Yes an engineer but lets call it a TECH Engineer. Compressed air technology is its main business, develops industrial air compressors and Gas seals and whats more it provides them for the OIL and GAS industry.
Very close to commercialisation now with its compressors and seals and todays deal ( see below ) should bring that very close.

Charges upfront payments, continuing royalties and development contracts so revenues are not lumpy.

It as a market cap circa off the top of my head 20 million(hope my calculator is now working) and as circa of 5 million cash on the books, very nice.

Some very big names as customers.

Heres todays announcement...........

Corac Group Plc
26 May 2004


For Immediate Release 26 May 2004


Corac Group plc ('Corac')

Joint Industry Programme for Downhole Gas Compression

Corac, the intellectual property and licensing company specialising in
compressor technology, is pleased to announce the signature today of a Joint
Industry Programme ('JIP') for the development of its unique, patented downhole
gas compression technology.

Following the recent successful completion of a Shell funded feasibility study
which evaluated both the technical and economic viability of the technology,
considerable industry interest has been generated, culminating in the addition
of a further four major international oil and gas operators to the project.

The participants of the JIP comprise ConocoPhillips, ENI, Husky Energy,
Repsol-YPF as well as Shell, all of whom have gas assets worldwide which they
believe could benefit from this game changing technology. As well as covering
the development costs for the next phase, the participants will also make
substantial resource available to ensure the final product specification meets
the requirements of the industry.

Corac's downhole gas compression concept involves the coupling together of a
number of axial compressor modules in a single compression train for
installation in the well bore in close proximity to a gas reservoir. In this
location, a modest uplift in pressure results in a very significant increase in
gas production compared with conventional methods using surface compression,
thereby accelerating gas production and cash flow from a producing asset.
Potential production rate enhancement of up to 40% has been demonstrated through
the application of downhole gas compression during a number of gas field case
studies carried out over recent months.

Placing the compressor downhole could also have the effect of being able to
lower the reservoir abandonment pressure which in turn would materially increase
the ultimate recovery from a gas field, thereby further enhancing the economic
benefit from the installation of this novel application of existing technology.

Phase 1 of the JIP is scheduled for completion by the end of 2004, with further
engineering and development work leading to the manufacture and testing of a
prototype downhole in a producing gas well within the following two years.

Commenting on the JIP, Professor Gerry Musgrave, Chairman, said:

'The support from such eminent oil and gas companies vindicates Corac's
development to date of the downhole gas compression project and gives the Group
another product line to bring to the market using its core technologies. It is
the start of a major business development opportunity which is expected to have
significant international ramifications throughout the upstream natural gas
industry.'ENDS.

Although loss making at the moment it shouldnt be very long before this one turns the corner.

Outlook

The Company has a loyal, talented workforce dedicated to the innovation and
exploitation of the technology. Successful trials have demonstrated the
commercial performance in Corac's industrial air compressor and its seals. The
Board is striving to deliver the right manufacturing and sales licences which
will yield the best returns in the long term.

We are confident that a number of deals, which have been subject to recent
intensive negotiation, will be successfully concluded in the near term.

Short to medium term investment, and anyone interested should DYOR and please remember you are responsible for the timing of your buying and selling actions.

cheers GF.

almost inclined to top up, but fear that would be greedy and merely tempt fate

i also note that volume is nothing exciting and that average is only 250k a day.
not even any notably large trades either

Either the MM's are short of stock or they are playing games again with perhaps a large seller waiting in the wings?

cap is only about 80m and suspect much/most stock tightly held (easy to check, but can't be bothered for now) ..... i very much doubt there is a seller about, as rthat would alreday have been reflected to some extent.

however, whether or not there is more to the recent (and sustained) excitement than PI sheep jumping in is equally unclear, for there has been no announcement from the company.

Monday's announcement is all that was needed to trigger a re-rating, this was the 'official endorsement' that was required.

Given DGC is a unique to CRA technology capable of achieving very significant increases in gas recovery at very modest cost to the gas companies, then the market cap is but a mere trifle, even making allowances that full live deployment has not yet happened.

The pr on Monday also hinted at more partners to join the project, interest from large multi-nationals is very strong + further large names coming on board should further boost both the credinbility and the share price.

Current market cap still looks way to low to me, for whats on offer.
200m, or around 2.50, would be reasonable for the stage we are at. I expect the shares to move towards that level during the rest of the year, providing the excellent progress is maintained, imo.

even i cannot really disagree with that, though i am undecided on my course of action.

wow, that be a first, eh cynic!
anyway, very good timing on your trade.
Can I tempt you with VIY at all?!
I have a strong feeling that these are set for a very good run, imo.
Bargain basement prices will not presist for too long.

i already have VIY ..... you might like my latest post there!

i bought back a reasonable stake at 55, on which of course i am currently showing a great profit .... thank you Mr B (i think) for pointing this stock out to me in the first place.

greed tempts me to buy even more, but i fear it would be just that ..... though there looks to be a great future for this company (no idea at all what senisble upside might be in say next 6/12 months), the markets look pretty suspect and surely CRA cannot keep heading north without a reversal.

the chart history of CRA is one of ups and downs but, overall, trending up.
I expect that to continue, but I also expect the uptrend to gather a bit of pace as we are moving towards the business end of the dgc project.

Agree markets looks suspect, but there are always outperformers no matter what the markets overall are doing.
Given the huge financial benefits that only Corac can bring to gas/oil companies with DGC and the modest market cap of Corac, then I expect further outperformance from CRA.

would have to second that... with countless gas wells that can benefit from the DGC technology, 1000+ and sales of 750,000/1m a unit to the JIP's i would agree that a total re-rating will occur once a machine has been deployed successfully, not difficult to see it start an overall trend towards the 10 mark once they have started production at the unit they have located in Tyneside...

BigTed
10 sounds good for starters!
re 'the unit they have located in Tyneside... '
I know this was their preferred area, didn't know they had made any moves on this, are you saying that they have found something suitable in that area?

Are we due another blast of blue.
2517

BigTed, you around re my post 477?.......

Another nice move today,looks like it is going to go >1+ level real soon.

wish i could determine some sort of realistic target for this little gem ...... 1.00 should be readily realisable in the near(ish) future, but thereafter?????

depends on continued progress and newsflow I feel, cynic.
With live trials due to startbefore the end of the year and expected further companies to join the project, we could be looking at anything from 1+ to 2 by the year end.

Depends on ones time horizon, given the unique position CRA have had with this tech, the partners already on board, the high margins for the DGC unit, the strong financial drivers for implementation, they I see 5-10 as highly likely, thats if a services company has not bought them out for a couple of quid beforehand.

Are we assuming live trials are pretty much a foregone conclusion, or is it likely to be a rocky ride?

though these things never run absolutely smoothly, they seem to have done much testing beforehand, so i would have thought odds were promising

Not actually sure everyone else here (with the exception of NL) understands how big this COULD be, the first live trial has been ordered, as i understand it Repsol are also going to order to do their own independant field test, rumour is another large oil service co is looking to pay the 1m fee to become a JIP, the phone is ringing daily at CORAC with smaller co's who want to trial but without joining up - this could lead to CRA getting a royalty payment for extra gas recovered. A lot is obviously hanging on positive results down hole, but if successful and indications of anywhere near the 40% extra recovery being cited then even 10 in the next two years would be cheap... and i believe i am being realistic, not just with my head in the clouds... sorry NL cant confirm the unit in Tyneside, but understood it has been located, not sure at what stage they are at, would expect they need positive results from field test, as this will lead to rapid orders

I think we do understand & it is well summarised in the above RNS: " It is
the start of a major business development opportunity which is expected to have
significant international ramifications throughout the upstream natural gas
industry."
BUT, like most new innovations, the marketing is always going to be upbeat about the potential. No one, that I can see from any RNS or previous post, has paid much attention to possible problems. (One example, on the wind farm sites they were at one point having huge problems with the main transfer bearing, which transfers the down drive in to horizontal drive. This bearing was not up to spec & was costing a fortune to replace in situ.)
Of course I want this stock to do well, but I would also like to understand the risk factor.