WTI $98.20 +21c, Brent $107.39 -13c, Diff $9.19 -84c, NG $4.38 -11c

Oil price

Fairly short blog today after the madness of this week and hours of Shell yesterday, not forgetting GKP and Salamander!

WTI managed to rally just a little yesterday after the smacking it had after the inventory stats and the announcement of  a tiny release from the SPR. In the Ukraine tensions are running high ahead of the disputed referendum at the weekend and the US and the EU still mutter about sanctions. Interestingly the person who counts most in all this, Angela Merkel, made an impassioned speech yesterday saying that it would be a ‘catastrophe’ unless Russia changes its way. As mentioned before, owing to the significance of Russia to Germany’s energy supplies, Merkel has been choosing her words with utmost care so this is an important step.

BP

Some good news from BP this morning albeit quite well telegraphed, as an administrative agreement has been reached with the US EPA resolving all matters ensuring the company is now eligible to enter into new contracts with the Government. This includes all deep-water leases and means that BP can again participate in the Gulf of Mexico which is clearly good news even if, with current capex constraints , not all developments get the green light.

Gulf Marine Services

A new entrant to the main market in London today is Gulf Marine Services an offshore support company specialising in self-propelled Self Operated Support Vessels. GMS is based in the Gulf and the offer price has been set at 135p making the market cap at the open of £472m.

TipTV etc

Nick Batsford and his team at TipTV are producing an interesting and enjoyable programme on both finance and sport on their website. I have been doing a few slots and you can catch up with yesterdays piece I did on my archive at www.malcysblog.com or follow the link below. I spoke about the oil services sector yesterday and picked out Hunting, Kentz, Plexus and Cape, the latter of which I think at long last is proving that after a tricky start Joe Oatley is finally turning round.

http://www.tiptv.co.uk/archives/TipTVHighlight-MalcolmGraham-Wood-OilEnergyAnalysis-12-03-2014/page:1/

Off to CNBC this morning for the 1030 slot then Interactive Investor for a round up of current hot stocks!

And finally…

Its the final weekend of the Six nations rugby and in a way a bit of a shame that all three matches aren’t played simultaneously although better for us in the armchairs! Its all Ireland’s to lose but either way a great days viewing, how England are rueing the loss in Paris…

Back to the Gooners…Ryo Miyaichi flew out to Munich but wasn’t eligible to play.

There are reports that the Arsenal management didn’t realise that he was unavailable until they arrived in Germany…

Spurs took a pasting at the lane 1-3 against Benfica, didn’t like the sportsmanship of their manager much though…

Lewis Hamilton fastest in practice for the first Grand Prix of the new season, assume that Vettel will win as normal, after all he is the best driver in the world isn’t he?

As expected England won the dead rubber against a weakened Windies team but the decline from 98-0 was pretty awful, liked the last over from Jordan, four sixes!

Have a good weekend