WesternZagros Resources named among top 50 companies on TSX Venture Exchange

WesternZagros Resources (CVE:WZR) said Wednesday that it has been named among the TSX Venture Exchange Top 50 companies, a ranking of strong-performing companies listed on Canada's TSX Venture Exchange.
The TSX Venture 50 awards the top 10 companies listed on the TSX Venture Exchange in each of five major industry sectors: oil and gas, mining, technology and life sciences, diversified industries and clean technology.
The 2012 TSX Venture Top 50 companies were chosen based on share price appreciation, trading volume, market capitalization, growth and analyst coverage as of December 31, WesternZagros said.
According to statistics compiled by the TSX Venture Exchange, WesternZagros experienced a 41 percent growth in share price, 152 percent growth in capitalization and also had the third highest trading volume of the top 10 oil and gas sector in 2011.
The fossil fuel producer will be recognized by the junior venture exchange in an award ceremony April 3 to honour this year’s top 50 companies.
WesternZagros’s chief executive, Simon Hatfield, said: “We are honoured to be part of the TSX Venture Top 50.
"With 2,250 listed issuers on the TSX Venture Exchange, our top 10 ranking in the oil and gas sector is validation of the value we are creating as we advance the appraisal of our discoveries in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq."
WesternZagros is an international natural resources company engaged in acquiring properties and both developing and producing crude oil and natural gas in Iraq.
The company, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, holds two production sharing contracts with the Kurdistan Regional Government in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Results generated by the drilling of the Sarqala-1 in the Garmian Block, and Kurdamir-1 on the Kurdamir Block, indicate that the two Blocks cover multiple prospects that have the potential to develop into giant oil fields that could host over 3.6 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) of independently audited prospective resources.
Shares of the company were trading steady at 74 cents apiece on the Toronto Venture Exchange on Wednesday.