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.

Tradibg in the 373p's,375p is a trigger for more options to the directors.

looks to have run out of steam so sliced at 366.25p. hope monday isn't a huge jump first thing.,.

Had a 372p limit sell on the system, which has now triggered. I'm out, but hope not too soon. Can't actually believe it reached my target.............!

greedily bought them all back at 371, but fortuitously even those are now in the money

Drat i was waiting to say 3hundred and EIGHTY,but it fell back.

So now i'll say it.

3 hindred and EIGHTEEEEE

Wow!

Quite incredible....sold some too early needless to say...retained the rest...could not watch this afternoon...otherwise would have bought them back....anyway...pleased still the same....

Finished well in the 390's in USA.

From the Independant.

While bid speculation was still swirling around Kurdistan-focused Gulf Keystone Petroleum, there were also vague rumours doing the rounds that the punters' favourite could soon unveil a decent oil find.

With it also being helped by the French giant Total saying it was examining "very closely" the possibility of investing in the autonomous Iraqi region, the explorer spurted up 40.25 to 382.75p, continuing a run in which its share price has doubled in little more than a month.

I am thinking 400p soon.

Yeah, but you said 6p LLOY !!! ;o)

i would like to see a professional analyst's view of the value of GKP ..... that's not to say it would be correct, but at least it would give a sensible start point

One posted earlier.

RenCap summary note:

"Gulf Keystone Petroleum (HOLD: GBP2.10, 33% downside potential). While we acknowledge that part of the 63% share run YtD is due to operational results, we believe that the majority of it is in the market’s anticipation of the sale of the company. However, the surge in the share price could have the opposite effect, in our view. The company now appears expensive to us compared with its peers and it is difficult to imagine that a potential acquirer would assign a significant additional premium to the current price. However, if the M&A does not happen for a while, we may see a downward revision in the market’s takeout premium expectations. Therefore, at these levels, we believe that the risk/reward characteristics of this M&A play are not that attractive. Other than M&A, the next big operational catalyst, in our view, is results from the Ber Bahr exploration well, expected in mid-February."

Given the strong run you would guess that BB-1 results are going to be good....... !!

good politician's article (2691), but it is a worry that the all the buying appears to be from PIs .... on the other hand, there has patently been a lack of sellers as shown by the consistent 3 or 4:1 differential between bid and offer over the last 7-10 days

Copied from another board.

Typed from news paper

A piece about GKP in the Daily Mail and Telegraph today.

From Daily Mail.
Kurdistan explorer Gulf Keystone Petroleum,Another takeover favourite,Gushed
40.25p to 382.75p in hefty trading

From The Telegraph.
Also on the rise was AIM Listed Gulf Keystone Petroluem,the Kurdistan focued explorer.

It closed at a record high of 382.75p up 40.25p as investers once again got
excited about the possibility of a TAKEOVER after France!s TOTAL SA said it
was looking to invest in Kurdistan.

Gulf keystone also rose on Thursday when it said it had appointed advisers to help with the sale of an exploration stake.

Over the week, Gulf Keystone added 79.25p.

Last year the company said it was "activly pursuing" a move from Aim to a Premium Listing; its Market Cap now stands at COOL BILLION above FSTE 100 Explorer Cairn Energy.

All of which is good news for former Ashley Kozel forder of Gulf Keystone's Cheif Executive Todd Kozel, who received 17.4m shares from her ex-hushband in Januray

http://www.whatinvestment.co.uk/trading/share-dealing/trading-trends/1691613/top-ten-trades-friday-10-february-2012-until-noon.thtml

Todays Independant


Playing the oil co roulette

The oil sector has been brought firmly back into play after BP swung into a full-year profit of £15bn. In 2010 it made a £3bn loss following its Gulf of Mexico catastrophe.

However, the resilience of BP, coupled with its ability to generate cash, has allowed it to not only return to profit but to increase its dividend by 14 per cent.

For many investors, the majors such as BP, Royal Dutch Shell and BG Group will be about as close they want to get to oil and gas. Those that have dabbled have seen their investments deliver market-beating returns over the past decade – about 6 per cent a year in the case of Shell.

However, even those returns are trumped by a trio of explorers, Tullow Oil, Premier Oil and Cairn Energy. They have delivered returns of 2,526 per cent, 1,263 per cent and 1,975 per cent, respectively, since 2000. It just goes to show that investing in relatively unknown oil explorers at an early stage can reap handsome returns.

But how can private investors identify the next Tullow, Premier and Cairn? It is not easy, as oil exploration owes as much to luck as it does to sound geological research.

Leaving luck to one side, a good way of identifying potentially successful explorers is to look for senior people who have left the majors and struck out on their own.

Valuing oil explorers is not an exact science but it is better to be vaguely right than exactly wrong. Your portfolio could include some of the majors and proven oil companies such as Tullow and Cairn. You can then think about sprinkling in more speculative explorers that you have valued, aiming for a good geographical spread.

Using this scattergun approach may feel more like playing "Explorer Roulette" than investing. But with a portfolio of 10 speculative explorers, you should only need one or two to strike it rich for your bet to pay off.

David Kuo is director of the financial advice website www.fool.co.uk

Lets hope this is not another false dawn and has favorable terms for the Kurds? It would be an importent part of the puzzle,allowing real progress to take place, imo?

By: Shwan Zulal-The Iraqi Cabinet has finally approved the draft Hydrocarbon law and will soon be read in parliament. This latest development comes on the backdrop of another draft oil law, which was introduced by the Iraqi Parliamentary committee for energy pushed, by Iraqiya List and the Kurds.

Incumbent MPs walked out of parliament when the draft was supposed to have its first reading accusing the energy committee for not consulting with the government and calling the draft law weak and insubstantial. The first Hydrocarbon Bill surfaced in 2007 and due to political differences between the competing interests of the political factions and disputes over the legality of the Kurdish contracts, it was delayed since.

The parliamentary committee has always been calling for the enactment of a hydrocarbon law before holding any further hydrocarbon auctioning rounds. However, the Government has not made it its priority to try to push for the law and concentrated on developing the oil and gas sector with little progress. Commentators believe the law might be passed before the January auction. And the Iraqi government is adamant that the 4th round of auction should go ahead regardless of the enactment of the law.

This legal conundrum has created a tremendous amount of uncertainty for Kurdish Region and oil and gas companies operating there. Moreover, other companies operating in the south of the country feel vulnerable too as the Iraqi government does not yet appears to be consistent as some contracts has been renegotiation after nearly two years and deals Shell and Mitsubishi in the south of the country have been delayed.

The enactment of the Oil and gas law -either draft- may give some investors a sense of security and encourage other to come to the country, but unless the law is reached by political consensus and the parties involved willingly agree to adhere to it, the status quo does not change.

Kurdistan Region has been at the forefront of the parliamentary melee for the hydrocarbon law and along with the Iraqiya list have managed to push Al-Maliki’s government to speed up the introduction of government version of the hydrocarbon law. The main aim of the KRG is to make sure that the contracts they entered into stay in place and if they are revised, KRG officials will have a say.

Information coming out of the Wikileaks files suggests that the US state department has advised companies against investing in Kurdistan and especially in the oil sector due to the legality of the contracts. However, some companies have ignored the advice and could not resist what was on offer in Kurdistan. Hunt oil being one example, they bought into Dhok block despite such warning. Furthermore, more talk of potential takeover is emerging in Kurdistan as Tony Hayward, investment vehicle Vallares said to be in final stages of making an offer for Turkish Genel Energy and there has rumours of British listed GKP (Gulf Keystone Petroleum) being up for sale, although denied by the company. These activates can only be an indicator that interest in the region is on the up and investors are cottoning on to the fact that the KRG would not budge to Baghdad. It is also becoming apparent that KRG will make sure the PSCs it has awarded will be honoured as failing to do so make KRG irrelevant.

With the issue of the Kurdish oil contracts becoming the focus of the Iraqi lawmakers and Kurdistan region being shelled and bombed by both Iran and Turkey. The Iraqi government has acted with impunity and so far failed to defend its “citizens” in the north of the country. The Iraqi government’s lack of response could only confirm that Baghdad has very little to do with Kurdistan Region and the impasse between Baghdad and Erbil is ever greater. In recent weeks, the KRG have looked weaker and appeared to be losing authority, but Kurdish politicians including the President has come out fighting and condemned the attacks. The massage has been clear to everyone that the Kurdistan Region is here to stay and threatening behaviour from neighbouring countries will not dent her resolve.

http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail/?display=discussion&code=cotn%3AGKP.L&threshold=0&it=le&action=detail&id=9280319