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Oil price, EnQuest, Sundry the debt issue-San Leon-Premier-Xcite-GKP- Exxon strike-And finally...

Published: 11:08 01 Jul 2016 BST

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Oil price
One or two things contributed yesterday as June Opec production was reported by Reuters to have risen slightly and against that the continuing concern about the prospects of a strike in Norway. Nigeria provided two pieces of news, firstly that there had been a cease fire between the Government and the rebels and secondly that in a visit to Beijing the Oil Minister had signed off on deals with Chinese companies worth about $80bn for oil and gas infrastructure.
Having said all that some technical factors also affected the market, Brent expired at the close, there was a typical end of quarter and half sell-down for window dressing and of course with Independence Day on Monday it is a Bank Holiday to do lots of driving in….
EnQuest
I suppose that it will be quite fun at ENQ this morning as everyone else in  the sector is talking debt issues and they have an oil discovery! A modest find at Eagle puts in about 6mmstb in the Greater Kittiwake Area which is better than the proverbial sharp stick.
Sundry-The debt issue
In no particular order the end of June has focused lenders minds on who and how much the lend to.
San Leon is a mystery to me at the moment which I am more than happy to admit, the deal is made out to be fantastic and I know that the boys over at Tosca Fund are shrewd cookies. I have had more ‘incoming’ on this company than almost any other lately but I have been refused a meeting with the company until things are settled and so I cant add much. Suffice it to say that Tosca are bailing SLE out until the $200m placing is sorted…
Premier are also in talks with their lenders which have led to the tests being waived and been extended by a new test as from 30th June to 31st July. The time will be used for any changes etc to the debt package. In the meantime the company has access to the undrawn revolver should it be needed.
Gulf Keystone has another problem caused by its success in the Shaikan Field in Kurdistan, achieving production of 25m barrels has triggered a payment of $10m to the KRG’s MNR. With so much owed to them you might have thought that this could just be knocked off the balance but I understand that it’s not as easy as that, never is I suppose…
Xcite were also up in front of the bank manager yesterday and they too received six of the best. They got a three month extension until September but were told to cut some more costs. Accordingly three non-execs got the bullet and the COO suddenly becomes surplus to executive requirements, not so good for corporate governance but, hey we’re saving the company here guys…
And not on the debt front I have noticed that Exxon and Hess have made a stunning oil discovery offshore Guyana, sources say that the find is between 800m and 1.4bn boe…..
And finally…
England have another one-dayer tomorrow but the series and the overall series is now securely in the skyrocket. I was watching a county T20 game last night which was held up by around half an hour due to excess sunlight, I have rarely seen such rubbish in my puff, don’t they know that cricket is played in sunny countries where you put up with such inconveniences?
At Wimbledon yesterday young Dan Evans had a great win and his reward is a match with Roger Federer who specialises in seeing off young Brits après petit-déjeuner…
Tonight Wales take on Belgium in the Euros for a place in the Semi-Finals against Portugal, now that is very tempting as Ronaldo’s lot have got there without winning a single game in 90 mins and relying on pens so if Bale and co can win tonight a final appearance beckons…
This weekend is the Austrian GP where Lewis needs to extract the digit and prove that his bad performances are not a Machiavellian plot by Mercedes to help out young Rosberg before the toys come out of his pram…

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