WTI $91.56 +69c, Brent $96.85 -12c, Diff $5.29 -16c, NG $3.82 -3c

Oil price

Yesterdays movements were modest with traders telling me that the market was quiet, WTI went better as the API stats showed a substantial crude draw of 6.5m barrels but as oft repeated here, September can be a funny month. Refiners will start to up their runs next month and we shall see what happens then, with Saudi sales to their Far East customers apparently flagging and going to discount it looks like some crude will come off the market one way or another and if that happens the price might pick up, a bit…

At the Labour party conference Milipede spoke for over an hour without mentioning the economy or the deficit…Tweeted with some irony by Gideon ‘if you cant fix the economy you cant fund the NHS….’

Parkmead

Parkmead is one of my favoured stocks but so far this year hasn’t performed that well although relative performance to its peers would show that it has done quite well. This is a longer term play as I believe that Tom Cross (just got that right..) will deliver value over the term. Today they announce that the Diever-1 well in the Netherlands has found a new gas field. With a gas column of 157 feet and net pay and porosity values that have exceeded pre-drill estimates this will add to the value accretion process.

Hurricane

As with most sets of interims at the moment its nothing new and this one is no exception. Given that I commented at length on the company recently I wont add much but there are a couple of points worth taking from the comments of the CEO. He notes that ‘ funding options are being considered from a position of strength’ which is pretty much what I wrote last week, after all Hurricane has 100% of 400mmboe of 2C contingent resources and still has two wells completed which can be brought in relatively quickly as producers when needed. This means that whilst the data room is almost ready to open to find an industry partner, Hurricane shouldn’t have the problems other companies have had, where the farm-out effectively is the only source of funds and the buyers know that.

Nostra Terra

There is a lot going on at NTOG at the moment and today they have announced a raise of £1.75m at 0.3p a share. This comes hot on the heels on the acquisition of the White Buffalo acreage and the company has plenty on its plate right now. I did spend some time recently with Matt Lofgran but I really need to have another session as we only covered part of the story, I have not covered NTOG before and at present it is still on the watch list. Having said that the market hasn’t seemed to like the rather opportunistic placing today and I cant really blame it, as if every time the price goes up you come to the trough it wont be long before they work it out. There is a lot changing at NTOG just now and if the story is as good as it is recounted then it may have legs, watch this space..

Tangiers

As I write the shares are only down 70% having been much worse at the opening, don’t say you haven’t been warned about this company. To cut a long story short the TAO-1 well costs overshot their budget and they are paying $18.56m to Galp leaving the company with A$1.25m in cash. They are now in the process of trying to pay to exit the licence or withdraw next February when the permit expires. I checked the website where it still says that is an explorer with ‘potentially world class assets in Morocco’ I think that should read differently now.

The most frightening thing about the statement is that it says that it is raising A$1.2m from ‘sophisticated’ investors at 0.006 a share as the company is ‘assessing new venture opportunities which are at various stages of maturity’. I think that the words ‘large scotch’ and ‘revolver’ should be bandied around the board room in the hope that the company can be put out of its misery, as for the so-called sophisticated investors, I wish I could meet them, I have some ‘creative’ investment opportunities for people who would put more money into something like this…

Sundry

Madagascar has been a shocking performer and having tried and failed to meet the company several times this year so far my patience has worn thin and my enthusiasm from last autumn dwindling fast. I hear that they are ‘in advanced discussions’ with major shareholders with regard to a fundraising, likely to be a placing and open offer.

Azonto Petroleum has announced that it requires an extension to the data room and has applied to the Ghana Ministry of Energy for one as apparently there are still a few companies that might be interested in partnering with them. If they get it these companies will further review data and so we should watch this space but I suspect it may take a while.

And finally…

Last night in the Clueless Cup the HubCap Stealers had quite a battle with ‘Boro, after 120 minutes it was 2-2 then they had 30 penalties which in the end they won! The Saints beat the Gooners, Swans beat the Toffees and the Potters beat the Maccams. Tonight sees Chelski and the noisy ones in and interesting ties will be Palace v Newcastle   and the Baggies v the Tigers.

The cricket squad for Sri Lanka is announced today and if the Captain is Cooky then the chance to take some rest will have been missed.