http://www.gulfkeystone.com/ The firms exploration programme in Algeria is going well and "the shares look good value", say the Investors Chronicle. Your comments please. goal.

In the headlines today :

Gulf Keystone Petroleum started with sell rating at Goldman Sachs

No GKP RNS?
cyril

Surprize---- MOL MOL MOL

http://www.bse.hu/topmenu/issuers/issuersnews/105473481.html
Testing of Bijell-1 well in Akri-Bijeel block in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq successfully closed
MOL Hungarian Oil and Gas Plc. hereby informs the capital market participants that it has finished the
testing of the first well, Bijell-1 in Akri-Bijeel Block in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The cased hole test
performed in the depth of 3,804 3,967 m from Jurassic formations produced 2,700 bbl/d 12-13 API
oil through 40/64 choke. Earlier, the Bijell-1 well produced during an open hole test 3,200 bbl/d 18
API oil and 933,000 scf/d (150 boe/d) gas through 48/64 choke from interval 3,646 3,831 m,
Jurassic formations. Finally, a joint cased hole test was performed for the above two intervals (3,729
3,967 m) as well, with a result of 3,743 bbl/d 13 API oil and 618,826 scf/d (99 boe/d) gas through
48/64 choke.
Based on the above mentioned results, MOLs fully owned subsidiary, Kalegran Ltd. as operator of the
block, has notified the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq
confirming the presumed existence of the discovery. The testing results have proven the validity of our
geological model providing a solid basis for planning the appraisal program for this formation. The
exploration of the block entered automatically into the second subperiod of the initial exploration phase
in November 2010, where during the next two years, as a consequence of the results obtained from
Bijeel 1 well, we implement an appraisal program and also continue the exploration of the block
potential with appropriate capex investment.

Goldman Sachs ratings on a few companies out today.



BUYS

Rockhopper started with buy rating at Goldman Sachs
Nautical Petroleum initiated with buy rating at Goldman Sachs
Northern Petroleum started with buy rating at Goldman Sachs
Nighthawk Energy started with buy rating at Goldman Sachs
BowLeven initiated with buy rating at Goldman Sachs
Desire Petroleum initiated with buy rating at Goldman Sachs
Borders & Southern initiated with buy rating at Goldman Sachs
Falkland Oil & Gas initiated with buy rating at Goldman Sachs


------------

NEUTRALS

Tullow Oil downgraded to neutral from buy at Goldman Sachs
Sterling Energy initiated with neutral rating at Goldman Sachs
Valiant Petroleum initiated with neutral rating at Goldman Sachs
Max Petroleum initiated with neutral rating at Goldman Sachs
EnQuest initiated with neutral rating at Goldman Sachs
Tower Resources initiated with neutral rating at Goldman Sachs
Dominon Petroleum started with neutral rating at Goldman Sachs
Cove Energy started with neutral rating at Goldman Sachs
Faroe Petroleum initiated with neutral rating at Goldman Sachs
Melrose Resources initiated with neutral rating at Goldman Sachs

------------

SELLS

Gulf Keystone Petroleum started with sell rating at Goldman Sachs
Encore Oil started with sell rating at Goldman Sachs

Proselenes...at times you are ridiculous trying to deride things....remember when this was 65p...?...hmmmm...

Can't understand why no News released by GKP,they are after all partners?
cyril

i like the fact that goldman is covering gkp. usually when they say "sell" you will be selling and they will be buying.

StockMarketWire.com
Gulf Keystone says it holds a 20% working interest in the Bijeel-1 discovery well which has been successfully tested by MOL Hungarian Oil & Gas.

The cased hole test, performed at a depth of 3,804 - 3,967 meters in the Jurassic formations, produced 2,700 barrels per day (bbl/d) of 12-13 API oil through a 40/64 inch choke.

Gulf says that the results supports its belief that the Bijeel-1 well is the possible southern flank of the potentially significant Bekhme structure.

COO John Gerstenlauer, Chief Operating Officer adds:"Today's announcement by MOL brings the testing of the Bijeel-1 well to a successful conclusion and highlights the clear potential of the Akri Bijeel block, in which Gulf Keystone holds a 20% stake.

"In addition to this further positive exploration development, we are pleased that the Weatherford 842 drilling rig will now be able to be moved to the nearby Shaikan-2 location, as part of the ongoing Shaikan appraisal programme."

Heavy oil !

Thats the problem. By the time a production license is rubber stamped and everyone and their dog takes a cut there is little left to make a profit with, especially if the oil is heavy.

Unlike say XEL who have heavy oil but also have excellent tax incentives from the government and the ability due to that to turn a very good profit, Iraq is a different kettle of fish and its going to be difficult to turn a decent profit per barrel, what do you think ?

1 US$ per barrel profit ? Maybe 2 ? If it ever gets sorted ?

Haven't paniced here as Pro would have liked, sp seems to be holding up ok, maybe on the back of new drilling at Shaiken2 prospect......imo

Comment from Goldman Sachs today :

Gulf Keystone (GKP.L): Vast volume potential already in the price; Sell

Upgrades to reserves estimates at the companys Shaikan field in Kurdistan as the oil water contact is sought are a distinct possibility in our view. We believe, however, that the share price is reflecting a positive outcome to such a revision fairly aggressively. We give the company credit for over 1.6 bn net, risked barrels of reserves in Shaikan (prior to political risking for Kurdistan) on a net basis after accounting for the KRG back-in ahead of the P10 case assuming a 30% recovery rate. We believe that the potentially huge size of Shaikan could be of interest to strategic buyers (i.e. NOCs) and therefore see the potential for M&A involving the stock. Offsetting these potential attractions, however, is our more bearish view on Kurdistan relative to the market and relative to other regions as a result of the uncertainty surrounding exports and the licences granted by the KRG; we typically apply an additional 50% discount to the valuation of barrels in the region to account for this uncertainty.

Therefore despite the volumes we attribute to the stock and the M&A potential we include in our valuation, we continue to see more attractive upside in other stocks in our coverage universe. We also believe that Heritage offers a less expensive way in which to gain exposure to Kurdistan and therefore initiate coverage of Gulf Keystone with a Sell rating and a 12-month price target of 160p.

.

We will see.,.

Told myself take profits if dips into the 80's so have done so at 189p cynic will be pleased.,.

am stranded at h'row at the moment, so have not been that attentive ..... well done; go to the top of the class

Borrowed from the other side:

David Brent - 8 Nov'10 - 14:20 - 56163 of 56346


(CBS/AP) Leaders of Iraq's main political blocs met briefly Monday in the northern city of Irbil in a rare face-to-face gathering that failed to produce a new government and highlighted the many issues that still divide them.

All of the attendants emphasized that the opening session of what was described as a three-day meeting was a positive development for the gridlocked negotiating process, but that a new government was still far away.

After the roughly 90-minute, nationally televised meeting concluded, the political leaders agreed to meet again in Baghdad the following day. It was not immediately clear if the politicians would continue their talks privately late Monday in the Kurdish city of Irbil.

Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish Autonomous Region in northern Iraq, lobbied for the meeting to be held in Irbil, seat of the Kurdish government. He opened Monday's gathering with a call to Iraqi politicians to work together.

"It is a historic moment with deep meaning to meet together to discuss and agree on the country's future and to develop it in a way that meets the ambitions of the Iraqi people," he said.

The meeting was a who's who of the Iraqi political scene and the first time all the main political leaders have met since the March 7 election.

Even as the preliminary meetings took place, new violence highlighted the challenges that the country faces.
 
Police and hospital officials say a car bomb went off not far from one of Shiite Islam's holiest sites in the city of Najaf, killing seven people.

Officials say the blast went off about 500 yards from the shrine of Imam Ali, one of the most revered Shiite saints. Two Iranian pilgrims were among those killed.

The blast came hours after a car bombing in Karbala, another holy Shiite city south of Baghdad, also killed seven people.

Police and hospital officials said that six of the seven victims were Iranian pilgrims and that at least 35 others were wounded in the blast, including Iranian and Pakistani nationals.

The car bomb exploded at a parking lot in central Karbala that is used by pilgrims traveling between Iraq's holy sites. Such parking lots have often been targeted by Sunni militants unable to get close to the holy shrines due to beefed up security.

Among the crowd in the Irbil conference hall were current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the man who would like to take his job, Ayad Allawi.

Allawi heads the Sunni-backed Iraqiya coalition that won 91 seats in the parliament to al-Maliki's 89 seats. With neither side winning a majority in the 325-seat parliament, an eight-month period of intense political negotiations over the formation of a new government followed the March polls.

Al-Maliki described the meeting as a new push forward by the political blocs to reach an agreement.

"We need to open a new page and leave the past behind," he said.

But comments from many attendants indicated the difficulties involved in coming to an agreement between political parties that have in the past fought their battles on the streets and still view each other with deep suspicion.

Vice President Tareq al-Hashimi, a Sunni from the Iraqiya alliance, warned that negotiating committees who have been meeting for weeks before the Irbil summit had left many of the most contentious issues to the leaders to work out.

"Based on that, I do not think that the leaders will be able to solve these sticking issues because they need a lot of discussion and study," he said. "I do not know how the leaders, today and tomorrow, will be able to discuss this list of sensitive and strategic issues during this short period of time."

Hours before the political leaders met, seven pilgrims were killed in a car bomb blast in the holy Shiite city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of the Iraqi capital.

Looks like the political news is beginning to have an effect,generally cinsidered to be holding back the SP?
cyril

There will not be peace in Iraq for at least another 20 years or more.

cyril, there is a problem with the licenses.

The political problem has been used as a smokescreen to cover up the problems with the licenses, and people may soon realise that the problem is with the licenses and it was all smoke and mirrors talking about the politics.

imo.

An early comment of last nights presentaion.
cyril

First comment
Management think shareprice has a long way to go"

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"Institutional inveators now v interested in gkp

Shaikan numbers so far v conservative"

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"We r focus on KRG. 2 discos. SH and smaller Bejiel.
SH 2-8bn - we think these are VERY conservative and want to tell you this today!!!!!"

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From Proactiveinv,
cyril

The biggest Proactive Investors forum to date saw more than 200 people crammed into a regular venue at the Chesterfield in central London to hear presentations from four very exciting growth companies.

Proceedings were kicked off by Toronto-listed gold prospector Lydian International (TSX: LYD), whose shares have enjoyed an almost four-fold appreciation since the company last addressed us back in March.

Finance director Roderick Corrie gave us an update on progress on the Amulsar project in Armenia, which has an inferred JORC resource of 1.4 million tonnes yet is still open in all directions.

Proactiveinvestors recommends
Jupiter Energy strikes oil in primary target of J-50 wellPetrel Resources settles Iraq issuesLeni Gas & Oil: seeing is believingHaving carried out 24,000 metres of drilling, the group has enjoyed a steady flow of news, which will continue to the end of the year.

Exploratory work is expected to define new targets while advancing existing targets outside the current resource shell.

Column leach metallurgical tests, meanwhile, has resulted in recoveries from 77-89 per cent, though bottle roll tests managed recoveries ranging from 89-97 per cent, Corrie revealed.

All of which suggests Amulsar will be a low cost operation when it goes into production ahead of a deadline of 2013.

Rob Blankstein of Vancouver-based Andover Ventures (TSX-V: AOX) was next to the podium, and he revealed how the company had negotiated a US$60 million US Environmental Protection fine down to less than US$1 million to take control of wonderfully named Trixie gold mine in Utah.

Trixie ran for only two months before it was effectively closed down by the EPA, which imposed the penalty because of alleged lead and arsenic pollution.

More interesting, however, is the potentially company transforming joint venture with Anglo-American to explore what could be a major copper/gold porphyry prospect, also in Utah.

In fact most of Andovers interests are in the Mormon state, although it also has the Sun Project in the Ambler Mining District of Alaska, which is a strong poly-metallic area.

A switch from North to South America came when Jeremy Martin of Horizonte Minerals (LON:HZM) addressed the forum.

His is an interesting proposition: nickel and gold play. Horizonte's assets are focused on the Carajas region in Brazil, a recognised mining area with superb infrastructure.

This gives a great basis for taking a mine from development into production, chief executive Martin said.

The Araguaia nickel project, which brought in Teck Resources as a major investor, has the potential to be a big value driver with the mines development being fast-tracked by the Canadian giant.

But the hidden gems are probably the two tie-ups it has with AngloGold Ashanti worth more than US$10 million.

The nights star attraction Gulf Keystone Petroleum (LON:GKP) was the last to present. Finance director Ewen Ainsworth, recognising just how far the price has come in the past year, says there is potential for an awful lot more excitement.

He suggested that the work by Dynamic Global Advisors on the Shaikan-1 well in the Iraqi part of Kurdistan, which suggests oil in place of 1.9-7.4 billion barrels, could prove conservative.

He said there is a good chance of hitting the P1 number of 13 billion barrels. Using printouts from GKPs computer simulation he showed how the Shaikan, Sheik Adi and Akri Bijeel fields could all be part of same oil body and full of oil.

If this is the case, then it raises the prospect that discovery is of the scale of Kirkuk a 60 billion barrel oil field find.

The questions were an eclectic mix which ranged from the potential royalty and tax take of the Kurdistan Regional Government to the legitimacy of the contracts signed with regional government.

On the latter, Ainsworth said the KRG will make up the difference between contracts we have signed and what is eventually agreed with Baghdad.

Quizzed on the possibility of taking a strategic partner, Ainsworth chose his words carefully: If this proves out on the upside case, then we dont have the human resources or finances (to take the Kurdistan assets into production) it is not something we would do.