Feb 2013 - by Jamie Ashcroft "I believe it is just a matter of time before we crack the code on locating traps," Kelleher said. New World chief Kelleher still confident of Belize oil discovery.

New World Oil & Gas (LON:NEW) chief executive Bill Kelleher remains confident that the company will discover oil within its Belize acreage.

The shares plummeted last week as the Blue Creek 2 well was determined to be non-commercial.

The well did, however, confirm that an active hydrocarbon system exists within the acreage, and live oil shows were measured in both the Y3 and Hillbank reservoir targets.

This was not enough to prevent a sharp drop for the New World shares, which at one stage had halved in value, but Kelleher remains undeterred.

"I'm not hanging my head, in fact I'm encouraged," he said in a call with Proactive Investors.

"I'm incredibly positive . We now know that oil has moved through this area, and we know it has accumulated in massive amounts - I'm talking about hundreds of millions of barrels.

"And I believe it is just a matter of time before we crack the code on locating traps, and identifying the differences between the sealed and the breached traps.

"We've learned a lot, and the key thing to take away from this result is that we will make a discovery and we will be producing oil - so sit tight."

The problem with the Blue Creek prospect was that the 'trap' - the geological structure that would have contained the hydrocarbons was breached, likely as a result of late tectonic activity.

But Kelleher explains that the seven prospects currently in the New World inventory are geologically independent of each other. He also points out that both the Y3 and Hillbank have been brought into production elsewhere in the basin - notably the closest is a few kilometres away.

The company will now move on to drill the next well in the programme - the Rio Bravo 1 well on the West Gallon Jug prospect in the Belize jungle.

When assessing other drillable prospects further down the line it also plans to better define the traps, by applying more technology to look more closely at the data with greater resolution.

Kelleher claims that institutional investors remain supportive, and he says that although he's not in the business of second guessing the stock market, certain types of investors seem too focused on the short term.

"Short term traders who try 'flipping' shares are the ones who ruin it for other investors who are investing for the long run, supporting serious and experienced oil teams like ours.

"And what will happen, in my opinion, is that when we eventually make a discovery they'll miss the boat - it [the share price] will be too expensive for them."

Drilling is expected to get underway on the Rio Bravo 1 well in the current quarter. The West Gallon Jug Crest prospect has estimated un-risked prospective resources of 113 million barrels of oil.

In late December 2012 the Corozal Daily visited the Therma Source Oil Rig #104 at Blue Creek but at that time was unable to speak to anyone since the management team was out of the country. Shares of the oil company has trickled down as seen on a recent chart below dated Feb 27, 2013 to 4.38 per share.


New World Oil and Gas has plugged and abandoned a well in the Peten Basin in north-west Belize after finding insufficient hydrocarbons to merit running casing and well-testing operations. The Blue Creek #2A ST well was drilled to a measured depth of 11,650 feet on 27 January 2013 and logs and core samples were independently analysed, as well as mud logs and all other available data. It was determined that an active hydrocarbon system existed, and live oil shows were measured in the Y3 and Hillbank formations. But after analysis and in consultation with New World's partners, Blue Creek Exploration and the government of Belize, it was determined that insufficient commercial quantities of moveable hydrocarbons were present.

Corozal Daily (Sometimes...)