WTI $48.31 +59c, Brent $49.28 +31c, Diff $0.97 -28c, NG $2.05 +2c

Oil price

All a bit mixed at the moment but definitely bullish for choice, the situation in Canada appears to be getting worse and with all the outages elsewhere it can only take that extra stock off the market. The inventory stats will be crucial, last night the API numbers were mixed with a draw of 1.1m in crude which was ok if not quite up to most bullish estimates but stocks still rose by 500/- barrels at Cushing. The really bullish bit was the product situation, gasoline drew 1.9m barrels and distillates 2m which is a proper lead indicator. With the driving season less than a fortnight away anything might happen.

Hurricane Energy

Things appear to be going very well at HUR since the announcement of the Kerogen investment and Crystal Amber and Marlborough adding to holdings.  The general meeting was a success and now the process moves to the drilling campaign which is expected to start in July. To ensure that all investors are kept up to date I understand that the company is arranging at least three investor events, one is believed to be a Proactive meeting, there is likely to be a Capital Markets day and I have secured Dr Trice for a TipTV interview into the bargain. Expect these to be in mid-June which should give investors every opportunity to understand the detail of the drilling campaign. Finally I have noticed that after a quiet start when the deal was announced,  the shares have recently ticked quite a lot higher, my spies tell me that there was a forced seller in the market who appears to have completed his trade. HUR remains firmly on the bucket list, is up 86% ytd, the next six to eight weeks should be most exciting for all those involved.

ConocoPhillips

Readers will remember that a couple of weeks ago the FT ran a story about COP making a decision to exit all of its international exploration operations. Word around the track is that a ‘soft sell’ strategy has been invoked so that best prices can be achieved by expressions of interest, whether it is the right thing for COP holders I dont know but just watch out. Obviously the most pertinent asset as far as we are concerned is the Senegal discover where COP are in partnership with Cairn and Far. Should COP sell their stake in this world class discovery, which is very close to being declared commercial, then not only will it frank the value to its partners but the buyer may extend its offer to them as well. Definitely a watch this space situation if ever there was one and if ever a signal a bottom in the oil price could be called it would be something like this…

Sundry

BP have parted company with their COO of Exploration Richard Herbert presumably as part of the massive cost saving need to pay Bo’s $20m paycheck. It leaves a wealth of very senior people and Bernard Looney in charge of the …function worldwide.

And another appointment, popular and multiple non-exec around the oil track David McManus replaces industry veteran and another Enterprise Oil alumni Pierre Jungels as Chairman of Sea Energy.

And finally…

The Premiership season eventually ended last night with the Red Devils beating the Cherries but not by the 19 goal margin they needed to go past the Noisy Neighbours. Will LVG be in charge next year, who knows but if so it could be turgid, by their standards, 49 goals in a season is unacceptable despite having the best defensive record in the league.

Tonight is the big night for the HubCap Stealers, in a tiny stadium in Basel where hardly anyone can get in they should beat Sevilla, I say that as I am told they have already beaten Europe’s best so tonight will be a walk in the park…

Finally Villa fans will presumably be delighted to know that Randy Lerner has at long last found a buyer for the club. The new owner is a Chinese businessman and has promised to give the new manager plenty of money to buy new players…