Interactive Investor

The Oil Man: Petroceltic, Thalassa, Sound Energy

WTI $35.70 -$1.09, Brent $37.69 -98c, Diff $1.99 +8c, NG $2.00 +4c

Same old, same old, as stories weakening the oil price erode confidence ahead of the potential freeze. Yesterday it was the turn of ship brokers, who reported that the Saudis were doing their utmost to slow down Iranian exports by not allowing them in their waters; Bahrain joined the club - and, if Aramco is a client, so did you…

Analysts expect another week of stock builds come the American Petroleum Institute and Energy Information Administration stats; around 3.3 million barrels is the guess, but unlikely to be good news. Gasoline is up at $2.08 a gallon and demand continues, so refinery rates may still be high.

Finally, my guess was right before Easter, as hedgies cut their long positions in the week to 29 March - looked like a one-way ticket to me, too.

Petroceltic

Various updates from PCI and Worldview in the last 24 hours; on the operational front the news is good, AT-10 came in well, as was to be expected, and the next stop is AT-13.

On the Worldview front, the examinership case was adjourned yesterday and is now set for Friday; it may just be a coincidence, but market rumours yesterday suggested they had sold some of the debt they recently acquired. What a difference a day makes, as one of the world's biggest banks finds it has been associated with such odour…

Thalassa Holdings

Thalassa has always been a favourite company of mine, from a technical and management point of view; statements from the chairman, Duncan Soukup, are invariably interesting and today's is no exception.

It was good to be able to sneak a few minutes with him to get an idea of how the market is going on a local and international level. Read the statement and he is still of the view that debt is too high and unsustainable in the industry, which he likens to the mortgage market in the US - probably fairly.

At a local level Thalassa actually had a very good year: they had battened down the hatches so that revenue was up 21.6%, gross profit up 43% and margins up 17.6% to 50.1%. However, dreaded impairments led to a loss of $12.3 million (£8.7 million), a pretty reasonable performance under the circumstances.

With cash of $20.3 million and no debt, the company is set fair; it completed four surveys for Statoil last year and the TGS-NOPEC seismic services contract was completed, meanwhile WGP had a record year.

Saying that, the climate is challenging - but the potential is about as good as it gets from Mr Soukup, so I will take that.

Sound Energy

Sound has announced that it has received $1.1 million in cash from Ophir with regard to the Bangkanai licence that it used to own in Indonesia.

Always welcome a few bucks in the bank from a discontinued operation and, with plenty of excitement due from the current portfolio, times remain most interesting for Sound.

Sundry

It's often the case, when you install $54 billion worth of kit offshore, that the blooming propane refrigerant circuit goes down on Train 1 - this is what has happened down at Gorgon and Chevron has "temporarily" closed in production…

Still in Australia, Wood Group has announced the acquisition of SVT, an engineering consultancy based in Perth. No size is given, so I imagine it is relatively modest and will become part of WG Kenny.

And finally…

A bit thin on the ground ahead of the Masters and Aintree later in the week, but Chelski have appointed Antonio Conte as their new manager, starting next season. Clearly a top coach for clubs and country, Conte comes with a record of being a strict disciplinarian and so there may be sparks flying - although if John Terry has left by then, the job suddenly becomes that much easier.

Finally, it was good to hear that Nick Blackwell had, apparently successfully, come out of his coma at the weekend.

This article is for information and discussion purposes only and does not form a recommendation to invest or otherwise. The value of an investment may fall. The investments referred to in this article may not be suitable for all investors, and if in doubt, an investor should seek advice from a qualified investment adviser.