WTI $36.14 +33c, Brent $36.11 -24c, Diff +3c, NG $1.89 -2c

A very quick flash blog today, not much about and its my Petrofac day…

Oil price

As predicted yesterday with the expiry of the January WTI contract the differential with Brent has narrowed, at the close last night WTI actually overtook Brent and this morning it is nip and tuck with both crudes up around 30 cents. The API stats after the close gave some support showing a draw of 3.6m barrels which wasnt expected, tonight’s EIA numbers will show a more accurate picture.

Premier Oil

An operational update this morning designed I suspect to try to keep everybody calm ahead of the full update on January 14th. The Norway sale is completed raising $120m and net debt is just under $2.3bn at the year end. The company has ‘significant liquidity’ with $1.2bn of cash and undrawn credit facilities and covenant headroom in excess of $800m at the year end. Operationally Solan has had some bad weather issues but first oil is expected in January, in the Falklands the Isobel deep re-drill is continuing. The market refuses to believe that all is under control at Prems and is taking the most bearish stance, lets hope that the January update goes some way to proving that the company has durability.

All being well a short seasonal blog tomorrow…