Gulf Keystone, and Sound Oil

WTI $97.89 -55c; Brent $105.22 -57c, Natural Gas $3.95 +5c

Good morning

So, Big Ben rocked the boat but didn’t turn it over!

A very quiet day today, got a busy morning of meetings and after today I’m off for a couple of weeks so apologies no blog until July 8th.

Oil Price

The oil price fell last night in the US after the Fed announcement and fell another dollar this morning in the Far East and in London. An article in the FT this morning written by an Iranian cleric who has served the leadership suggested that with the right attitude from the west ‘a just peace in the Middle East can blossom’.

Gulf Keystone

Full Year results from Gulf Keystone today but of course this is to a large degree not irrelevant but not what the market is valuing it on. Accordingly all the comments I made last week still stand. What I took from today’s meeting was that the court decision is now to be announced on the 23rd August and the company are still, unsurprisingly positive. The company also confirmed that the news from the ministry is much more positive with pipelines being completed on time and being paid for by the ministry. One other thing to put to bed for those who didn’t understand the last time is that different crudes from separate fields will be blended at the spurs and sent down the pipe co-mingled, as I said before this means that the heavy and light crudes will mix to make a more popular blend at a narrower discount to Brent.

Dougie has pointed out that the S, G&A number is very high and that the M&G have tabled a slate of four directors to the board for the upcoming AGM.

After I have returned from holiday I intend to write a more detailed piece on GKP, needless to say that I believe that at the moment GKP is moving into a different phase of its development which is likely to prove that the best is yet to come, probably when owned by somebody else!

Sound Oil

We had James Parsons and Michael Cope, CEO and COO of Sound Oil in yesterday for a round up. Sound is an interesting play which is in what is now called the trendy Mediterranean play, in its case purely Italy but with an interesting drilling programme almost entirely onshore and almost entirely gas. The Nervesa discovery drilling at present is important and may finance the next part of the programme, either way Sound will not have to return to equity markets for a while.

Sound is like a younger version of Mediterranean Oil & Gas but there’s nothing wrong with that, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this company an interesting part of the shake-up in the Med-stocks in the next year or two, one to keep a close eye on.

And finally…

Lady Cecil has a winner at Royal Ascot today which is great…………..I’m there tomorrow before my hols….

Spain v Tahiti tonight, what if the Tahitians score again……………?

Watch while I’m away, the Welsh Lions of course, the Spurs v Heat decider, Wimbledon and of course the cricket final on Sunday.

See you in two weeks………!

Kind regards

Malcolm