The Oil Man: Oil price, Petrofac, Sound Energy

WTI $41.60 +46c, Brent $43.53 +83c, Diff $1.93 +37c, NG $2.88 n/c

Another down week and very few obvious signs of that changing at the moment. The chart looks very interesting for a bounce though but it is rather clutching at straws as is looking at the weakening dollar.

The greenback fell on the disappointing second quarter US GDP figures which might put back Fed tightening again, and the September Brent contract expired weak.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed money managers increasing the shorts and NSL was net short in RBOB, over the month both WTI and Brent lost around 14%, will today's oil price encourage any short closing?

Petrofac

The company has announced an update of the board review into press allegations of bribery by Unaoil whom Petrofac acknowledge was engaged by them in Kazakhstan between 2002-2009.

The independent enquiry found no evidence that any director of the company was aware of the alleged misconduct with respect to Unaoil. Good news for PFC but not for everybody as the company intends to pass their findings on to the Serious Fraud Office.

Sound Energy

I attended the Sound Energy investor day on Friday which was very much an opportunity for CEO James Parsons to go into some detail on what looks like a really good gas discovery at Tendrara in Morocco.

With the company having already announced that the find was 'highly commercial' and 'well above expectations' the audience was ready for more news but will have to wait another few days for that. With Sound having taken a 55% stake in the adjacent Meridja Reconnaissance Zone the outlook here is very promising indeed.

The shares have really motored recently but the faithful are convince that there is more to come and at a market cap of only £280 million they might well be right… Oh and Shell has acquired the surrounding acreage.

Sundry

EOG has announced a technical update this morning on its recently acquired LO/2o and LO/21 licence options. The work shows that there are several large gas leads in the Greater Corrib Area near the Corrib gas field.

Aminex has announced that the Mtwara licence of the Ruvuma Basin which was due to expire in December of this year has been extended by one year. The company also announced that take up of the recent open offer was 49.7%.

And finally…

After beating Nico convincingly on home territory Lewis must be feeling that after a lousy start to the season things are looking up. With the summer break meaning nothing to the bank holiday I suspect he wouldnt mind continuing.

So, Jimmy Walker becomes the fifth player on the bounce to win a major for the first time, funny after last year when we were being told that the famous four would win everything for the foreseeable future…

And a great performance by Carl Frampton in the early hours of Sunday morning, a genuinely world class display and he can pick his opponents now.

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.