It seems there is some support around the 139p at the moment
very volatile at opening and usually with l weak prices till the buy in kick in the order book

OIL prices keep falling, as is share prices now
COMPARE

SINCE YESTERDAY'S INTRADAY LOW OF 133p, the share price has revovered, yesterday and again today on low volume.

Brent oil lost a lot of ground today, but since the market close is recovering fast again now $ 55.70

At 4.48pm, WTI crude was down 1.84% to $49.17/bbl, while Brent eased 3.24% to $55.25/bbl.

OIL PRICES

This morning
Brent added 1.3% to $55.65 a barrel, while US crude futures rose 1.8% to $50.02 a barrel.

Crude oil futures rallied after Saudi Arabia raised prices for sales to Asia, taking back some of their sharp losses marked before the holiday weekend after Thursday's preliminary agreement between Iran and global powers on Tehran's nuclear programme.

price well up at close
Brent up to $57.81 a barrel, while US crude futures rising to $51.89 at close

Share price rise to 141.90p and over 143p at one time, reflected yesterday's strong oil price

Breaking 145p as oil price had reached $58 once again

A strong rise today but by the amount oil price is rising now should be much better

moving over earlier highs and spiking

15.50pm crude oil traded at $53.30 a barrel and Brent at $58.90.

BREAKOUT

Is shell starting the expected rush to buy oil companies?
naturally BIG buying SMALL

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/11521123/Shell-in-talks-to-buy-BG-Group.html

out of curiosity, while i know that OPHR holds plenty of licences, is the company actually pumping any oil at this juncture?

after such a spike at the start of the day, 61.8% retracement has taken place
High 167p
low 145.60p
61.8% retracement 154p

re - BREAKOUT

153.50p was yesterday the next resistance, that was broken a the start of the day and on doing the retracement the 153.50p was then resistance, so the share price only came down to 154p aswell as the retracement 61.8%
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These oil stocks are potential bid targets
By Lee Wild | Wed, 8th April 2015 -

These oil stocks are potential bid targets It was only a matter of time before BG Group (BG.) fell to a takeover approach. Actually, City watchers have been predicting this event since the oil assets of British Gas were split from the residential gas business (now Centrica) in 2000. But is this the beginning of a sector-wide consolidation, or an opportunist bid for a perennial bid favourite?
Well, the consensus is that a flurry of takeovers similar to those that took place in the late-1990s is unlikely. With oil prices having plunged to just $10 a barrel, Exxon bought Mobil, BP (BP.) splashed out $48 billion on Amoco, and French titan Total bought Petrofina and Elf.

However, it may not be so easy to get many mega-deals past the regulators this time round.

"Shell (RDSB) does not have a great record of success in M&A and we are not convinced that this unleashes a wave of M&A amongst the big players," says Westhouse Securities. "Anti-trust issues will prevent the bigger players combining."

But there are plenty more fish in the sea and investors are advised to look further down the food chain for bid action.

"M&A is necessary amongst the mid-sized and smaller players, particularly in the E&P sector and would highlight Tullow Oil (TLW) (West and East Africa), Ophir Energy (OPHR) (East African gas), Dragon Oil (DGO) (massive cash balance), Genel Energy (GENL) (Kurdistan) and SOCO International (SIA) (SE Asia) as probably the top five candidates amongst UK listed players," writes Westhouse.

Consolidation also needs to occur amongst the smaller players as there are too many sub-scale, poorly funded, single asset/country companies listed on public markets."

Here, the broker highlights North Sea explorers Faroe Petroleum (FPM), Ithaca Energy (IAE) and Parkmead (PMG), as well as Rockhopper Exploration (RKH), Bowleven (BLVN), Circle Oil (COP), Lekoil (LEK) and Chariot Oil & Gas (CHAR), "all candidates for takeover given their depressed valuations relative to their portfolios".

Clearly, the market agrees, and share prices are already reflecting heightened bid speculation.

Sold the second lot at 157+

1 - Oil price is weakening from reaching $59.20 is now $57.20
2 - Profit is too large since buying at 121.91p gain of 35p or 28.70%
3 - share price over the higher Band at BB
4 - running out of time on the T+20

The Capital Group Companies,

sells close to 1M shares
the 8th April goes under 8%

beffore 57,426,688 over 8% now 56,445,647 or 7.9305%

Upgraded but down on the day, yesterday was the highest price recently
---------------------------

Ophir upgraded by JP Morgan

JP Morgan Cazenove has removed Ophir Energy (LON:OPHR) from its list of stocks to avoid and upgraded to a more moderate 'neutral' rating from 'underweight', today.

The broker reckons that the new look Ophir offers a more diverse and sustainable outlook, if more complex.

"We believe the operational uncertainty means it is too early to be outright bullish, but see downside risk as diminished; we therefore upgrade from UW to N and increase our Dec-15 PT to 172p from 167p previously," analyst James Thompson added.

The shares have risen by 37 per cent in the past month, despite losing 3 per cent by mid-afternoon, today.

At 16:48pm: (LON:OPHR) Ophir Energy share price was -5.25p at 159.75p

I am back in @ 142p after dropping so much today due to ............

PLACING OF 56,607,366 ORDINARY SHARES IN OPHIR ENERGY PLC
(THE "COMPANY") BY KULCZYK INVESTMENTS SA ("KULCZYK") AND CERTAIN SUBSIDIARIES OF KULCZYK
30 April 2015

Further to the announcement released yesterday, Kulczyk and certain subsidiaries of Kulczyk (the "Kulczyk Entities") announce that they have sold 56,607,366 ordinary shares in the Company at a price of 140 pence per share (the "Placing"). The Kulczyk Entities have raised aggregate gross sale proceeds of approximately £79.3 million through the Placing. Following completion of the Placing, the Kulczyk Entities will not hold any ordinary shares in the Company.

The proceeds of the Placing are payable in cash on usual settlement terms, and closing of the Placing is expected to occur on 5 May 2015, subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain customary conditions.

The STRONG Support will be if gap is fill @ 125?

But GAP's not always get fill, specially if they are so far away down

The only reason the share price has fallen for the last couple days is for the news of the placing, otherwise everything is OK with the company, and even today the OIL price is rising to new highs

intraday resistance @ 145p

That will be the figure to look for, already reached once and fallen again
It was ( looking at the intraday chart ) the price the Market Makers drop to at the start of the day
once it get over that then time to look forward to stronger bounce back

Submitted by Tyler Durden.

WTI Crude futures are up almost 6%, spiking above $48.50 into the close and options expiration… no fundamental catalyst for now… Once again, crude futures have been ‘spoofed’ all day so this is hardly a surprise.

Mootley Fools have fallen to its depths as no writer has any credibility for some time now and certainly this one falls into that category..................

Why Ophir Energy Plc Is Plunging Today… And Why I Would Sell!
By Motley Fool | Thu, 30th April 2015 - 10:41

It's not a great a time to be invested in small oil and gas producers, and today's news about Ophir Energy's (LSE:OPHR) placing just reinforces that view. Its shareholders were the biggest losers in the FTSE 250 on Thursday at the time of writing.

The Placing

Ophir announced today that Kulczyk Entities, its second-largest shareholder, had sold 56.6m shares at 140p apiece for about £79.3m. Following the completion of the placing of its 8% stake, Kulczyk Entities will not hold any ordinary shares in the company.

This is a big problem, for two reasons. First, Ophir loses credibility and a key, cash-rich shareholder at a critical time when relationships are vital to its success, particularly when it comes to looking for new partnerships.

Second, it loses a possible source of cash: Ophir is solid financially, and has cash on the balance sheet, but may need to raise funds in the next 36 months if its assets do not produce the required level of cash flows.

Inevitably, the shares were hammered in early trade today, having lost 11% of value so far. More pain may lie ahead, and here's why you'd do well to cut your losses if you are invested.

My Take

If weakness in oil prices persists, the oil and gas producer could become less comfortable with its cash position, as heavy investment remains core to its strategy.

As I recently argued, the good news is that Ophir's balance sheet isn't stretched, but to fund its ambitious expansion plans, it may need up to $500m a year in heavy investment -- and those are funding requirements for much bigger players.

Ophir, whose core assets are based in Africa, has recently announced to have almost halved its capex programme to $250-300 million, but nobody really knows if it'll manage to stick to the plan as it needs investment to grow as a profitable entity.

Opportunity/Salamander/Oil

If you think this is a good opportunity to snap up the shares, also consider that Ophir has lost about $250m in the past three years, and is unlikely to report meaningful economic profits at least until 2017.

M&A is also core to its strategy, which heightens the risk of the investment.

When Asian oil explorer Salamander Energy was bought at the end of 2014, the all-stock deal held a "compelling strategic logic", according to management, but only analysts seem to have bought into such an argument. It has yet to be seen whether the deal makes any sense financially and economically.

The acquisition of Salamander, which was completed last month, hasn't done much to lift spirits, and Ophir stock has gone nowhere since November, in spite of bullish price targets from analysts, according to which Ophir should now be worth more than 200p a share, rather than 143p.

Ophir remains a "high-risk/uncertain-return" investment -- one for which you may record hefty losses if Brent stays below $65 per barrel into 2016.