• Chariot Oil and Gas (LON:CHAR – 7p) – Update Shows Discipline: today's update from the Company, detailing the withdrawal from C19 in Mauritania underlines the fact that portfolio management and capital discipline still reigns within the Company. With activity starting to pick up over the next 18 months, we believe this discipline will be essential to maintaining the activity levels while maximising on the capital resources available to them. In light of this, the Company entry in to the Mohammedia permits in Morocco is timely, and given the fact it's contiguous with its existing acreage, we can't help but think it's strategic too. We believe investors should be pleased with the way things are progressing.
• Faroe Petroleum (LON:FPM – 64p) – When You're Hot....: Today's news that the Company has made a discovery at Brasse is a positive for the Company, and given the proximity of its existing assets, we believe that the barriers to commerciality are lower here than they would otherwise have been; there is still, however, a long way to go before that opinion can be expressed. The Company is becoming increasingly better balanced, and we believe that it is well positioned to take advantage of the second wave of debt fuelled A&D that we believe in imminent. All in all, investors should be happy with the progress their company is making.
• Xcite Energy (LON:XEL – 10p) – Beginning of a New Way of Doing Things: Today's news that the bond holders have called a trustees meeting is the start of a new phase. It will either be good for investors, as trustees restructure the bonds in return for concessions at the management level, or they perfect their security and force liquidation. Perversely, one route could actually generate a net positive valuation event for the Company's owners, the other, the opposite. Whatever it is, it will be the start of a new phase for the Company, and it's owners.