The Oil Man: Oil price, Sound Energy, Petroceltic

WTI $30.89 -83c, Brent $34.06 -40c, Diff $3.17 +43c, NG $2.06 +9c

That was a funny old week for the oil price; whispers of meetings and Mr Venezuela doing the rounds kept the optimists just in the game, but huge stock builds and an uninspiring set of US jobs data left the Fed cooling the market.

With the rig count showing a fall of 48 rigs overall and 31 in oil, the week should have ended with a flourish; as it is, it was a tame finale.

The meeting between Venezuela and the Saudis was apparently a damp squib and, this week, all we have to look forward to is a series of reports from the agencies, which can't be expected to be supportive.

Oh well, at least Laggan Tormore is now onstream, with a flourish from Total and no cheers from Petrofac…

Sound Energy

Onwards and upwards; the news keeps on coming from Sound and today sees the announcement of a binding agreement to acquire a 55% stake in the Meridja permit onshore Morocco, by way of an option granted by the Oil and Gas Industry Forum (OGIF).

The consideration for this is modest, a $100,000 rising to $200,000 payment (£69,000 to £139,000) to start with and, on exercise of the option, Sound would pay another $150,000 to OGIF and carry it and the National Office for Hydrocarbons and Mining (ONHYM) in the first exploration well.

This is another eminently sensible move by Sound; the acreage is adjacent to its Tendrara licence, so any success there would make this deal look better and increase the upside while de-risking the overall potential.

The relationship with OGIF is good, as is the one with ONHYM, and the potential for making Morocco a successful part of the expansion of Sound's Mediterranean expansion is franked by this deal.

Sundry

Nice to see that Petroceltic can put out announcements during trading hours and, today, it has rolled over the debt repayments until 19 February, while the strategic review continues.

Egdon and Union Jack announce that they have suspended the Keddington-5 well for future production testing after gas was encountered; flow testing will now be possible.

And finally…

A massive weekend of sport, of which the highlights were these:

In the Prem, it was the continued march of the Foxes, with a resounding victory over the Noisy Neighbours; with both the Gooners and Spurs winning, the top of the table makes interesting reading. It would have been more interesting, as "sparkling" Man U nearly pulled off a rare win at Chelski.

With the HubCap Stealers only getting a draw against the Maccams - and the Magpies and the Villa winning - the bottom of the table is also looking like anything could still happen.

The Six Nations started with France just beating Italy and those of us at Murrayfield saw England win the Calcutta Cup, while in Dublin, a draw between Ireland and Wales didn't help either side.

With England beating South Africa again in the cricket, the one-day game continues to be entertaining and on a different level from what it was like only a few months ago.

And hopefully a longer report tomorrow, but the 50th Super Bowl went to the Broncos after a superb defensive display against the Panthers.

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