Oilman Jim

Another interesting week.  I3 Energy (I3E) announced news which appears to have confused many.  Key point is that the warrant and management option strike prices are being reset to the nominal value of I3’s shares (£0.0001/share), which means that the I3 equity is being deemed worthless.  The Canadian acquisition and any future North Sea activity therefore is of academic interest only now to existing shareholders.  You can perhaps see why a well-known group was pumping I3E so hard before the suspension, trying to get the stock away. As expected the TomCo (TOM) “short squeeze” ran out of steam and the price has retreated significantly.  Next up here will be a new placing.  Let's be clear, associated company Petroteq (PQE PQEFF) is a promotion.  No one is expecting it to achieve commercial success.  The purpose of its announcements is to sell shares.  Any company doing "business" with it is the same.  Mayan Energy (MYN) (now ...

Quite a busy week for news.  Petrel Resources (PET) announced preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2019.  The Chairman’s statement is a grand read and John Teeling just tells it all frankly as it is.  This was a blog favourite last year around 1p and is now nearly 4p, having been many times higher.  It could move strongly upwards again with positive Iraq news. PetroTal (PTAL) announced 2019 year-end financial and operating results, reporting a "difficult trading environment” plus a placing to raise £14 million, which will allow them to continue the development of the Bretana oil field, but at a slower pace.  I’ve been warning about this one in the blog all the way down from the 30s.  It’s now just over 10p. 88 Energy (88E) declared its XCD Energy takeover offer to be unconditional.  This was another blog favourite last year around 0.7p, which ran up over 100% before the drill.  But, unless you’re into gambling, remember n...

Stock market and oil prices gave back some of their recent gains last week, with plenty of uncertainty still remaining on the international macroeconomic front due to virus related demand concerns.  Domestically, the main issues now are Coronavirus and its economic impact, Brexit and the “no deal” possibility which will soon come into focus, plus whatever the BLM protests and counter protests might turn into over a long, hot summer.  It all makes for interesting (and potentially dangerous) times. Moving on, there were a couple of grumbles last weekend regarding negative coverage of companies.  Just to clarify, these blogs and associated podcasts cover the news being issued by the more speculative oil and gas companies each week.  Some issue good news, some issue mediocre news, some issue bad news, and some pretend that their bad news is good.  It’s different to the other blogs and podcasts, because I don’t accept compensation from the companies, so I can sa...

Both the markets and oil prices continued to firm up last week and, on the company front, it was an interesting week for news. Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) announced its final results.  Nothing remarkable in them, but rather disconcerting that they’re converting over £1.5 million of the notes at 1.27p per share, when the market price was standing at nearly 3p.  The company will proceed to issue a further 120 million new shares and continue on its path of dilution for the reward of certain undisclosed “investors.”  People appear to have been misled into thinking Bahamas Petroleum is now fully financed for the drill and have been buying these new 1.27p shares at up to nearly three times that price.  Unfortunately, it’s not and it’s come back quite a bit since I pointed this out on Twitter.  You really have to read the RNS announcements carefully.  The financing talked about is “conditional.”  There likely will be money to be made, though, and po...