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

Evening all, nice to see some good posts here today. As to Levison leaving, I don't think its a majorly negative point. Since he wasn't even on the board that long, did he actually do anything for us? Nice post SWW and as you say, his picture is gone and I don't know if it was ever there in the first place.

From reading the RNS, there is none of the usual "the board of Sterling wish him all the best" Sounds to me like it is no great loss. Now if Harry was to leave, then that would indeed make me re-think my position.

More activity in the GOM, this time from Woodside:

Australian oil and gas company Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL.AU) expects to start pumping gas from its 50%-owned Midway prospect in the middle of this year, marking the company's first production in the Gulf of Mexico.

Woodside and its 50% joint venture partner and project operator Pioneer Natural
Resources USA Inc. reported successful completion of testing at Midway and now expect to tieback the well to an existing nearby platform.

"Midway carries a resource number of about two billion cubic feet, which is tiny in our terms," a Woodside spokesman told Dow Jones Newswires.

"But the Gulf of Mexico has platforms everywhere so you don't have much upfront capex to produce. You just put a hole in and tie it in with (existing infrastructure). So returns are much quicker - smaller, but much easier," he said.


http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=21231

Time for an aggresive takeover in the Gulf............

I will lend Sterling 50 for the fighting fund to target Woodside before BG. get them and Hardman.

(Well I can dream..............)

OIlbarrel article today:

23.03.2005
Sterling Energy Agrees Farm-Out Terms To Trigger Progress On The Heavy Oil Dome Flore Project
Sterling Energy hopes to unlock the previously dormant value of its 800 million barrel Dome Flore heavy oil deposit in the AGC area that straddles the offshore boundary between Senegal and Guinea Bissau in West Africa. The London-quoted company has signed a farm-out deal with private Malaysian firm Markmore Energy, which, in return for a 55 per cent stake and operatorship of the licence, will fund a feasibility study of the Dome Flore project, examine the prospectivity of the rest of the licence and possibly fund an exploration well next year, the success of which would trigger an exploration bonus for the British oil company.

Sterling will retain a 30 per cent stake in the licence with state-owned LEntreprise AGC holding the final 15 per cent.

Without incurring any costs, we benefit from a residual 30 per cent interest in the significant potential of this permit, said Sterlings chief executive Harry Wilson. With current oil prices and recent advances in technology, heavy oil deposits such as Dome Flore start to look very interesting commercially.

The licence has had a patchy exploration history. There has been 3D seismic work over Dome Flore and Dome Gea as well as the drilling of 13 holes. Most of these were shallow tests, drilled between 1967 and 1971, which found heavy oil. There have been only two wells drilled in the last 30 years.

Sterling acquired the project through its 40 million takeover of Fusion Oil & Gas but has done little with it until now. The project has been given legs by the high oil price environment: when crude tops US$50 per barrel even expensive and difficult-to-produce heavy oil projects carry an attractive margin for investors. The Markmore-funded study will employ Canadian engineering firms to assess the potential development economics and options, including the use of steam assisted gravity drainage technology which has achieved recovery rates in excess of 40 per cent in Canadas oil sands projects.

But the licence isnt a one-trick pony. In addition to the Dome Flore heavy oil, there are a number of smaller deposits of light crude oil in around 50 metres of water some 70 km offshore.

Sterling can afford to risk a little on its exploration campaign because it is backed by steady production flows from the US, where it holds a range of interests in shallow water fields and associated infrastructure in the coastal waters of Texas and Louisiana. Given the boom in US commodity prices, this is a profitable business and it funds the companys higher risk exploration in Africa. And come this time next year, the US production flows will be boosted by additional barrels from the Chinguetti oilfield offshore Mauritania, which is due onstream at a rate of 75,000 bpd in the first quarter of 2006. Sterling has stakes ranging from 3 to 6 per cent in these prolific licences in Mauritanian waters, which have yielded a string of interesting discoveries that should assure further developments down the road.

Elsewhere in Africa, Sterling holds the Ntem licence in Cameroon plus acreage offshore Guinea Bissau and Gabon. It is also active on the east coast of the continent, having signed up to explore two large exploration licences offshore northwest Madagascar. The Ambilobe and Ampasindava blocks cover 34,000 sq km of undrilled acreage that has been home to hydrocarbon shows while heavy oil deposits have been recorded onshore.

Anyone wanting the last Evo's note on SEY then email me.

Provost, got your message but you will need to send me your email address to reply to you.

Gav

thanks for the evo note

You're welcome Fundy.

Found this earlier and thought it worthy of posting:

"CSFB said its now assuming oil will be above 40 usd in its
models as it believes the energy commodity cycle will stay strong to the end of
the decade.
It lifted its targets across the board including on BP. The Swiss broker
upped its target on the UK major to 600 pence from 570 pence, but repeated its
'neutral' stance."

So is this the first broker to assume $40 oil over the longer term.

GAV,

If so, it will mean a whole lot of re-calculating being done in the city to factor in >$40 per barrel, all very positive for SEY.

Glad I added the other day, they may be in my portfolio for some time!

also added- target med long term hold

interesting - 3 MM sales and the price is still there.....

Burren taking a dip on one good one bad drill result.

Hardman looking cheap at 74p mid.

Lots of others looking a bit sick today.

Cancel that on Burren, back up again, cor wish I had bought on the drop...........

There's a hell of a lot of red trades and some very large ones in fact no buys at all! what's going on?

.

bid is 18.25 - ask is 18.50, so any above 18.30 will most likely be buys.

Too small a spread to make it easy to work out which is which but looking at the trades you can se that I am most likely right. (that'll make a change).

Drop today seems to be in line with some general selling accross the sector recently. Although I do feel that we held up quite well whilst others have fallen before we did today. General market for small caps seems pretty dire right now, end of tax year shifting perhaps.

I agree gav got to be end of tax year.

MS

everything is all sqidgy (technical term). have to agree with the rest of team SEY

Team SEY has spoken and I agree with the other members. We have the tax year ending in a few days and Q1 also ending tomorrow. Some locking in profits seems to have spooked many on other threads/boards. I wonder how many of these people may have been over-leveraged in stocks that have rocketed end of last year/start this year and now realise they didn't want as much exposure when they move downwards as we have now.

Anyway, once we get into April hopefully we shall get rid some of the squidginess from the market! Should have some oils reporting over the coming months also which should be fun!