anyone got any ideas about the block trades that went through today?

website: http://www.sterlingenergyplc.com/



weather: www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/084938.shtml?50wind120

hey guys i make it another good volume of trades today with buys on top. Enjoyed the dialogue the last few weeks , looks an interesting play seems a really strong growth prospect .

thx for the contribution after a couple of blank posts!

this does feel like a strong buy and if you are not on board there are far worse places to keep your cash right now.

nice thing about this name is that it is already a producer with proven reserves and valued at 100m. plenty of room for expansion with the upcoming drill program.

rgds
proptrade

Sterling is on the slide today but as you said proptrade its not a place to have your money as the fireworks have not started yet with this share price.My personal opinion is a 12 month price target of 50p.

actually bowman i meant it IS a place for your money right now, and preferable to many of the other spivvy stocks out there.

today is a bit of a breather and i am actually thinking about adding.

if your 12 month is 50p then i think now is the time to get on board, just before the drilling commences.

Morning.

Just added 10000 @ 15.41p.

Just after someone bought a million!!

like your style...

Not much doing otherwise, it looks like LSE has gone to sleep.

At the moment yeah there isn't a lot happening i agree seawallwalker , but i have noticed quite a few shrewdies around including yourself picking sterling up, i myself hold a few and as proptrade said now is a good time to buy and i agree with his comment stronglu. I wouldn't be surprised if the maestro's at shares magazine or investors chronicle picked up on this share in the next month or so.

I have recently seen a recommendation to buy in the IC for SEY.

About 3 weeks ago, just a recommendation so they are watching!

Price is still holding reasonabley well despte the Oil Price fall back to $33

interesting times but i do think oil had hit a floor at these levels and will probably see it back to 35 over the next few weeks.

I missed the IC comment, does anybody have a copy?

small tick up near close after 500,000 bot

Morning all.

SEY Gone to sleep for the morning by the looks of things.

Morning all,

Late trade just went through for 1050000 at 15.50p, wonder if it was a buy or a sell? Am new to this thread.

yup, i wouldn't be surprised to see a small ease in the price until the first well is spudded.

this is a long term play and weakness should be met by averaging some more in

rgds
proptrade

Afternoon folks , been having a look at oilbarrel.com nice little site for oil & gas companies.They do get interviews with guys like Harry Wilson. You guys seem to no your stuff out there regarding sterling. Harry himself has talked about further aquisitions, name a company which would be a good buy for sterling and why.
This is one of the quietest days in the last few weeks for sterling trades. I fancy buying a lot more before drilling starts and any sign of further weekness.

If Harry can impress backers like he did last time with Fusion OIl then a company with a similar African Portfolio, or even a partner in current exporations may a possibility.

If it is the latter as a possibilty then nothing would happen until some results were showing from the wells. Currently little or no exposure to risk!!

Otherwise short term consolidation is the answer right now.

Everything is already going for them.

Of course they look a good target themselves, Woodside and Hardman could be the predaters here.

Woodside already hold a large portion of Hardman so Woodside may just become hungry if results start to show.

i couldn't agree more, seawallwalker, definately a bid target themselves. What often happens with Aussie oils (as an example) is the when the smaller players get some critical mass they are so often acquired at around 50% higher than current levels.

i know this sound wishful thinking but i have been around long enough to smell a decent stock and also to identify those that don't stay independant for too long.

time will tell but i don't necessarily think the run up to the first spud in August will be quiet for Sterling

Global oil capacity growth hinges on mega-projects
Thu 1 July, 2004 13:44

By Jonathan Leff

LONDON (Reuters) - The smooth, prompt start-up of about a dozen big-ticket oil projects over the next 18 months is more important than ever to meeting global oil demand growth and keeping prices under control, analysts say.

These multi-million-dollar oilfield and pipeline plans should deliver 2.4 million barrels per day (bpd) of new production capacity before the end of 2005, mostly in non-OPEC areas such as the former Soviet Union, Brazil and West Africa, a Reuters survey found.

A host of second-tier developments adds more than one million bpd.

Delays to a few of these fields could propel oil's five-year price boom to new highs, with demand growth galloping at its fastest rate in 24 years and OPEC pumping closer to its own capacity than any time in more than a decade.

"The diminishing cushion of surplus capacity within OPEC means that there is real need for these big non-OPEC projects to come through," said Steve Turner of Commerzbank.

Just a few months ago analysts saw 2005 as a major test for OPEC, with a burst of new oil from non-cartel countries stealing market share. Now, the test is whether OPEC and other producers will be able to pump enough oil to keep up with consumption.

Driven by China's economic expansion, oil demand growth this year has surged an estimated 2.3 million bpd, while the rise in non-OPEC output will lag that substantially at only 1.2 million bpd, the International Energy Agency says.

Analysts expect average non-OPEC supply growth of around 0.8-1.4 million bpd next year, still likely to fall short of an estimated 1.5-2.0 million bpd rise in demand.

"The global oil industry has been caught out by two consecutive years of oil demand growth above two percent and production capacity has not risen fast enough to meet increased demand while maintaining a buffer of spare capacity," the Centre for Global Energy Studies said.

The shortfall in capacity growth next year has added a heightened sense of urgency for new fields to deliver on-time oil -- or risk a shortage.

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is now producing crude to within one to two million bpd of its maximum, or less than three percent of the 80 million bpd world market, analysts estimate.

With such a small margin of error, relatively minor supply hiccups can have a major impact on oil prices, which a month ago soared to 21-year peaks over $40.

Major outages like the Iraqi pipeline sabotage in June and last week's Norwegian strike have kept the market on edge.

"Had these disruptions lasted for months, as opposed to days, there would likely not have been enough excess capacity available worldwide to make up for the total loss of exports, resulting in upward price pressure," the U.S. Department of Energy said in a weekly report.

"Since capacity expansion involves substantial investment and long lead times, minimal spare capacity for the mid-term appears likely, barring a significant decline in oil demand growth."

SOME PROJECTS PRONE TO DELAYS

The 11 mega-projects of more than 150,000 bpd expected onstream before the end of next year are heavily concentrated in the former Soviet Union, Brazil and West Africa, a Reuters survey found.

International oil majors have focused on big projects as a drive to improve profit margins force them into frontier areas to find the big fields that bolster profits.

These emerging provinces have already suffered setbacks and delays.

Shell's flagship 225,000 bpd Bonga field in Nigeria has already been pushed back by more than a year and will now start up "well into" 2005, while Brazil's numerous offshore platforms have also suffered repeated delays.

Russian and Caspian production growth depends heavily on three near-term pipeline projects bringing the oil to market, one of which still needs government approval.

More than three-quarters of the new mega-projects will launch next year, with the majority delivering peak flows quickly since they are largely pipeline or offshore developments.

Including smaller developments, more than 3.5 million bpd of capacity at platform should be started up next year, up from 2.5 million bpd this year, according to Robert Skinner, director of the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies.

The estimates of new capacity next year are much higher than forecasts for non-OPEC production growth, which averages output over the year and takes into account declining production from mature basins like the North Sea, where production fell six percent last year.

CRUNCH MAY EASE

While the capacity crunch is big news now, there is no certainty it will last. OPEC's own capacity should increase in the medium-term, analysts say, while a near-term fall in prices should also take some of the pressure off.

"We believe there will be a significant price decline in the next six to 12 months," said Sarah Emerson of Boston-based Energy Security Analysis. "At that point the nervousness over tight spare capacity will drop off because OPEC is likely to cut back."

Nigeria and Saudi Arabia have big plans in the works in the next 18 months, but the real expansion should come from 2006 onward, analysts say.

Geoff Pyne, consultant for Sempra Energy, estimates cartel capacity, which stagnated around 30-32 million bpd for the past seven years, will climb to 35 million bpd by 2006.

Saudi Arabia has said it could raise its sustainable capacity by as much as four million bpd if demand warranted it, but says the 800,000 bpd of new oil from Qatif and Abu Safah flowing from October is only meant to offset intentional declines in older fields.

Libyan production is likely to get a fillip from the post-sanctions return of U.S. firms to frozen assets, while the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Nigeria all have projects in the works in several years' time.

Iraq holds the world's second-largest oil reserves and could probably ramp up production relatively quickly, but the massive investment necessary for that still appears years away.

Sterling Energy PLC
02 July 2004



Drilling campaign starts in Gulf of Mexico



Sterling Energy plc ('Sterling') has commenced drilling the A5 ST (Sidetrack)
well on its High Island A-68 lease in the Gulf of Mexico offshore Texas.



The well is the first in a drilling programme planned to more than double
production over the next 12 months from recent levels of around 11 million cubic
feet of gas equivalent per day. It is targeting 'attic' gas reserves updip from
existing productive wells.



Sterling Operations and Technical Director Nigel Quinton said: 'This well marks
the start of an extensive drilling campaign in the Gulf of Mexico in which we
expect to drill at least 6 new wells and undertake the work-over of a number of
existing wells.'



The A5 ST well is located in shallow waters (less than 100 ft) approximately 75
miles south east of Houston, Texas. It is immediately north of Sterling's High
Island A-94 lease acquired in August 2003. Drilling is expected to take up to 3
weeks.



The High Island A-68 lease covers 5,760 acres, and the field, which was
discovered in 1987, has produced a total of 135 billion cubic feet of gas to
date. Participants in the lease are Sterling Energy Inc (Operator) 50% and
Endeavour Oil & Gas Inc (a subsidiary of Pan Andean Resources plc) 50%.