WTI $102.66 +19c, Brent $108.82 -1c, Diff $6.16 -20c, NG $4.63 +2c

Oil price

There isn’t much going on, WTI is better bid at the moment as the API inventory stats showed a bigger draw in crude than anticipated at 1.4m barrels, the gasoline build of 800/- barrels was unexpected, analysts had predicted another week of draw, tonight’s EIA stats will be interesting. In the Brent market it was even more desultory, my traders tell me that although rage bound the trend is slightly downward at the moment and they are watching the support at $107.50.

Tomorrow sees the ECB meeting where monetary policy will be decided, all the experts agree that something will happen, they are just not sure what. Today sees the Queens speech and we expect something on fraccing and trespass laws, I will comment in detail on that tomorrow.

BG/Ophir

Its a funny old world when you find a trillion feet of natural gas and tell the market that a cumulative 16.7 TCF might mean that a third LNG train is possible and your shares fall 3%. That is what happened to Ophir this morning as the market either wanted more or don’t like the idea of financing the development. Either way it shows you that the market is too short term and hasn’t worked out the value correctly or…… Ophir has already franked some value already on the project and as far as BG is concerned it may as well be up for sale, everything else at the company is, maybe that’s why it isn’t being recognised while the trundling BG management make up their mind what to do.

Premier

Premier has announced a successful gas find at Singa Laut in Indonesia this morning, with 177 feet of net gas bearing sands with the liquids-rich gas being similar to adjacent discoveries. They have also announced the hiring of a rig for the next phase of drilling in the Falklands where they will drill a minimum of four wells in the North and probably more.

Rockhopper/FOGL

So as far as the above rig is concerned Rockhopper has said that they will likely drill Zebedee and Isobel/Elaine before Noble take it off to drill elsewhere in the south for two wells, when it returns it will drill Jayne East and the Chatham/Sea Lion West flank. FOGL will participate in wells North and South, all these wells will start in the late 1st quarter/2nd quarter of 2015.

Thalassa Holdings

News today that WGP Group has completed the survey in the North Sea using its Portable Modular Service System and has gathered a full set of data comprising 2,552 km in two weeks. As readers know I like Thalassa and hope to see Duncan again very soon.

And finally…

Now I know you will expect me to comment on RunoutGate from yesterday and before I do there are two clear things to mention. Firstly England didn’t play well enough to win and secondly Buttler was out of his crease when run out by Senanayake. However none of that matters and the fact that he and captain Angelo Mathews decided to throw away the spirit of the game by doing what they did is an embarrassment to Sri Lankan cricket and all the marvellous cricketers that have played for them. It will be interesting to see if Senanayake plays much more as he has been reported to the authorities for an illegal bowling action, those of us there at Lords on Saturday spotted that too.

England world cup preparation continues tonight with a warm-up game in Florida against Ecuador, Rooney on the wing eh…?

And Muzza plays local boy Gael Monfils in the French Open later, that will be a noisy old crowd…

Finally two things, thanks for all the comments about Den Norske and DNO, as you saw in the caption it was Den Norske but somehow in the text it got changed to DNO, apologies!

And as for the eagle eyed, three people knew that Ashley Giles was portrayed on mugs made for his testimonial as King of Spain not King of Spin!!  Craig Yeaman, Andrew Benbow and Christian Mather all take a bow!