Oilman Jim

Quiet Christmas week, but still plenty to comment on.  Starting with the positives,  Petrel Resources (PET)  is turning out to be the top performing AIM share of the year.  This was highlighted as a favourite many times in the blog around 1p.  It's now 19.5p, up 1,850%.  There's another one with similar potential in the current issue of the private blog for those who are interested. UK Oil & Gas (UKOG)  announced a HH-1 and HH-2z extended well test update.  HH-2z achieved initial rates of up to 1,087 barrels of fluids per day and oil cuts of up to 60%.  HH-1 Kimmeridge oil flow was resumed thereafter with an average daily rate of 301 barrels of oil per day.  UKOG now aims to shut off formation water ingress in HH-2z and conduct an extended test on both wells simultaneously and try to surpass the psychologically important production number of 1,000 barrels of oil per day.  Thereafter, the plan would be to drill up to four more horizontal wells and achieve the maximum pr

Companies are now saving up their good news for next year, but there were still plenty of interesting announcements last week.  Anglo African Oil & Gas (AAOG) CEO, James Berwick, resigned on Monday and the share price now is down to around half a penny.  They're only going to "commence a search for a new CEO at the appropriate time” so it’s looking like things are over at this company.  It’s a good result for those who paid attention to what I've being saying about Anglo African over the past year and shorted it.  Most though were simply very angry with my comments.  As Mark Twain said: “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.” Another winner for shorts over the last six months is Block Energy (BLOE) , which ramped up its share price in anticipation of a placing on the basis that it was producing 1,100 barrels of oil per day and didn’t need a placing.  In fact, as I warned numerous times, the production was mainly water and th

Plenty of excitement last week and not just with the election.  The week started with I3 Energy (I3E) seeing its price collapse back down on Monday after readers of the blog and listeners to the podcast were alerted last weekend to the false statements being made about the previous week's announcements.  I started challenging the misstatements on Friday and a crescendo of abuse built up right through the weekend, only finishing on Monday morning after what I said would happen did.  Most of this was from those promoting the false interpretations of I3's announcements, but some was from genuine investors who having been deceived and bought the shares, now wanted to believe the lies.   The same thing happened with Anglo African Oil & Gas (AAOG) who announced on Thursday no further repayments from SNPC, lower than expected payments under the investor sharing agreement and yet another rig delay.  This proved too much even for core investors and the price collapsed 70% to

It was another interesting week.  Getting the bad news out of the way first, Hurricane Energy (HUR) announced a disappointing well result and the share price fell around 25%.  I mentioned HUR two weeks ago as a gamble for those who prefer to ignore what I say about only going for the "certainties," the small number of shares each year which, absent a "black swan" event, look virtually certain to perform.  Hurricane also illustrates the law of diminishing returns as a company develops and requires more capital.  It's now trading below the 34p placing price three years ago. A further North Sea focussed company, I3 Energy (I3E) confused many people with its two RNS announcements on Friday.  The first RNS announced that "it is expecting to complete the subscriptions for 14,285,715 new ordinary shares in the Company at 35 pence per share...and expects the admission of the new shares to be on or around 9th December"  Unfortunately, certain social medi

It turned out to be quite an exciting week.   Global Petroleum (GBP) announced a new prospective resources estimate of 964 million barrels of oil for its petroleum exploration licence 94 in Namibia.  One reservoir is estimated to have best estimate unrisked gross prospective resources of 772 million barrels of oil with a 15% chance of geologic discovery.  It's worth a go, yet at the same time it's worth nothing to them unless they can drill it, which will require either a farm-out or a large financing.  News of that is still awaited. Regal Petroleum (RPT)  announced a memorandum of understanding to acquire licences in the Ukraine with estimated oil initially in place of approximately 675 million barrels.  They intend to appraise the licences with the drilling of up to three wells.  Existing 3P reserves for RPT currently are estimated at 3.89 million barrels of oil equivalent, so this transaction, if it proceeds, could represent a very significant uplift.  Generally I'