WTI S91.52 -89c, Brent $96.97 -$1.42, Diff $5.45 -53c, NG $3.85 +1c

Oil price

Oil bulls were hanging on for some good news from the East overnight with the Chinese flash September PMI numbers due and they weren’t disappointed. Coming in at 50.5 against consensus of just 50 may not seem like a massive beat of the whisper but it did the trick and the Brent price is up modestly this morning. WTI however is less popular as it has fallen back to nearly $91 this morning, admittedly it is a new contract but economic stats over there showed just how tentative the recovery is with US home sales data for August weak. Retail gasoline prices are also falling, not surprisingly at this time of the year and are 5.5 cents down on the week at $3.35 a gallon.

With a big US and ‘partners’ air strike against the IS in Syria overnight tension remains high but so do supplies and news that Libya’s biggest refinery is back on stream will add to that glut.

Faroe Petroleum

I mentioned Faroe yesterday but today are the interim figures which as usual tell us very little. Just to recap though it was a good time for the company, discoveries at Pil and Bue  were good and the Butch complex, despite having some disappointments is now planned for development. There have been sundry reorganisations of the portfolio which as with yesterdays sale of Glenlivet make a lot of sense. Faroe is now strongly financed with proceeds of the £65m placing and substantial debt facilities meaning that all exploration and appraisal for 2014 and 2015 are fully funded.

Next year will bring five wells in Norway including two on Pil which now has a range of 80-200 MMboe gross reserves which I think is conservative.  The board say they are well positioned for ‘significant near term growth’ with which I concur, Faroe shares are very cheap at 110p but then the sector is chronically out of favour, when that changes this will be a stock that moves a lot.

Nighthawk 

As expected a new Chairman for Nighthawk and as expected a US oilman to run what is now a fully US company. As is usually the case nowadays the board have gone for a former investment banker, Rick McCullough started his life at JP Morgan and arrives from PDC Energy which is a $2bn company so targets will be high!

And finally…

A bit quiet on the sporting front as we head towards the Ryder Cup on Friday at Gleneagles. The US team flew in last night and should not be underestimated, there is a rather over confident feel about the European team before battle commences.

Its back to the Clueless Cup tonight and both the Gooners and the HubCap Stealers are in action against the Saints and Middlesboro respectively.

A shame to see that Kingman has retired after falling ill with a sore throat before the last races of this years campaign, it was a bit too much to expect to see him at the Arc meeting but Champions day will be less without him.

And its the last games in the cricket County Championship today with a huge relegation decider between Lancashire and Middlesex, rarely does county cricket get this exciting!