The big news of the day among small caps was the deal between Antrim Energy (LON:AEY) and Enegi Oil (LON:ENEG) that promises to revive the Fyne oil field development project in the North Sea.
The development of the field, which hosts almost 10mln barrels of oil reserves, was scrapped earlier this year as projected costs associated with the proposed FPSO – Floating Storage Production and Offloading – development rose rapidly.
A development of the Fyne field is now back on the drawing board, however, thanks to a deal with fellow AIM oil firm Enegi Oil (LON:ENEG) and its joint venture partner AB Technology (ABT).
Enegi and ABT will devise a new development proposal for Fyne, deploying their innovative un-manned production buoys, which could reduce costs and allow for a commercial operation.
The deal could prove to be a real ‘win-win’ for the two AIM firms.
Things are also looking up for African budget airline fastjet (LON:FJET), which saw a big increase in revenues in June as more passengers used its routes in Tanzania.
Passenger sales were a record £2.2mln, a 22% rise on May. Most of the higher revenues came from a 10% rise in load factor in June to 78%, from 68% in May, with average fares little changed, fastjet said.
The rise in traffic meant the Tanzania business carried its 200,000th passenger in June and fastjet expects to boost this by least 28,000 by the end of July.
Sticking with Tanzania, the African Eagle (LON:AFE) saga appears to be nearing a conclusion with the news the owner of the Dutwa nickel laterite project in Tanzania has struck a deal with mining entrepreneur Nick Clarke.
African Eagle has agreed to sell “substantially all of its subsidiaries, assets and liabilities” to Blackdown Resources, a subsidiary of Cienega, controlled by Clarke and his family trust.
It will retain a 10% free carried interest in Blackdown. African Eagle will then become an investment company.
Namibia focused explorer Tower Resources (LON:TRP) is more likely to find oil in its next well, according to a new competent person's report.
Tower hired Oilfield International, which has assessed the group’s assets in light of recent exploration activity in the area.
Most significantly, Brazilian firm HRT struck oil with its Wingat exploration well, and, as a result, Oilfield International believes Tower’s Welwitschia prospect is more likely to find oil rather than gas: it estimates the probability of finding light oil has increased to 65% from 50%.
Caledonia Mining Corporation (LON:CMCL) was another company boasting of better performance in recent months. The firm said its 49%-owned Blanket Mine in Zimbabwe produced 11,592 ounces of gold in the last quarter.
This represented a rise of 10.7% compared with the comparable period last year and a 0.3% advance on the three months prior.
Also banging out a production update was Sefton Resources (LON:SER), but the market was more intrigued by the confirmation that the Mississippi Lime play extends into north eastern Kansas, which could have favourable implications for its current area of exploration.
“The Mississippian Lime play of Northern Oklahoma and Southern Kansas is emerging as one of the top new horizontal plays in the US,” said chairman Jim Ellerton.
“The confirmation of Mississippian Lime in North East Kansas is expected to have a significant impact on our Kansas operations."
In Tuesday’s update Sefton also revealed production figures from the Kansas operations for the month of June.
Last month production increase to around 500 barrels per day from 450 barrels in May.
In other news stateside, Empyrean Energy (LON:EME), the AIM-listed American gas explorer, said it has paid back US$1mln of its term debt facility – the first instalment of loan repayments to Macquarie Bank. The company used cash from production to repay the loan.
Closer to home, North Sea heavy oil firm Xcite Energy (LON:XEL) has submitted its Environmental Statement for the Bentley Field Development to the Department of Environment and Climate Change for review. This will be subject to public consultation as soon as practicable.
blur Group (LON:BLUR), the crowdsourcing specialist, has unveiled plans to set up a new research and development centre in Exeter.
It says the south-west, with four of the country's top 20 universities, has a track record for innovation and entrepreneurship.
Elsewhere in the south-west, biomass power specialist Kedco (LON:KED) has agreed heads of terms for a new 10Mw power project in Plymouth.
The deal, with LDT, a subsidiary of London & Devonshire Trust, gives Kedco an option to lease a 4.5 acre site located on Ernesettle Lane in the city. LDT is developing an energy park on the site.
A somewhat larger, and more traditional energy producer, is India’s OPG Power Ventures (LON:OPG). The company has extended a coal supply deal from Indonesia for another year, until June 30 2014.
Through the arrangement OPG will secure coal for its power operations in India. It has secured around 40% of its imported coal requirement through the deal.
A number of companies were dancing the board room shuffle today. Graphite specialist StratMin Global (LON:STGR) appointed Manoli Yannaghas as its London-based managing director, in a move that sees chairman Gobind Sahney become non-executive chairman with immediate effect.
In similar vein, Stephen Dattels has stepped down from his executive position at Polo Resources (LON:POL) and is now the multi-commodity group’s non-executive co-chairman.
Meanwhile, Dr Rex Gaisford has tendered his resignation as a non-executive director of Northern Petroleum (LON:NOP).
Xenetic Biosciences (LON:XEN) has appointed Robert Gagnon as the chief finance officer (CFO) of its US subsidiary.
Gagnon worked for Biogen Idec, a multi-billion multiple sclerosis and auto immune specialist between 2005 and 2012, and most recently was CFO and treasurer at Clean Harbors, another billion dollar US firm.