WTI $42.01 -23c, Brent $44.80 -16c, Diff -$2.79 +7c, NG $2.36 +17c

Oil price

Oil prices inched up last week as drop by drop inventories continue to fall. Economic news is still better from a low base and for oil, China is still the constant buyer. Indeed Reuters report that PetroChina and Sinopec have chartered enough capacity to ship as much as 20m barrels of crude from the USA.

The Baker Hughes rig count also continues to fall albeit slowly, last week the overall drop was 3 units to 244 with oil down 4 to 172 units. It seems that Congress has been recalled by Speaker Pelosi, ironically not to settle the stimulus package but to prop up the ailing US postal service ahead of the busy postal voting requirements in November.

Cairn/FAR

Woodside has exercised its right to pre-empt Cairn’s sale of its stake in the Sangomar JV in Senegal to Lukoil. The fact that there are now confirmed multiple buyers of the asset should lend some help to Far Limited who, having had some difficulty in financing its own share of costs, might be able to cut a deal of some sort.

Petro Matad

Interims from MATD this morning which are largely irrelevant but the cash balance as at 30th June 2020 was $2.08m ($16.12m). Cost saving measures have been put in place ‘without sacrificing operational capability which will enable it to remain in an operationally ready state  until mid 2021.

The Block XX exploitation licence application continues to progress, awaiting Government approval and a key component is approval of the Company’s reserve report for its Heron 1 oil discovery. ‘Once the reserves report has been approved, the EL award process requires the development area to be agreed with industry regulator Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority of Mongolia (MRPAM) and then the Plan of Development must be reviewed and approved by MRPAM and MMHI. The Plan of Development has been completed save for any minor modifications which may result from the ongoing review of the reserves report and it will be submitted to the relevant bodies as soon as the reserves report approval is in hand’.

Petro Matad has suffered like most from the combined onslaught this year and the virus delay in country but that shouldnt deter buyers although some patience may be required.

Link

Total Market Solutions interview: Malcy Talks Oil & Gas XXII

AST, BPC, DELT, TXP, UJO, RBD, PRD, PPC, DGOC, VOG, TLW, GENL, i3E.

KeyFacts Energy Industry Directory: Malcy's Blog