WTI $51.60 +$1.31, Brent $52.67 +99c, Diff -$1.07 -32c, NG $3.17 -9c

Oil price 

I return from Norway, where little seems to phase them, to find a modest rise in the oil price that looks as if it is going to stay, at least for the time being. There are still plenty of bears around but the people that count appear to think that they can influence on the upside. This was perfectly described by the Saudi Oil Minister when speaking at the oil and money conference in London when he said that he had the distinct impression that the market was clearly balancing or did he say, nearly balancing? Must have been the former as he went on to say that ‘the oil market is on the brink of a turnaround’ and thanks for the $17.5bn from the bond raise…

The other change has been that the inventory stats keep defying the wit of the analysts that are paid vast sums to guess the number each week, this  time they again got the sign wrong, expecting a build of 2.7m barrels the EIA reported a draw of 5.2m which also rallied the market. Watch out for WTI expiry tonight after which we are in the December contract.

Hurricane Energy – Stop Press…

Hurricane has just announced a £70m placing and up to £4.4m open offer to shareholders. This will be by issuing of 205.9m shares at 34p, an 11% discount to VWAP. Kerogen and Crystal Amber are holding their corner by the looks of it taking 93m shares but K won’t subscribe for Open Offer shares. This looks like a proper raise for a company with a big discovery, well oversubscribed with a number of new institutions on board aiming to kick in with the Lancaster EPS and other drilling. That looks like being on Lincoln and maybe Warwick or similar and will take advantage of low industry costs, I note that the current rig, the Transocean Spitsbergen will be continued to be used which mustn’t be underestimated.  The farm-out can be restarted at some stage with HUR in a very strong position as the FID on Lancaster should be 1H 2017 with first oil 1H 2019. Much more to follow after a chat with the company but yet again Dr Trice and his team have delivered the goods for the shareholders.

President Energy

Another Argentina update from President today where they seem to be having more than their fair share of downtime. The first well in the latest coiled tubing programme suffered from a leak in the tubing ironically and ‘provided valuable information’, as it does but only a .limited amount of oil to surface. On the DP 1002 S/T drilling remains suspended whilst investigations continue but the company points out that it was mechanical failures which wont affect the long term drilling potential.

Catch up

Aminex has announced that on Ntorya-2 appraisal well the rig is being mobilised and will spud in the last quarter.

And Range Resources quarterly report confirmed all the activities that had been announced already. Key here is that the company is concentrating on focusing on the waterflood projects and that Morne Diablo will achieve production in 4Q 2016 and Beach Marcelle in 1Q 2017. The last remaining 2 development wells will drill in 4Q of this year.

And as if it needed any more hassle, Circle Oil has received news from Circle Link that it is calling in its $20m loan by the 15th November as it believes that a default has occurred in the CLA, join the queue is probably the best advice…

And finally…

The Noisy Neighbours went to Barcelona in the Champions League last night but it wasnt pretty, unless you are a Barca fan that is. 4-0 on the night with all sorts of action on the pitch. The Gooners won as easy as could be, it might be their year…Tonight the Saints are at Inter while Fenerbahçe travel to the Theatre of Dreams.

And the first test match of the series has started in Bangladesh where England played three spinners and Joe Root. Batting first England didnt find it easy and at the close were 258-7 almost a good day.