WTI $59.97 +45c, Brent $62.63 +2c, Diff $2.66 -43c, NG $2.89 +1c

Oil price

I have avoided much talk of Greece in the blog up until now as apart from the sheer tedium of the process I havent seen it creating much impact on the crude oil market and few companies are impacted whatever happens. It now looks like we are getting close to the vinegar strokes as they say and its pretty much down to what Mrs Merkel thinks. One point to note I suspect that if the European brotherhood are getting so worked up about the Bubbles leaving then what on earth are they thinking if we take our leave?

Its the second day of the FOMC meeting so we will get Janet’s view on rates this evening, no change but maybe more guidance on timing. The oil price had a small rally yesterday and has risen slightly in early trading today, the API inventory figures being after hours in the US. Those stats showed another stock draw, this time of 2.9m barrels which, if reflected in tonight’s EIA data would keep WTI pressing up towards Brent, notice the differential has a big figure of 2 now.

As I have noted a number of times recently the month of June is pretty key for several reasons, obviously we have had the Opec meeting, we are now looking forward to the Iran talks deadline and of course quarter and half year end means the end of some big hedges and debt negotiations…The news from the Iran talks appears to be moving back towards some kind of a deal, the French are winning their battle and the power-brokers in Tehran are ceding more than expected, it may not happen on the 30th of June but look out for whispers of a settlement. My trader friends tell me that the IEA reports of much more than the permitted amount of Iranian crude is already hitting the market with much more expected from storage afloat, meantime the Iranian Oil Minister was heard to say that ‘we will welcome US oil companies in Iran’…..

Sefton Resources

It is now clear why my meeting with Sefton was not forthcoming as they have today announced the raising of £799,500 at 0.06p with 600,000,000 warrants at the same price exerciseable by August 31 or ‘within 3 days of a further raise’. This money is allegedly for the purpose of ‘acquiring interests in production, development and/or exploration assets and to continue to undertake further due diligence on certain assets’. After fees etc i’m not quite sure how much the company will get for just less than 800 grand? At least it shows that the capital raising market is alive and kicking, if you want to raise such a huge amount…

Europa Oil & Gas

I notice that yesterday EOG announced that they had published an independent assessment of FEL 3/13 in the Porcupine Basin offshore the west of Ireland. With an unrisked NPV of approximately $1.6bn to EOG’s net interest of 15% in prospects Wilde, Beckett and Shaw the risked number comes out at $251m for the company. The risks are all weighed up in the announcement from ultra bad weather through ‘what if its gas’ to, drilling date by the operator. To me this is the biggest risk as I have pointed out before, the company say that Kosmos may drill ‘as early as 2017’ but I think that with so many other commitments that is just being too optimistic by at least two years. The shares have had a fine run, from the lows of under 5p a share earlier in the year they nearly doubled and are now at 7.88p, investors should want the interesting and valuable onshore portfolio to justify any further strength as the Irish acreage is still a long way off doing so albeit still with huge upside potential…

Bucket list update…

For those of you who are watching the bucket list I took the opportunity to feature 9 of the stocks in an interview with TipTV yesterday, I selected Faroe, Sound, Pantheon, Rockhopper and Hurricane as well as Caza, Genel, Ithaca and Parkmead of which some have disappointed, none so much as to be ejected from the list, here is the full interview.

http://www.tiptv.co.uk/archives/oil-bucket-list-winners-underperformers/

And finally…

Its crunch time tonight in the Womens World Cup as England pretty much have to beat Colombia in what is turning out to be the group of death…

One cant get away from football however hard one tries, today saw the publication of the fixture list for next season, already so soon. Day one will see the Hammers at the Gooners, the Swans at Chelski, the Maccams at the Foxes, Wally plus brolly’s Magpies take on the Saints whilst Spurs go to the Theatre of Dreams. The Baggies start by hosting the Noisy Neighbours and the HubCap Stealers will not relish going back to the Potters after the last game of last season…The new boys have a mixed bag, the Cherries host Villa, the Hornets go to the Toffees and the Canaries host the Eagles, there’s a gag there somewhere…

Game four in the cricket starts this afternoon at Trent Bridge, it should be another great game between New Zealand and New England who are doing well now they are being told how to play the game by the coaching staff.

Day two of Royal Ascot and good cards despite losing California Chrome to injury, a good day for Ryan Moore yesterday, unbackable as top jockey but would love to see Frankie winning the big race today!

In the States, the Golden State Warriors are the NBA Champions after they managed to close out the series 4-2 in Cleveland. Andre Iguodala was named finals MVP after his 25 points in game six led the Warriors to their first title in 40 years.