WTI $96.73 +$1.76, Brent $108.27 +$1.54, Differential $11.54 -32c, NG $4.69 +26c

Oil price

A quick recap as I was away yesterday but there was little company activity, where there was I will touch on it today and tomorrow. Oil price wise, the minor rally which we saw yesterday started late on Tuesday after the public holiday. There was a stronger pattern yesterday which meant that both Brent and WTI went through their short-term levels, in particular Brent went through the key $107.45 mark and although WTI was impacted by the inventory figures it too remained well bid. The inventory numbers from the API showed that stocks rose by 4.86m barrels against a forecast consensus of 600/- barrels but interestingly WTI is marginally the stronger of the two at the moment.

The IEA did come up with numbers on the demand side that reflected the fact that they have been reading the blog, by increasing world demand numbers by 1.3m b/d of which 28% is coming from China who will now import 10.49m barrels a day. I remember talking to Steve Sedgewick on CNBC recently and telling him that even the lower end of growth forecasts for China would more than compensate for pedestrian growth elsewhere…

This morning the rally came to an abrupt end, specifically in Brent as the Chinese factory data disappointed the market and as I write Brent is hovering around $107.87 well offered in the market but things look quite well supported at the moment, EIA stats later today may shine a light.

Kentz Corp

A trading statement from Kentz this morning as the company updates on 2013 trading although to be fair, with the Valerus bid coming at the end of the year and completing just into the new year we already know pretty much everything that is going on. Eagle eyed readers will know that I like to use charts but I’m afraid that at the moment I am unable to transpose them onto the blog, its driving me nuts! The reason I say this is because you should find a Kentz chart and see just how the stock has really taken off after a long-ish period in the doldrums prior to AmecGate. Today the company has announced that 2013 earnings will be, as expected, double digit growth and that the backlog without Valerus was $3.1bn at year end, $3.5bn together. Order intake last year was an increase of 29% to $2.2bn and the pipeline is $15.6bn, up 18% giving an impressive 74% of 2014 revenues already under contract.

With a market cap of exactly £800m this morning and having delivered exceptional numbers in terms of orders and conversion to revenues, Kentz will continue to be my favourite stock in the sector. Having followed the company since it came to the market it is still pretty cheap for a company that delivers the goods day in day out and with the acquisition of Valerus giving chances to expand further geographically I see further progress. I don’t know how many times I have to say this (and I have even taken Kentz out on the road where the management rarely fails to impress) to prove to investors of all sizes that this company is in a growth sector with a huge order book with more to come, yet trades on a sub sector rating even after a massive rise in the share price this year. Nuff said…

Trap Oil

I have been looking at Trap a bit lately as although it has not been without its troubles there are some potential gems in there which might just be the makings of something interesting.

In its trading update yesterday the company said that Athena is a bit unpredictable with the P4 well shut in and depletion uncertain, partners are working to identify the problems ad rectify them. With £16m of cash and only £2m of capex commitments the finances appear relatively sound and of course having sold Caithness to IGas for 4m shares they have an interesting problem in deciding what to do with them.

It is worth having Trap on the radar as almost anything might happen here, there is quite a lot of potential upside but I have seen a lot of assets in the North Sea around this size on the market lately, even so if a buyer emerged for one of them it would frank a value far in excess of Traps very modest share price…

And finally…

In the ‘you couldn’t make it up’ category Man Who and the Maccams made valiant attempts to lose the Clueless Cup semi-final last night in order I assume not to have to travel to Wembley in March to have their trousers taken down my the noisy neighbours. If I didn’t know any better I would say it was fixed, until the last minute of the two hours of turgidity Sunderland hadn’t had a shot on target but when the United goalkeeper got it he just threw it into his own net. If that wasn’t enough United went up the other end and scored themselves taking the game into the worst penalty shoot-out I have ever seen and that’s saying something. For Man U to only score one penalty out of five is not just disgraceful but as I said, bordering on the hooky, but fair play, much excitement in the office of the Chairman of Ofgas this morning!

Muzza did his best but to be fair to him he is only just back from injury although it takes a bit to make Federer look fast these days!

Finally do look at the interview section on the website www.malcysblog.com as I have interviews out on Kurdistan, Fastnet, Caza as well as my international areas of interest discussing the Horn of Africa, Genel, Trinity in Trinidad, Parkmead and President in Paraguay…