Kurdistan, Argentina, Plexus Holdings, Cape and Andes Energia

WTI $92.17 -13c ; Brent $110.82 -1.54 ; B/WTI Diff – $18.65 -1.34 ; Natural Gas $3.92 +1c

Good morning

A very quiet morning today after Thanksgiving yesterday and of course the Brindex dinner last night. Guests of honour were oil Minister Michael Fallon and Lord Digby Jones both of whom unsurprisingly bigged up the oil sector and the companies working in it. To be fair Mr Fallon has been, along with the Treasury the biggest supporter of exploring for unconventional reserves onshore the UK. Thanks very much to the guys at Trap who invited me and I hope that you get well soon Kevin.

Oil Price

With the states shut oil markets were very quiet, Brent has sold down a bit in low volume but didn’t breach the $110 resistance level. With only a couple of weeks to the December Opec meeting the early suggestion is to increase exports by around 700,000 b/d to 24.05m b/d.

Kurdistan

Reuters is reporting that Kurdistan has signed a package of landmark contracts with Turkey to see the Iraqi state able to ship its oil and gas through pipelines that are now complete. The deal was signed on Wednesday between the KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani and Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan. It also appears that The Turkish Energy company has been set up to operate 13 blocks with Exxon Mobil in a number of them.

Argentina

Just when I thought that Argentina was becoming more investor friendly (see Andes Energia comment), the country has threatened 15-year jail terms, fines and confiscations against companies and their executives operating in the Falklands.

Plexus Holdings

The company announced yesterday that it had received another excellent contract worth £1.6m for Glencore in Cameroon. These are additional contracts for the company from Glencore and expand their rental wellhead business from the North Sea into areas such as Africa, Asia and Australia.

These contracts continue to prove that Plexus is winning business across the globe and with top quality customers, I remain a huge fan.

Cape

Cape has announced the second Wheatstone contract that was discussed at the time of the first award on the 15th November, it is worth over £155m.

Andes Energia

As already mentioned I had a –brief-first ever meeting with the senior management of Andes Energia yesterday. Whilst this was only a preliminary run through of the company’s operations my continued interest in South America makes me think we will be seeing more of this company. With a market cap of £120m and operations in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Paraguay the company’s prime asset appears to be the shale prospect of Vaca Muerta in Argentina.

More info in due course but an early glimpse looks quite interesting, they said that the political outlook is improving fast in Argentina but this morning’s news appears to put that good news on the back burner a bit, one to watch.

And finally…

The standout fixture in this weekend’s football is Spurs v Man Utd I suppose but Chelski v Southampton is a top of the table clash. West Ham v Fulham might be interesting as will Palace v Norwich, what they used to call a six-pointer.

England’s cricketers were playing another Mickey Mouse outback side and although only a two day game apart from Gary Ballance no one made any runs…

The golf in Australia is hotting up as Rory McIlroy rediscovered his form with a 65 to be only two shots behind Adam Scott in the Australian Open.

If Rugby League is your bag then it’s the World Cup Final between Australia and New Zealand tomorrow while in the 15 man game Wales play Australia on Sunday.

In the Thanksgiving NFL games,

The Detroit Lions rout the still ‘Aaron Rodgers-less’ Packers 10-40.

The Cowboys edge out the Raiders despite Oakland returning a fumble for a touchdown from the opening kick-off.

And in the AFC North, the Baltimore Ravens beat the Steelers after a failed 2 point conversion late in the game.

A reaction to my Aussie bon mots this week……..the pick of the batch being

Q. What would Glenn McGrath been if he was English?
A. An all-rounder……..

Kind regards and enjoy your weekend, this has been the last blog in nearly three years at VSA, thanks for all your feedback and fun, hopefully it will all start again early next week subject to me being able to handle the controls! It will be on www.malcysblog.com

Thanks very much again.