The tiny Irish stock on the brink of landing 'the first' post-sanction oil deal in Iraq. Ref 'Fleet Street Letter' 12-04-04..

Petrel will slide in this current situation...no end to these suicide bombers...SELL!



Suicide bomber lures Iraqis to their deaths Wednesday September 14, 10:25 AM

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber lured a crowd of Shi'ite day labourers to his minivan and blew it up, killing 114 people and wounding more than 156 in Baghdad's old town on Wednesday, Iraq's second deadliest car bombing since war began.

The bomber drew the men to his vehicle with promises of work before detonating the bomb, which contained up to 500 lbs (220 kilos) of explosives, an Interior
Ministry source said.

Gunmen also killed 17 people in Taji, a northern suburb of the capital, while bombs exploded across Baghdad all morning. Police said they seemed to be carefully orchestrated.

"It has been a hectic day with bombs exploding across Baghdad. It is highly likely that these attacks were coordinated," a police official told Reuters.

Fears of civil war have grown in the run-up to an October 15 vote on a new constitution for Iraq's post-Saddam Hussein era.

"We gathered and suddenly a car blew up and turned the area into fire and dust and darkness," said Hadi, one of the workers who survived the attack, which happened shortly after sunrise.

Bodies lay in the street beside burned-out cars, witnesses said. Some used wooden carts to haul away the dead.

Police said 114 people were killed and 156 wounded in the explosion. It was the deadliest attack since July, when 98 people were killed in a blast south of the capital.

The deadliest was a suicide car bomb attack on February 28 this year, which killed 125 people in Hilla, south of Baghdad.

Earlier this month more than 1,000 people died in the same district in a stampede on a bridge, triggered by fears of a bomber in a crowd during a Shi'ite religious ceremony.

"There's no political party here, there are no police," Mohammed Jabbar railed at the scene. "This targeted civilians, innocents. Why women and children?" he added, as bystanders shouted, "Why? Why?"

At the nearby Kadhimiya hospital, overflowing with victims, dozens of the wounded screamed in agony as they were treated on the floor, some lying in large pools of their own blood.

One man had severe burns to his arms and legs, and another victim, shivering uncontrollably, lay bleeding unattended.

Iraqi government officials have accused Sunni Arab militants of attacking majority Shi'ites, who were swept to power in January elections boycotted by most Sunnis, in a bid to spark a civil war.

Around two hours later another blast was heard in central Baghdad, and two more car bombs exploded shortly afterwards.

Police said five were killed and 24 wounded in one of the blasts, near the offices of a Shi'ite cleric. They said three police and three civilians were killed in another attack on a police convoy.

As explosions followed across the capital, a suicide bomber in a car blew himself up in northern Baghdad, killing 11 people lined up to refill gas canisters, police said. Another 14 were wounded in the attack.

Separately, gunmen dragged 17 people from their homes and killed them north of Baghdad early on Wednesday, police said.

The gunmen had rounded up their victims in the middle of the night in Taji. All were shot in the head, and all were Shi'ite relatives from the same tribe, police said.

CONSTITUTION TENSIONS

The October 15 vote has exacerbated tensions between the country's main communities, Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

Sunnis, who account for 20 percent of the population, dominated Iraqi politics for decades, under Saddam and before, and resent their loss of influence since his removal from power by the U.S. invasion of March 2003.

They fear the constitution will institutionalise their reduced role, by increasing autonomy for southern Shi'ites in line with the broad autonomy enjoyed by Kurds in the north, and by decentralising control of oil revenues.

The Iraqi army has been fighting Sunni insurgents for days in the northern town of Tal Afar, near the Syrian border, killing over 200 and capturing several hundred, according to Iraqi government reports.

"Since the operation began, there have been dozens of terrorists killed, 341 detained and 22 weapons caches found," the U.S. military said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

Late on Tuesday, U.S. aircraft also launched air strikes against targets in Karabila, another town near the Syrian border. The United States and Iraq say insurgents smuggle fighters and arms across the border, which Iraq closed in places on Sunday. Syria denies it.

Tensions also have been running high ahead of the trial of Saddam, still admired by some Sunnis, which is due to start on October 19. He faces trial on a single charge of mass killing in a village in reprisal for an assassination attempt on him in 1982.

If found guilty, Saddam may face death by hanging. The government has indicated it may not try him for other offences, potentially opening the way to his early execution.

(Additional reporting by Faris al-Mehdawi, Michael Georgy, Mussab Al-Kharailla, Yasser Faisal, Sebastian Alison; Writing by Sebastian Alison)

Heavens above -life is so cheap in Iraq-its unbelievable that one Arab can hate another Arab just because he belongs to another tribe.

There will never be peace in this country.
SELL UP AND TAKE YOUR PROFITS.

Totally agree with you, Gail...take your profits whilst you are there...don't be greedy.

'External Forces' are trying to create a civil war in Iraq so that can keep stealing their resouces. There is no animosity between tribes or factions. Did you read the stories about Sunni's helping Shi'its during the recent stamped. One sunni actually died hims trying to save a drowning Shi'it.
As soon as the occupying froces leave, the country will flourish and so will Petrel. I can see PET hitting 5 by Xmas in anycase.

Princess,

No worries.......EK's derampers are all out in force!

I must be dreaming if Petrel ever hit 5 by X'mas...as a offer, I will eat my shoes too.

does anyone here day trade on this share ?

hyleo, you can eat EK's too!!!

Read Abbott drilling co. take on getting oil out of Iraq,not for 5 years, seeDES thread.

Actually a Telegraph Business link -Abbot drilling co.

Well, not quite what was said mbugger-

"Iraq will not start to produce "substantial oil" for at least five years, according to the boss of Abbot Group, Britain's biggest oil drilling company."

I don't expect PET's contribution to be substantial within five years.

Abbot PLC web site indicate they are drillers and sell drills and rig bits. Dont blame them for not wanting to send staff to Iraq. I am sure this bloke from Abbot watches the news like the rest of us and makes judgements based on what is reported. life goes on through the bombs and the bullets as in Northern Ireland as it does in Israel etc. People will always work in the background risking their lives to put things right and restore normal patterns of life as they are doing now. Wealth creation will be slow and investment interest hard to find. ie Abbot. In the end the loonies and the anarchists will be killed or go some where else or get absorbed into normal politics. Five years or thirty years it makes no difference but if oil is the key to wealth no amount of chaos will stop progress towards that wealth. I hope Petrel will suceed and some more balanced news about Iraq in the media would be good. Petrel people are obviously well hard and deserve some national coverage for their nerve.
I still hold.
F

Well put frodo!

I watched the 10 o'clock news on the BBC the day of the mass bombings and shootings and they made it sound as though civil war was immenent. I later learned that most Iraqies don't see it that way at all. They are more than aware that this is what the terrorists are trying to achieve and the Iraqies themselves are determined to see a united and successful Iraq.

On the subject of SL, I believe this is in one of the more stable/quiet areas of the country. Also in open desert, so should be easy to defend.

-Not worried.

the sunnis and she'ites have been living side by side for over 1300 years civil war my a...!

Posted on AD..VN,

Why you should always DYOR 21/9/05

EK has stated that he is shorting PET because he doesn't think they will find any oil in Jordan. His reasoning (and something Simon Self was banging on about in January) is because Anadarko didn't find anything there when they had the licence in the 1990s. Gas was not economically viable at that time as the excerpt from Anadarko's report shows, and would not have been something they would have pursued after study of the seismics.

Only 1 well has ever been drilled on the E Safawi block, it was initially drilled by FINA in 1990, then revisited by Anadarko in 1997 and drilled to a deeper depth in the hope of finding oil. Gas wasn't of any intrest at the time, Anadarko were looking for oil in E Safawi.

So with the Risha gas field adjacent, gas now an economic option, and 8000 sq km more area to explore why would anyone base there shorting investment on 1 failed well?

I have provided all of the links to the relevant information, I invite any of the shorters to provide me with links to information showing any contrary facts to support their theory on Jordan.

I actually spent about 20 minutes researching the following information it wasn't hard to find.

This is from Anadarko 2000 Annual Report.
================================
Natural gas made an astonishing comeback in 2000. Following a deep and painful crash in early 1998, prices soared in the fall of last year to their highest levels ever. The reasons for this sharp and sustained rebound are many. Underlying them all is the fact that clean-burning natural gas is now the energy of choice to fuel electricity plants that are being built on the heels of a decade-long economic
boom. The result is unprecedented growth in demand for natural gas.

http://www.anadarko.com/PDF/2000_annual.pdf P9

Seems all they have done on PETs licence is to revisit an existing well looking for oil at deeper depths.
==========================================================================

http://www.nra.gov.jo/opportunities.htm#3. History of oil exploration in Jordan

Anadarko (1996-1999)

The company deepened well QA-1 Re., in Safawi block (Basalt Plateau)

Safawi -104 Qitar abed - 1 QA-1 Fina Jun. 1990 2923 Perm. Dry
Safawi -104 Qitar Abed - 1 QA-1 Re. Anadarko Nov. 1997 4016 Cambr/ord Dry

Price just dropped, presumably this is the reason, news just out.



Extract only.

A suicide bomber has driven a car into a bus carrying employees of Iraq's oil ministry, killing at least six people and wounding 14.

The bombing near the ministry was the bloodiest attack on Iraq's energy industry since insurgents began blowing up pipelines and killing oil officials after the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.

Greekman - source of above news please?

EK is not basing his shorting strategy on one failed well, but the wrong theory from a sheep called lucian, whom suggested PET will need city funding for Iraq. That is wrong, as PET have already stated they have Japanese funding in place. This was covered in some detail at http://lemminginvestor.com/secure/PetrelResoucesDavidHorganJuly27.html

EK also plays on the current climate of bombings, etc.

The fact remains the same as it was last year. Iraq is high risk, that has not stopped the share price from gushing above 133p and then bombing when news dried up, followed by the Reuters error, then exploding again when favourable news broke. The risks are high, short or long.

EK was also informed that Jordan has no oil. This may or may not be true, no one knows for sure but what Jordan does have is GAS. Gas is being extracted close to PET's new license area there.

PET were not in Jordan looking for hyrocarbons........they were examining the geology there to help interpret the data from block6 in Iraq as the rocks in block6 come close to the surface in Jordan. Whilst in Jordan their results prompted an application for a license which they now have. -They must have good reason for wanting the license!

Basically niether EK nor his tipster had done their homework on PET and now only have the security situation in Iraq to play on. That may be quite a substantial problem in itself but the potential rewards are also substantial. PET are in a very strong position in Iraq and Iraq badly needs to start producing oil as soon as possible. For Iraq to secure the loans it needs to rebuild the country it must first show that it can generate the revenue to pay them back.

PET recently gave a seminar to Iraq's government on oil exploration/production and profit sharing agreements after being invited to do so............Obviously well respected over there.

The big question now is will the US Government, sorry, the 'insurgents' allow PET to succeed here?