History
Cheetah Oil & Gas built a Papua New Guinea exploration portfolio, struggled with debt and restatements, sold 90% of it to Invicta, tried Mississippi oil, then deregistered in 2011.
2004-2005: Building a Papua New Guinea portfolio
The story began with a shell company, Bio-American Capital Corporation. In January 2004 Ted Kozub agreed to buy 2,100,000 of its 3,930,250 shares, about 53%, from Leonard Viejo and became sole director and president. In March 2004 the company agreed to buy Cheetah Oil & Gas Ltd., a British Columbia company owned by Georgina Martin, for 25,000,000 new shares. Cheetah's main assets were exploration permits and licences in Papua New Guinea, which carried minimum spending requirements. The filing warned that no financing was arranged and that shareholders could lose their investment if the licences were lost.
The portfolio grew. In June 2004 the company agreed to buy 84% of Scotia Petroleum Inc. for Cdn$400,000, with a two-year option on a further 14% for $1,000,000. Scotia held licences PPL-245 and PPL-246, forecast to need up to $18.9M and $19.9M of spending. In November 2004 it added a 97.5% farm-in on two more licences, PPL #257 and #258, from Grey Creek Petroleum for 200,000 restricted shares. In May 2005 it closed a private placement of 1,200,000 units at $5.00 each, about $6M gross, each unit carrying a warrant to buy another share at $7.00.
2006-2007: Debt, restatements and a sell-down
In March 2006 Cheetah raised US$5,000,000 through a senior secured convertible note from a Macquarie Bank subsidiary, with 3,000,000 warrants at $3.42. The money was meant for Papua New Guinea work, including re-entry drilling of the Kuru #2 well.
Then the accounts came under question. In June 2006 Cheetah said its 2004 and early 2005 statements should not be relied on because it had accounted for the Scotia acquisition incorrectly. In October 2006 it said a second set of statements was also unreliable, over stock compensation, liquidated damages and the way the Macquarie warrants were recorded.
In May 2007 Cheetah signed a letter agreement for Kepis & Pobe Investments to earn 90% of its licences, about 8,400,000 acres, by paying the first $11,500,000 of costs and helping settle about $13,500,000 of debts. The deal completed in November 2007, with Kepis & Pobe's interest assigned to Invicta Oil & Gas. Invicta took 90% of the British Columbia subsidiary holding the licences, settled about $15,000,000 of debt, including about US$7,550,000 owed to Macquarie, and committed a further $10,000,000 by December 31, 2008. Cheetah kept 10%.
2008-2009: Mississippi
In December 2008 Cheetah agreed to sell its interest in LNG Energy (BC) Ltd. for US$250,000, with Cdn$300,000 of its loan forgiven. The filing does not explain how this relates to the Papua New Guinea subsidiary. Kepis & Pobe's 3,000,000 warrants were cancelled.
In April 2009 Cheetah turned to the United States, buying an 8% interest in the Belmont Lake field in Mississippi for about $186,000. It had two producing wells at roughly 130 barrels a day and 400,000 barrels of proven reserves, plus a 40% working interest on an option over more than 132,000 acres. In September 2009 it sold revenue interests in its share of the planned PP F-12-4 horizontal well, 40.432% to Golden Aria Corp. and 75% to David DeMartini, in return for their paying its costs.
2010-2011: A quiet end
Shares on issue stood at 11,103,625 at the end of 2010 and 13,039,000 at the end of 2011; the beats do not explain the increase. The beats record no further major events until October 2011, when Cheetah deregistered its securities, ending its obligation to file reports with the SEC. As of that date, the record shows a small company with a minority Mississippi interest; the sources do not make clear what became of its Papua New Guinea stake.
Written from the 14 story beats below (2004 to 11 Oct 2011), which come from the company's own announcements and filings.