WTI $102.43 +$2.13, Brent $110.46 +$1.38, Diff $8.03 -40c, NG $5.55 +34c

Oil price

A bit of movement at last as the oil price lifts from its torpor and shakes out the traders who aren’t relaxing at IP Week. Unrest is the main reason for yesterdays rise, in Libya the Government put troops on standby as Al Sawaiq and Al Qaqa issue  a demand for a transition of power. Although nothing erupted, exports continue to drift and are now down to around 345/- b/d far from the peak of 1.6m.

Next area is Venezuela where the opposition leader has also been calling for civil unrest, its hard to tell the difference but word has it he turned himself in last night, meantime exports here are falling rapidly too.

Inventory stats are all delayed a day due to Presidents Day but Genscape predict stocks at Cushing to be down by 1.4m barrels due to further increases in the TransCanada pipeline. Crude stocks overall are expected to be down a million barrels and distillates down 1.8m barrels as the cold weather continues to grip. Note the natural gas price up at $5.55.

Chariot

There hasn’t been much good news from Chariot lately and so todays board announcement is a crumb of comfort for beleaguered shareholders. Dave Bodecott, formerly Exploration Director at Rockhopper has been appointed to the board and this is most welcome. Dave is a first rate and highly experienced oil man and whilst one swallow does not a summer make, this is a big step in the right direction for Chariot.

Tip TV

I am off to be oily guest on Tip TV the internet finance and sport TV show that goes out from 10-12 each day on TipTV.co.uk. The show started last week so is in its infancy but I wish it luck. I was on last week so you can go to the website and go to the show for 11th Feb where you will see at 37 minutes in me talking about President (45 mins), Andes Energia (48), Alkane (52) and Soco (57) you will have to bear with some awful adverts I’m afraid. I would welcome any feedback.

And finally…

Just the footy today really as I’m in a rush but as the Chosen one said Barca are as bad as he has seen them for 5 years. Still they managed to silence the noisy neighbours who now have an uphill task at the Camp Nou. The Gooners take on Bayern tonight and must feel as confident as possible after such a good start to the season.