Tethys Petroleum (TSE:TPL) shares gained over 8% Friday, a day after the company presented its goods at the Proactive Investors One2One Forum in Toronto.
The event Thursday followed similar presentations at our events in Vancouver and Calgary last week as the company markets itself to investors after a series of recent achievements.
Its stock rose almost 8.8%, or 5 cents, to 62 cents Friday afternoon, with its shares up almost 20% so far this year.
The oil and gas company also yesterday announced the signing of a new deal with Kazakh authorities which effectively doubles the price it receives for gas from the Kyzyloi and Akkulka fields.
The company will supply up to 150 million cubic metres at a price of US$65 per thousand cubic metres.
Separately, it said the new Kazakhstan-China trunk line will provide “further upside”. Currently under construction, it will cross Tethys’s contract area, which contains net 2.1bn cubic metres of gas.
The London and Toronto quoted group believes its gas projects have significant potential. It has drilled 13 exploration wells, 11 of which have the capacity to produce commercial gas.
At the same time, further shallow gas leads have been identified.
As the only independent oil and gas company operating in three Central Asian republics, Tethys Petroleum has a strong foothold on its assets with enormous potential for future growth. It operates in Tajikstan, Kazakhstan and relatively recently entered Uzbekistan.
The company stepped its game up further recently, announcing late last month that it had completed a farm-out agreement for the Bokhtar Production Sharing Contract (PSC) in Tajikistan with subsidiaries of the French super-major Total S.A. (NYSE:TOT) and the China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Corporation (CNODC) - part of the Chinese State company CNPC.
French giant Total and China’s CNODC will each both take a third of a share in the project, while Tethys’ participation in the program will be largely carried - with over $70 million being spent on the Canadian firm’s behalf.
As such, it is only required to pay 33 per cent of its share of the costs of the upcoming program, and this is expected to amount to around $9 million. Tethys’ Tajik subsidiary, Kulob Petroleum, will also receive $60 million for back costs.
The company's chief, Dr. David Robson, has called it a “tremendous deal” for the company, as the cost of drilling deep wells in the area is $50 to $60 million each, and is “intrinsically risky but with giant potential” as the region has never been drilled before.
In Uzbekistan, Tethys is the only Western company currently operating in the oil and gas sector. It operates as the contractor under the Production Enhancement Contract (PEC) for the North Urtabulak oilfield, in partnership with NHC Uzbekneftegas. Recently, Tethys signed another PEC for a new field named Chegara and is awaiting final governmental consents to start activities.
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