WTI $50.84 +$1.07, Brent $53.89 +89c, Diff -$3.05 -18c, NG $3.69 +9c

Oil price

It is back to Vienna who are this weekend hosting the Opec/Non-Opec meetings which the market will hope confirms their part of the recent bargain. Yesterday the market was in believing mood as Russia said it would cut, as did Azerbaijan, others may be a touch more recalcitrant. Either way, in a speech in New York yesterday former Secretary General-El Badri indicated the deal would happen so that’s ok then…

Trinity Exploration & Production

There has been a story going round the market for several weeks now that has effectively said that Trinity has found a way out of its problems, that money had been raised and Bruce was back in business. Today’s announcement confirms that and by the look of it Trinity are back in business, at least for the time being.

The company is raising $15m at 4.98p which will pay off the creditors, restructure the balance sheet and even drill four wells. Money is being raised from the company’s largest shareholder and management and seems to be pretty much in the bag. Post all this, Trinity will actually look in quite good nick, operating break-even has fallen to $29.40 from $47.40 and concomitant with other e&p companies, costs are down, indeed after all that has gone on at Trinity I suspect that there are few other companies being run on such a shoestring. Indeed, following this process I imagine that Bruce Dingwall will be inducted into the Magic Circle post haste…

EPI Group/PDF

It has been announced that EPI Group, a leading private seismic consultancy has acquired PDF Limited which is a highly respected, also private, geoscience consultancy. Whilst both these companies are private, the combined group will provide an ever larger range of services to their blue chip client base be able to handle larger projects for a ‘broader spectrum of advisory services’.

Dr Mark Enfield, PDF founder will join the EPI board and Edward Bowen will remain CEO of the combined entity. This ‘transformational’ acquisition will create a broader range of advisory services to what is an increasing client base.  I mention this partly as industry readers of the blog will undoubtedly find it of interest and of course a company growing so fast will inevitably be considered for a quoted existence one day as this combination has the makings of a proper leader in its field.

 

Podcast

This weeks podcast seems like a lifetime ago, World Oil & Gas week is a draining process! This week I spoke about VOG (28m 50s in) and HUR (32m 20s in) and the link is below should you wish to listen in.

Vox Markets podcast: includes Malcy on Victoria Oil & Gas and Hurricane Energy

And finally…

Another massive weekend of sport and top of the bill is Anthony Joshua who takes on Eric Molina in Manchester, no easy fight this. The other fight is Chisora v Whyte which is now not a title fight after the former threw a table at his oppo…

Rugby wise we are back to the European Champions Cup, too many great fixtures to mention here.

Racing is at Cheltenham and Donny both of which have great cards.

England played just about well enough yesterday in the test match yesterday but not so well this morning. 400 was ok but at the moment life is a cruise for the Indian batsmen who are 144-1 as I write.

So to the Premiership where there isn’t one standout match. Chelski host the Baggies, the Noisy Neighbours go to the Foxes, the HubCap Stealers entertain the happy Hammers and Spurs go to the Theatre of Dreams.Vox Markets podcast: includes Malcy on Victoria Oil & Gas and Hurricane Energy