WTI $44.19 -56c, Brent $45.69 -51c, Diff $1.50 +5c, NG $2.78 +9c

Oil price

With another dip on Friday, the oil price registered falls on the week of $1.76 for WTI and $1.92 for Brent, no doubt that the gasoline stock situation was mainly to blame. There was upside pressure as well, a strike by Wood Group workers on 8 Shell platforms in the North Sea on Thursday has yet to be taken into account and in Nigeria and Libya production is down. With the EIA still forecasting domestic production in the US falling substantially in this half year, the rig count indicated that some activity remains positive, overall the count was up 15 units at 462 and in oil was up 14 at 371.

SDX Energy

SDX has announced that it has completed the 2nd tranche of the private placement issuing 3.9m shares at 18p. SDX looks like an interesting play and I am looking forward to interviewing Paul Welch on my CEO slot at TipTV next week. For those who havent yet taken a look at SDX it is well worth a glance, it has no debt, is cash flow positive with 1,511 boe/d and 2P reserves of 7.34 mmboe. Primarily focused on Egypt and with plenty of exploration upside the company seems to be well placed to grow.

Falcon Oil & Gas

News from FOG this morning, the Amungee NW-1H well has completed the horizontal section and has cased and cemented it in preparation for fraccing in mid-August. The rig has now spudded the Beetaloo W-1 well which will take 35-50 days before results are known. FOG shares have fallen quite sharply from the April highs of 9p as investors worry about the effect on the company of imminent elections in the Northern Territories, I am hoping for an update from Philip O’Quigley before too long as clarification would be helpful.

Sundry

For a long time now I have, on the will of blog readers, been trying to meet with the management of Frontera Resources. They have refused all offers of meetings either directly or via their London based Investor relations advisors and the shares are down from 0.71 to 0.10 in the process. Today’s news makes me thankful that a meeting never happened, however exciting the acreage might be markets rarely tolerate companies trying to avoid the repayment of debt like this, there by the grace of god….

And finally…

Congratulations to Johanna Konta who beat Venus at the weekend to win her first WTA title.

After a shambles of a qualifying session that allowed Nico to get pole by not slowing under double yellows, Lewis had him at the first corner and won a boring race comfortably.

The cricket continues as Captain Cook defied logic and decided to bat on and not enforce the follow on, for what reason is anyone’s guess but it will likely better his own average…

And the IOC was totally spineless as they ducked the issue regarding drugs and handed a slap in the face to clean athletes whether residing in or out of Russia…