WTI $102.61 +59c, Brent $109.37 -38c, Diff $6.76 -$1.64, NG $4.41 -6c

Oil price

Short and sharp this morning as news is a bid scarce and I am heading to a number of really interesting meetings including Northern Petroleum, Lamprell and to see the legendary Scott Beattie.

A fairly quiet day on the oil price front, Brent eased although the situation in Libya worsens as Total and Sonatrach have started to evacuate their workers in country, I suppose that you cant get much less production from the country at the moment. WTI picked up a bit but inventory numbers will be important today and tomorrow, analysts consensus is for a build of a million barrels of crude which would take it to nearly 400m barrels, the highest since records began in 1982 and surely must force further thought about lifting the export ban…

Afren

IMS and 1Q figs this morning from Afren a stock I am very happy with although I still think it is far too cheap, an affliction shared by many others in the sector at present. Afren are delivering as I expected (although bears are still sceptical and may try to bash them this morning) and as promised with 1Q revenues of $269m and cash flow of $169m. OGO is moving ahead fast, the discovery has had  3D seismic now completed and awaiting processing whilst at Ebok the next move is a step-out exploration well. I am looking forward to meeting the company before long but happy at the moment.

Kentz Corp 

Another contract for Kentz this morning, today it is from Sadara the JV between Saudi Aramco and Dow Chemical for their Sadara Petrochemical Plants in the Jubail industrial city in Saudi Arabia. Another good piece of ME work for Kentz in an area they are highly proficient in and for a long standing client over a multi-year timescale which will reward them well. No size of contract given but will be decent and yet another add to the order book which is in very good shape. As I said yesterday, Kentz has fallen around 100p from its peak and investors should  be buying at these levels.

Sundry

Rumours continue to fly around that Pemex is about to place its 9.19% stake in Repsol, given that this has been on the cards for a while it would not surprise me one bit and I’m sure the market despite being at its peak would view this as a positive step. You will know that I have been very bullish about Repsol for some time now and this is another corporate move that contributes to its rehab and even here the stock is not expensive by any means.

BP has lost its latest court case in the US, this is only an appeal made against a judgement made when they tried to limit payments to Macondo victims but it will only serve to irritate the company who feel they are taking on the judiciary and losing…

For a later blog, I see news from Lekoil this morning as they acquire assets in Nigeria and have a fund raising to add to the war chest. I saw the Lekoil people at the Oil Council in November and they were very impressive, I must catch up with this story in detail later.

And finally…

Man U finally reveal the worst kept secret in football as Louis van Gaal is appointed Manager with Ryan Giggs as his assistant, whilst the problems at Old Trafford are serious the new team must be considered about as good as is possible and the transfer window will be very interesting. In Spain Barca have moved quickly and appointed Luis Enrique as their new head coach.

The fun starts tonight in the cricket as England take on Sri Lanka in the opening tour fixture, this time its T20 but there are 50 over games and tests to follow.

And of course its the Chelsea Flower Show today which heralds the start of the season of the English summer, cue the rain…!