Kentz, Lamprell, IGas, and Gulf Keystone

‹ 5 Years ago on Sunday……………

WTI $108.72 +1.16, Brent $113.15 +1.81 , B/WTI Diff – $4.43 +85c , Natural Gas $3.64 +7c

Good morning

So, Twitter is going public, probably as the blog has now been tweeting for a number of months and rubber stamp’s the validity of the social networking site as a valuable business tool………….

Oil Price

Irony of irony, Syria is getting sorted out more quickly than Libya where three more ports were declared under Force Majeure yesterday. Indeed there is no sign of any settlement in Libya at all and in a scenario that echoes that of two years ago Saudi Arabia has decided to help by increasing production, but again the market needs time to adapt to the different crude qualities.

As for Syria I don’t think that we should think that all is sweet, just yet. According to the Free Syrian Army the chemical weapons have already been moved, to Iraq and Lebanon…………….

Kentz

Confirmation today of what was the worst kept secret in the sector, that M&W Group has announced that does not intend to make an offer for Kentz. So company number two that didn’t realise that a cheap bid for a proper company like Kentz wouldn’t wash in any market. Anyone else like to try and have a go? As we said yesterday there are other people who might bid for Kentz but not at knockdown prices such as considered by Amec and M&W.

Lamprell

The company has announced another contract, today major refurbishment work for Millenium Offshore Services worth $64m. The work involves the conversion of the jack-up MOS Frontier into an accommodation support vessel capable of housing 290 personnel. By any standards this is a big piece of engineering and fits perfectly with the company’s area of strength in rig refurbishment.

My comments at the time of the figures were clear, I am happy with my buy recommendation and this would be rubber-stamped by contracts such as this and the Super 116E two weeks ago. This should cover over 70% of the numbers for next year and go a long way to completing the recovery of Lamprell, all we need now is to get a few analysts over there to kick the tyres…..

IGas

As predicted in the blog this week, IGas has confirmed that it is to drill a vertical well at Barton, near Irlam in Greater Manchester. The well is expected to spud next month and take up to 12 weeks before a testing programme. IGas want to test the coal beds as well as the shale formations and dependent on those results may apply for a fraccing licence.

Although the company may run the risk of protesters in the area they are highly experienced onshore UK drillers and have an excellent track record of community relations which be needed over the next few months.

I remain of the view that any, even modest success, in this process would ensure that IGas is significantly undervalued, a read through from the Centrica valuation for the Cuadrilla acreage gives me a target of nearer 250p than the current level.

Gulf Keystone

Time to round-up a busy and highly successful week for GKP, total victory in the court case has not just cleared the way for substantial progress but opened up the vista of being a genuine bid candidate. Following the win, GKP moved quickly to appoint a bank to assist with arduous task of moving to the main market, another action that will put upward on the share price as institutions who had previously considered the company to be not of investible quality.

All in all I tend to feel that although the price of the shares has risen from 128p only four months ago to 206p now there is a lot more to go for, on a shorter and longer term timeframe. Our target of 480p still stands and longer term, with more work on Shaikan completed, I feel that the company is going to be a target but holders need not expect that to necessarily be the driver, it should and could go that far under its own steam.

And finally…

Back to the Premiership where a whole bunch of players ‘unfit’ for England will play well for their clubs! So the starter for tomorrow is Man Who against Palace, what will Ian be like during the game eh? Arsenals new signing is going to start his Premiership career at Sunderland, was this what they told me about when seducing me to the beautiful English game???

As I write Muzza is 6-3, 6-0, 5-3 up against Corac, the 16 year old Croat…………….

Saturday night sees the Floyd Mayweather-Saul Alvarez fight, in pre-match chit chat Floyd said ‘no one can out-box me’, and at 0 and 42 he may just be right! And he’s on £26.4m plus tips just to turn up but he is 36 years old now……………..

And in the Americas cup the Kiwis won two more races and are now 6-0 up in the series, three wins away from victory over the Shermans……………