is the number 10 global oil producer and has been controlled by the state-owned oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).  That state-run entity has seen crude… Continue Reading

Platinum Group Metals (PTM:TSX) is set to resume trading this morning after announcing yesterday that it would be completing a $175 million bought deal financing led by BMO Capital and GMP Securities.  The stock has performed well this year, up over 50% YTD thanks to successful development of their Western Bushveld Joint Venture where they… Continue Reading

THE CALANDRA REPORT: Subscribe $91 yearly Topics: Coastal Contacts, Inovio, American Sands, Stockr, Mason Graphite, Tembo, GSV & Sunny LA LOS ANGELES — Just back from getting my batteries charged at LD Micro in Bel Air. About 240 companies — four or five gold | a dozen energy | and the rest Biomedical, Internet, retail,… Continue Reading

Calandra: Junior Miners Need Consolidating By Hannah Tool | Index Universe Thom Calandra was co-founder and chief columnist of MarketWatch before it was sold to Dow Jones in 2005. After taking a few years off, he returned with The Calandra Report, a mining-focused newsletter. Calandra spoke to IndexUniverse contributing writer Hannah Tool about the downturn of… Continue Reading

Yesterday, the Honourable Ed Fast, Minister of International Trade, announced that Canada and Albania have finalized negotiations on a foreign investment promotion and protection agreement (FIPA). Minister Fast made the announcement at Albania’s Independence Day reception in Ottawa.  A FIPA is a treaty designed to promote and protect Canadian investment abroad through legally binding provisions… Continue Reading

Ronald Pantin’s Pacific Rubiales (PRE:TSX) has closed its acquisition of Colombian-focused light oil producer Petrominerales (PMG:TSX) for $11 per share in cash and 1 common share of NewCo.  The NewCo will be funded with approximately $100 million cash and will hold some of the non-core assets previously held by PMG.  This transaction was expected to… Continue Reading

Anchor Andrew Bell sported an arm sling on his Commodities program on BNN television earlier, citing a cycling accident. The show must go on, however and three CEOs joined Bell this morning to tell their stories. Brian McLachlan, President and CEO of Yoho Resources (TSXV:YO), was the first guest on the program. Yoho are developing oil… Continue Reading

Ryan Gold Corp. (RYG) added three cents to 14 cents on 925,000 shares. Interim president David Schmidt has moved to vice-president of corporate development so executive chairman Murray John can take over as president. Mr. John is also the president of Corona Gold Corp. (CRG: $0.41) and a director of Dundee Precious Metals Inc. (DPM:… Continue Reading

The largest independent oil and gas producer in Latin America, Pacific Rubiales (PRE:TSX) has closed its previously announced offering of US$1.3 billion of senior unsecured notes with an interest rate of 5.375% maturing in 2019.  PRE is one of the fastest growing and according to Bloomberg their compound production growth over the last five years is… Continue Reading

Some of the best value offered in the junior markets come in the form of junior to mid-cap international E&P’s.  These are substantially discounted to their domestic peers.  Petroamerica Oil (PTA:TSXV) is one of these junior international E&P’s.  The company released their third quarter results which highlighted the profitability of this light oil producer.  The company… Continue Reading

Carl Icahn on how he and world famous lawyer, Joseph Jamail, settled the Texaco/Pennzoil lawsuit.  A first hand look from Icahn’s perspective on how they got this original $12 billion deal settled for $3 billion. Read: High-profile attorney won multibillion-dollar settlement in Texaco lawsuit

Africa Oil (AOI:TSXV), the east African oil explorer and Lundin Group Company, has found a fifth consecutive oil discovery in Kenya.  The Agete-1 exploration well in block 13T (50% non-operated working interest, Tullow Oil is 50% operator), has discovered and sampled movable oil with an estimated 100 metres of net oil pay in good-quality sandstone reservoirs. The… Continue Reading

Dr. John-Mark Staude’s Riverside Resource (RRI:TSXV), the prospect generator with precious and base metal assets across some of North America’s most prolific mineral belts, announced initial exploration results from their Flute and Lennac projects in BC.  The projects were identified as part of a three year alliance with Antofagasta, the Chilean copper giant, which ends… Continue Reading