Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

I thought everything was the control and the responsibility of HMG.

Many seemed to think that with the previous government "rule".

Mind with the U-turns and broken pledges I don't suppose one could say the present mob is in control of themselves or the country.

They don't even know which direction they are trying to go.

Spending their time learning and repeating Mantras by wrote.

The previous government said no tax increases and then upped taxes more than previous governments.

USD Core CPI m/m 0.1% v consensus 0.2% previous 0.2%

http://www.moneyobserver.com/issue/features/black-gold-mine

March 16, 2012 - 10:39am | Mike McCudden

Investors are looking to profit from likely mergers and acquisitions in the oil industry, says Mike McCudden.

Oil stocks have been the flavour of the past few months as M&A fever has taken a progressively tight grip on the sector.

Burgeoning tensions in oil-producing countries, with Iran at its core, is piling pressure on the oil companies to find as much black gold as possible, as fast as possible.

This has led some speculators to predict the price of oil could reach the heady heights of $150 (£95) per barrel in the months ahead.

Rising oil prices have caused the value of the so-called super-majors – BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Total and Conoco Phillips – to go up anything between 5 per cent and 12 per cent in the past year. Investors increasingly believe the quickest route to more oil is through acquisition of minnows.

This is largely because the top oil companies only control a not-so-super 6 per cent of the world’s oil and gas resources. The rest is by-and-large under the control of the rather more spicy parts of the political world such as Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

So, as Iran controls an estimated 17 per cent of the world’s oil reserves, and there is talk of air strikes on their shiny new nuclear facilities, trade embargos (including a European embargo from July 1st) and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the oil price is naturally only going to do one thing....go up.

Couple that with the growth of emerging markets and the current absence of Libyan oil and you have the perfect storm for sharp price spikes, even though the spikes themselves will ultimately slow growth.

Regardless of all the clever new ways to extract the black stuff, a spike will arguably bring about an abrupt end to the US led global rally in equities, which recently saw a return to 2008 levels. The US relies on 60 per cent of its oil from foreign markets and consumes 20 per cent of everything that is produced. US will become a net exporter of liquified natural gas by 2015.

Furthermore, as 70 per cent of the futures market for oil is controlled by speculators, no matter what political pandering, the US’s thirst for oil is well-documented and the market price will be dictated to it, not by it.

Also, if more and more countries turn their back on Iran we do not know if the West’s allies in Saudi Arabia will have the capacity to meet demand.

So where should investors look for potential companies that have found oil and may attract a bid in the current climate?

Let’s first be clear, it doesn’t come without risk. Bowleven (BLVN) investors found out in late February that all bids do not necessarily lead to a takeover. Dragon Oil came sniffing around but didn’t bite leaving investors staring at the smoke of a 30 per cent share price fall in five minutes.

On the other hand, if the temptation to get involved is just too overwhelming, do your homework, so you’re not left wearing the blindfold and pinning the tail on the donkey.

Remember, mergers and acquisitions activity attracts all the spivs so be careful what you read and take bulletin board comments with a pinch of salt – as if you were hearing it from a man in a pub.

Pick shares that are fundamentally sound and preferably have some of the black stuff already. Alternatively, for the gamblers out there, you can have a riskier punt.

Here are some of my ideas.

Potential targets

Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) 265p – Solid well, updates and rumours Exxon that may be interested in an acquisition in the area. Investors appear to be bullish on more imminent drilling updates.

Circle Oil (COP) 24p – Performing well. Recently upgraded recoverable reserves where it has licences by 30 per cent.

Xcite Energy (XEL) 130p – Recently upgraded estimates for the potential of its Bentley Oil field in the North Sea. Analysts say extraction will be complicated although they do expect further output upgrades to come.

Victoria Oil & Gas (VOG) 4.4p – Production in Cameroon bearing fruit and looking to other ventures.

Fancy a punt?

Bowleven (BLVN) 95p – Recently got hammered on the back of a failed bid approach by Dragon Oil. There have been concerns over the company’s ability to raise funds to continue operations in the past but there are other firms in the area who could replace Dragon as a potential suitor.

Gold Oil (GOO) 3.9p – Market awaits positive news from its next Columbian drilling update.

Night Hawk Energy (HAWK) 4.25p – Announced a work-over programme on existing wells in Colorado and planning five new wells this year.

Aurelian Oil & Gas (AUL) 19p – Company is actively looking for a buyer and announcing a licence extension in Poland could well help them find one.

Leni Oil & Gas (LGO) 1.35p – The market appears to be optimistic over operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

Max Petrolium (MXP) 13p – Hampered by all sorts of weather problems affecting drilling operations in Kazakhstan but investors remain optimistic.

For the record I do not own any shares in the aforementioned companies and do not plan to in the coming month. Good luck out there.

Mike McCudden is head of retail derivatives at our sister website, Interactive Investor

Investment themes

Don't worry about Iran. They are so much under pressure internally.

War is the best option for them. I hope none of the countries move towards war. Obama is doing great job.

No mention of Afren , Cyril ?

.

Hi Mnamreh,

Re Neutrinos clocked at light-speed in new Icarus test.

It appears that the same team attempted to measure how fast the UK debt was gathering pace. They failed, as the equipment was not accurate enough.

On a lighter note.

The Glasgow Rangers' manager flies to Kabul to watch a young Afghani play football, is suitably impressed and arranges for him to come over.

Two weeks later Rangers are 4-0 down to Celtic with only 20 minutes left, the manager gives the young Afghani striker the nod and on he goes.

The lad is a sensation, scores 5 goals in 20 minutes and wins the game for Rangers.

The fans are delighted, the players and coaches are delighted and the media love the new star.

When the player comes off the pitch he phones his mum to tell her about his first day in Scottish football.

'Hello mum, guess what?' he says 'I played for 20 minutes today, we were 4-0 down but I scored 5 and we won. Everybody loves me, the fans, the media, they all love me.'

'Wonderful,' says his mum, 'Let me tell you about my day.

Your father got shot in the street, your sister and I were ambushed and assaulted, your brother has joined a gang of looters and all the while you tell me that you were having a great time.'

The young lad is very upset. 'What can I say mum, but I'm really sorry.'
'Sorry?!!! Sorry?!!!' says his mum, 'It's your bloody fault we came to Glasgow in the first place!'

.

Try this link

http://www.moneya.com/

It is a misspelling of www.moneyam.com

It takes you to an advert for ADVFN.

Cor, how slimey of ADVFN. Not to mention a bit pathetic.

Smacks of desperation.

The web address was registered by ADVFN 13 Oct 2010

Maybe there is some scope for registering www.advFU.com

LOL nice one haystack.

Wales to beat France!!!!!!!

8-)


Ireland to beat England!!!


8-)))))))))

Talk of more airports needed : it seems everbody has forgotten about the new international airport that was built in kent costing 200 million pounds or so by planestation who went bust on it....now wouldn't the best thing to do would be to upgrade the rail link to the kent fast rail link ?...that would probably cost less than a new airport...

England may need the Red Cross.

wrong, as ever...

Got the important guess right.

But what a boring game at Twickers,

8-)

this was passed to me as a 'joke'
I think it deseves another title
s this man truly a genius or what?



Try applying this to the company and its appraisal system !!! Things cannot be any clearer .

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail..... (substitute grades for dollars
and it is readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied less. The second test average was a D!
No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that.
These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity..

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.