New Projects and good prospects. will be the winner in 2004. IMO
25p in early 2004

Grevis, excellent day!! Will have to get that picnic in for tomorrow, but have to go out again for a while. This might be of interest to you:

http://boards.fool.co.uk/Message.asp?mid=8649911&sort=postdate

Xmortal, well at least PCI will be giving you a boost today, and tomorrow also hopefully.

Cheers

Gav

KUMON Evil Knievel, cast a good spell on PCI:

How To Play The Oil Game
By UK-Analyst.com

Back in May the bears favourite argument was that spiralling oil prices would cripple the economy. The headlines talked of $60 crude. And then the threat seemed to disappear as OPEC promised to increase production and Tony Blair brought peace in our time to Iraq. Brent crude "collapsed" to just $33 in the space of a few weeks.

We say collapsed because that is how the newspapers report it. But you may remember that BP has admitted that at anything over $20 Brent it is making such huge windfall profits that it will have to hand billions of pounds of spare capital back to its shareholders. The reality is that $33 oil is very good news for the oil producers.

But crude won't stay in the mid thirties for long. It is slowly dawning on investors that OPEC has always cheated on its quotas so increasing production quotas does not necessarily equate to higher output. Moreover even if many OPEC producers wished to produce at full tilt it is very doubtful whether the infrastructure of, say, Iran could manage to run at full capacity for more than a few weeks. And of course Iraq is still not quite East Surrey - the export pipelines are blown up on a weekly basis. As an added bonus for oil bulls the Russian oil giant Yukos seems to be on the verge of going bust which is unlikely to add to exports from the FSU. With no sign of any slippage in demand you would be crackers not to have oil exposure in your portfolio.

Our view is that the way to play the oil game is via the second line explorer/producers. Unlike the majors these are pure oil plays with no exposure to refining or chemicals. As producers they benefit from higher short-term crude prices. But there is an added attraction. Companies such as BP and Shell now find themselves with an embarrassment of cash. However both have "mixed" exploration records of late. As such "drilling in the City" may well be viewed as a more attractive option than exploration in the field. Historically the oil cycle has worked this way. It is inconceivable that - at some stage over the next year - one of the majors won't have a pop at one of Tullow, Burren, Cairn or Dana. And when one receives a bid all will be re-rated. So we'd be looking to play the oil game with some exposure to the UK second liners.

UK-Analyst.com is a free website which sends out the UK's top stockmarket report plus a free share tip written by a panel of 25 top tipsters each working day. For more details of this free service click here

gavdfc: Found it:

Lost my bottle and dropped another 200,000 shares at 13p after posting this. Just seems to have gone too far too fast. Immediately got filled and starting to regret it since I was called 30 mins later because an institution was bidding for 5 million shares.

Didn't really want to let any more go before drilling but 96% of advfn users ( according to their user sentiment poll ) rate this a buy. Whilst I agree with SirL's general prognosis of a higher share price in coming months, that scares the hell out of me!

Still holding 1.4 million shares and holding on tightly.

WShak

Same message from someone else on yet another BB:

just a little some thing to wet your appetites,a broker was ringing round big holders today,trying to fill a 5mil order from a institutional buyer.

xmortal: Interesting post. Keep 'em coming!

Here's to a strong opening!

Morning all,

Good post Xmortal. Thought you would like the Fool post Grevis. PCI one of the biggest buys yseterday with Comdirect, hope it is today as well! Hopefully institutions still looking for lots of stock. L2 looking good, moving up already on no trades.

gavdfc: Good morning. PCI on the up again I see. MMs must be chasing that 5 million!

Good to see a rise again so far. Wonder how long it will take then to fill that order.

Well what a nice start to the day. Bit distracted first thing this morning so missed the opening salvo. Great to see this stock powering ahead again. That broker will be struggling to fill his order at this rate.

Major shareholders - taken from Petroceltics website:

Gartmore 41,345,349
Fidelity 30,394,294
Carmignac Gestion 19,600,000
BARNARD NOMINEES LTD 14,000,000
MR JOHN CRAVEN 12,000,000
MS MARIA ROCHE 11,005,470
BARNARD NOMINEES LTD 10,000,000
MS MARIA PEARL ROCHE 10,000,000
VIDACOS NOMINEES LTD 9,940,275
DAVYCREST NOMINEES LTD 8,650,000
APOLLO NOMINEES LTD 8,604,651
MR GRAHAM WRAFTER 8,533,333
LIROFF SECURITIES LTD 6,880,263

Here come the big buyers. Nice 500K buy has just shown up.

Thanks for the list Grevis. I wonder if the top 3 will be adding again? Good to see a 500k buy at full price.

I've had to put that list together with information taken from their website. The figures for Gartmore, Fidelity and Carmignac are from recent announcements but the others have not been updated since December, so others could be pushing up behind the top 3.

Well it's good to see some institutions putting their money on the table, and also increasing their stake. They wouldn't do so unless they were confident of a good return on their investment. All bodes well for the future, and our holdings!

gavdfc: We are up yet again. Bid/offer now 14.75/15.00p. Great stuff!

Excellent, now up 8.18% on the day. Thats some solid moves up in the last few days.

up 9.09%....

gavdfc: It's not enough. More please!

YUKOS awaits bailiffs as deadline passes
Thu 8 July, 2004 08:46



By Dmitry Zhdannikov

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's largest oil exporter YUKOS is waiting for the government to start selling off its assets after missing a deadline to pay $3.4 billion (1.8 billion pounds) in back taxes.

The deadline expired at midnight after talks with the authorities failed to resolve the issue which analysts warn could sap enthusiasm to invest in Russia and undermine economic growth.

Bailiffs can now arrive at any moment at the company's Moscow headquarters or its operations, which pump a fifth of Russia's crude oil.

"We have no fresh news. We are waiting," YUKOS spokesman Alexander Shadrin said.

The oil giant says it could collapse by the end of the year under a tax bill that totals nearly $7 billion for 2000 and 2001. Analysts say that could rise to $10 billion after audits of 2002 and 2003.

The firm's future to a large extent depends on whether main shareholder Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and other core owners who control YUKOS through holding firm Menatep, can reach a settlement with the Kremlin.

The politically ambitious Khodorkovsky is on trial for fraud and tax evasion and the charges against YUKOS are widely seen as part of a campaign against him by a Kremlin that tolerates little opposition.

Khodorkovsky's lawyer said on Wednesday that he had offered from his jail cell to give up control in return for the company's salvation but there was no word from officials.

"Khodorkovsky has the right to take a decision on behalf of all of us, and the (Kremlin) understands this perfectly well," Russian newspaper Vedomosti quoted a Menatep source as saying.

"They simply have no interest in these discussions. They don't have a united opinion of what to do with YUKOS now."

President Vladimir Putin pledged last month to try to prevent the firm's collapse, but legal blows have continued to rain down on YUKOS.

However, some analysts said bankruptcy looked a long way off.

"We believe the parties can still reach a compromise," Merrill Lynch said in a research note.

"Even if the government wanted to bankrupt YUKOS, a lack of experience with bankruptcy of this magnitude, unclear legislation and the fact the company has not exhausted all the legal means at its disposal ... indicate that YUKOS is unlikely to go bust," it added.

KHODORKOVSKY OFFER

A high-level YUKOS source said on Wednesday the company was in talks with officials on how to reach an amicable agreement and avoid bankruptcy.

But a YUKOS spokesman denied talks were going on and said the government had not responded to attempts to strike a deal.

"Unless the government gives us more time to pay back what we owe ... we will be, technically speaking, insolvent," said Hugo Erikssen, head of international information for YUKOS.

Many Russians may cheer the potential collapse of a company whose shareholders amassed huge fortunes in shady privatisations while most of the population was thrown into poverty after the Soviet Union collapsed.

But analysts say the selective bankruptcy of YUKOS could hurt everyone in a country banking on foreign investment to help double the size of the economy in this decade.