14-10-09 BNK Petroleum has announced that it has executed agreements with Rohoel-Aufsuchungs Aktiengesellschaft (RAG) and Sorgenia E&P, to farm-out its 80 % interest in three oil and gas exploration concessions in Poland, Starogard, Slupsk and Slawno.
RAG/Sorgenia will pay BNK a management fee of $ 250,000 each month, for the next twelve months, for technical consulting services, and BNK will pay all of the costs attributable to the parties' interests as to the work needed to identify the first drilling location.

If the first well location is identified during the twelve-month term, then the entire $ 3 mm management fee will be earned immediately. After the first well location is identified by BNK, RAG/Sorgenia will each pay half of 73.33 % of the next $ 25 mm in total exploration costs, BNK will pay 6.667 % and BWB Exploration will pay its 20 % share.
RAG/Sorgenia will earn a 53.23 % interest in BNK's subsidiary Saponis Investments (Saponis) which holds the concessions.

BWB is owned 60 % by LNG Energy, and 40 % by another independent party.
BNK will remain operator and continue to hold a 26.67 % interest in Saponis, which equates to approximately 200,000 net acres to BNK. BNK believes that the preliminary data it has analysed indicate that the makeup of the some of the shales, within its Polish concessions, are silica rich and appear to have thermal maturities and total organic carbon in a range that could make them successful shale gas projects.

BMK has 3 concessions totalling 720,000 acres with an 80 % working interest and is targeting the Silurian Shale. Further core analysis is scheduled for 2009.
BNK Petroleum is a California based oil and gas exploration and production company focused on finding and exploiting large oil and gas resource plays. The company holds an average of 50 % interest in the Tishomingo gas field in Oklahoma and varied interests in three other areas in the Northern and Central regions of the United States and in Europe, where it is currently pursuing the exploration, development and production of shale and tight sand gas plays.

RAG is the longest-standing exploration and production company in Austria. Since the discovery of oil and gas by RAG in the Vienna Basin in 1937, the company has produced over 14 mm tons of crude oil and over 23 bn cm of natural gas. Today, RAG's annual production stands at around 750 mm cm of natural gas and 120,000 tons of crude oil.
RAG has a nearly 30-year history in natural gas storage, as well. It operates the second-largest gas storage facility in Central Europe.

Sorgenia, set up in July 1999 (with the name of Energia SpA) from a joint-venture between the CIR Group and the Austrian company Verbund, is one of the main operators in the Italian electricity and natural gas market with approximately 500,000 clients, an installed capacity of around 2,900 MW and plants under construction for a further 1,700 MW.
Sorgenia operates in sourcing and sales to all types of clients in both the electricity and the natural gas sectors.