WTI $53.05 +$3.48, Brent $57.91 +$3.16, Diff $4.86 -32c, NG $2.75 +7c

Oil price

A short, late blog today, company visiting again. The rise in the oil price yesterday was impressive if rather flattering, make no mistake this is a technical rally built on faux optimism. I still believe that whilst we are near the bottom the market still intends to have at least one more go at the lows. So, particularly for WTI which has retraced some of the gains today to trade now at $50.82 the rally is over, if temporarily. The API stats last night showed a crude build of 6.1m barrels nearly twice the whisper whilst there was a build of 2m barrels in gasoline, that might have scared off the WTI investors a bit.

No, the capex cuts announced in the last few days, the strike at refineries and the increase in product prices have drawn in the punters shown by the money managers ‘investments’ increasing. It is interesting to note that on the refinery front, Tesoro has taken its California refinery off early for its spring maintenance and that Shell has notably not agreed with the steelworkers union. Interesting time to strike I guess as we aren’t that far away from the seasonal closures…

Gulfsands- Grey smoke appears…

What a mess Gulfsands is in now and with it the substantial minority shareholder who started the ball rolling. Yesterdays vote has led to more confusion, CEO Mahdi Sajjad kept his job whilst side-kick Ken Judge lost his, sending the company into a meeting to discuss the way forward. With Syria on the back-burner, almost literally, Colombia to be sold, probably for scraps and Morocco far from the finished article you can add a dispute between substantial minority shareholders and boardroom unrest. After all, one of the resolutions was to oust the Chairman and two non-execs, board meetings will not be the same again you can be sure of that. Expect a statement saying something along the lines of ‘business as usual, under partial new management’ but maybe the best thing for warring shareholders, directors in dispute and problem assets is to fold up the tents and start again…

Sundry

One of my favourites in the international exploration space is Kosmos and I note with interest that they have farmed out some of their interests in Mauritania to Chevron. Now normally this would not be specifically newsworthy but to do a successful farm-out to a super-major in this environment certainly validates the quality of the exploration assets wouldnt you say?

I saw a bit of Matt Lofgran of NTOG at the end of last year and todays statement certainly backs up his optimism about his US portfolio, production more than doubled on the quarter and even with a halving of the oil price kept the income coming in and is still profitable at current prices. The market is however more interested in the White Buffalo acquisition where preparation work carries on ahead of drilling, this was scheduled for 3Q 2015 but reading between the lines of the statement looks like it may be delayed somewhat…

It is rumoured that BG has, along with Energy Transfer, delayed the FID for the Lake Charles LNG export operation in the US. Whilst this is perfectly understandable I would like to hear the thoughts of those who have signed up to export LNG from the US and how they see pricing if that market disappears…

And as I write I notice a hurried announcement of a series of board resignations at PetroBras…

And life in the world of debt life is certainly more glamorous at the moment as your visitors are either oil company or international paupers, think of the investment committee’s trying to decide, Afren or Greece, Greece or Afren…?

And finally…

So the cup run of mighty Cambridge came to an end at the Theatre of large cheques last night but at least the lads put up a fight and didn’t capitulate when they had the chance to, unlike Fulham who lost at home to the Maccams. Preston beat the Blades who had been looking good in cup competitions and now they are next to try and beat LvG’s men. Tonight its the Bolton v HubCap Stealers replay…

And ‘Arry leaves the Super Hoops but only as he has a pain in the knee apparently, oh yeah…? Tim Sherwood is the logical replacement but knowing football i’m sure that the multi billionaire owner will cast his net over a list of overpaid, under-qualified losers first to offer a massive contract to…

Lance Armstrong crashed his car into two others after leaving an ‘event’ in Aspen last night and then claimed that his girlfriend was driving, shame that the valet parking attendant told the feds that he placed Mr Armstrong in the drivers seat…

And the Cricket World Cup just got more exciting as Mr Pietersen has been signed up by Test Match Special, how much fun is this going to be…?

Its nice to get flattering comments about the blog, so thank you Mrs Trice, much appreciated…!

Finally if you havent already seen it you should Google up Ed Balls’s performance on Newsnight last night. It appears that he had dinner with ‘Bill Somebody’ as Emily Maitlis had to refer to him as ‘cos Ed couldnt remember the name of his new bestie who may now not be donating as much as to Labour coffers as the Shadow Chancellor was hoping for…