Oil prices may be tumbling, but investors should take heart from Premier Oil’s (LON:PMO) bullish response on Thursday to the industry’s travails, analysts said.
Premier’s shares rose 5% as the market applauded its efforts to face down price falls while still advancing big investment projects in the North Sea and elsewhere. The producer and explorer even offered hope to beleaguered oil service companies, saying there was business to be had if they played ball on costs.
Arctic exploration drilling is set to resume imminently now that Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB) has received its final permit for is drilling programme. It was confirmed late on Monday that the US authorities granted Shell permission to resume operations in the Arctic waters of the Chukchi Sea, off Alaska’s north west coast.
Shallow drilling operations had previously begun - above any oil targets - as Shell worked to maximise its chances in what is, due to the harsh environment, a short operating window.
Petroceltic (LON:PCI) told investors it has secured a court order to have an allegedly defamatory anonymous blog removed from the Internet. Wordpress owner Automattic has to take down the blog, according to the order, and it must also block further posts from the blogger.
KrisEnergy (SGX:SK3) has confirmed that ‘first oil’ production has now been achieved at the Wassana field, in the Gulf of Thailand. Oil production began on August 14, just fifteen month after KrisEnergy took the project on.
Green Dragon Gas (LON:GDG) has revealed an 8% increase in revenue, to US$16.8mln, and a 121% rise in gross profit to US$11.9mln in the first six month of 2015. The Chinese gas firm said the improvement was due to higher gas sales volumes and stable prices.
Gas pricing remains unaffected by any Chinese market volatility or impact of Chinese yuan devaluation, the company said.
IGas Energy (LON:IGAS) and Egdon Resources (LON:EDR) are among the first oil and gas firms to be offered new acreage in Britain as part of the government’s 28th licensing round.
The Oil & Gas Authority, the UK’s newly created regulator, today revealed that 27 new licence blocks have been offered to companies in the initial tranche of the round. Precise details of the licence blocks have yet to be disclosed or analysed, and whilst the new blocks will include shale gas and fracking projects, others will be conventional oil and gas ventures.
Here’s three words that panic oil investors into hitting the sell button – ‘plugged and abandoned’.
So when the unholy trinity appeared in a drilling update from punters’ favourite Red Emperor Resources (LON:RMP) there was only one outcome: a precipitous fall in the share price. Its Hawkeye-1 well, off the coast of the Philippines, had been targeting a structure estimated to contain over 100mln barrels of oil on the SC55 Block.
And while hydrocarbons were detected during drilling, they were of “variable quality”.