WTI $92.66 -63c, Brent $100.20 -62c, Diff $7.54 +1c, NG $3.88 +8c

Oil price

For those who hadn’t been watching, seeing the Brent price falling below $100 yesterday came as quite a shock and worthy of headlines in todays papers. For those of you who read the blog it will have been less so, maybe more surprising that the last support level finally went. I cant really add much more to what I have been saying recently, supply is strong and probably growing a bit for choice especially with the Saudis at over 10m b/d and discounting forward, remember that as summer ends the proportion of that number available to export rises. On the other hand demand is sluggish at best, Chinese data is as ever, difficult to read, I suspect that fundamental demand as with iron ore is relatively flat but also think that they will be buying for stock at these levels.

In Iraq we are close to the official formation of an ‘inclusive’ Government and on the wires there are stories of Sunnis fighting with ISIS for the first time.

On the natural gas side the cooler summer in the US has meant that inventories are high, not as high as was the case a few years ago, as the industry efficiencies mean that less storage is necessary but high enough. The only long range weather forecast I have seen for the Central and Eastern USA is for a colder winter.

Wood Group

A contract win by WGPSN today from Woodside in Australia. EPCM work on the Karratha gas plant life extension programme plus modifications and refurbishment services to Woodside’s production and projects group across all onshore and offshore assets make this a good bit of work to win.

Range Resources

Announced yesterday post blog a couple of news items. The IP loan situation is moving along, the shareholders approved the sale of the Russian assets now there is the issue of shares to complete. In Guatemala, Citation has announced that it is ready to flow test on Atzam-5 on the C18 section. If the flow test is not sustainable then they will move to C17 instead. Whilst this is not conclusive I hope to talk to the company soon and get a round up of recent events.

Nostra Terra

I am getting a lot of questions about Nostra Terra following the recent deal they did in acquiring a 100% WI over 6,100 net acres in the White Buffalo Project in Wyoming. Given that the share price has already risen 60% from the lows it is tempting to think that one might have missed the boat here but I am pursuing a meeting with Matt Lofgren and will report back. With a market cap of only £10m it is small but if this deal can recover even part of the potential upside then it will be a smart deal indeed and will leave plenty of scope for upward movement from here. I guess that the key is getting partners in to pay for the drilling and then see what happens.

Sundry

BP continue to pull out all the stops by lining up its supporters against the wicked American law machine, yesterday they had the UK Government, the IOD and Lord Digby Jones (albeit he is an advisor to BP) and today they have got a helpful leader in the FT. What next we ask, perhaps Gordon Brown?

And finally…

So the US Open final that nobody predicted ended with the result that everybody suspected, Cilic went bang and it was all over…With his exit, combined with the absence due to his back operation Andy Murray is out of the World top ten rankings and will have to do very well in the next couple of big tournaments to get to the season end showdown in London. If he doesn’t make that he may well be watching his mum on Strictly Come Dancing…

As the Arc de Triomphe approaches, Frankie Dettori has been jocked off favourite Treve for his prep race on Sunday which doesn’t look good for the big race, the filly was well out of sorts last time out though.

If you didn’t see it take a look at the way that two cyclists were trading punches in the Vuelta Espana tour race, quite remarkable as David Coleman would say.

And Saeed Ajmal has been suspended by the ICC for an illegal bowling action, lots of wickets in England this summer but not for a while now…

And I could hear it being said all over the country last night after the football, i.e. why didn’t they play like that in the World Cup? No easy answer but losing a couple of slow old players helped and of course Danny Welbeck will score for fun now he’s a Gooner…England won 2-0 away at group favourites Switzerland and could have had two or three more…

In the NFL, Matthew Stafford threw two touchdowns as the Lions beat the Giants. The Cardinals edged out the Chargers in the other game.