Petro Matad faces another frustrating delay in Dornod

Shareholders in Petro Matad Limited, the explorer targeting frontier lands on the Mongolian-Chinese border, must be wondering what next will come between them and the company’s first well on the Davsan Tolgoi prospect. First, it was an unusually long and severe winter that forced a suspension of operations on Block XX in Mongolia; now an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease has led to a blanket vehicle and personnel movement ban in the Dornod aimag, site of the DT-1 well site.

This is frustrating for shareholders who, after a heady run-up in shares in the build-up to the company’s first drilling operations, have had to be contented with dribs and drabs of newsflow concerning internal team and governance building ever since severe weather conditions forced the company to shut-up shop in November. Petro Matad wasn’t the only operator to hibernate its operations earlier than expected; PetroChina subsidiary, Daqing Oilfield, which runs an aggressive drilling operation, had a similar fate.