ShaMaran strikes oil

Article Excerpt

SHAMARAN PETROLEUM $1.30 (Toronto symbol SNM; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (416-364-8820; www.shamaranpetroleum.com; Shares outstanding: 499.5 million; Market cap: $649.4 million) reports positive oil showings at various depths from the Atrush-1 exploration well in Kurdistan. ShaMaran and its partners now plan further drilling to confirm the results. ShaMaran acquired an interest in the Atrush exploration block in September 2010. General Exploration Partners (GEP) owns 80% of the Atrush Block. The Kurdistan Regional Government owns the remaining 20%. Under the deal, ShaMaran acquired a 33.5% stake in GEP for an initial cash payment of $24.1 million U.S., 12.5 million ShaMaran shares and an obligation to commit $15.9 million U.S. to fund exploration. Kurdistan is the most stable area of Iraq, but operating there still entails considerable political risk. ShaMaran is up 160% since September 2010. However, we still see it as a buy for highly aggressive investors. investors…