Right I havent beleived in investing directly in an oil company untill today and in the last few months have been investing in OIL SERVICE companys Hamworthy and Corac, you know the picks and shovels tale.

Anyway after doing a lot of research I really feel that SOCO INTERNATIONAL SIA as been left behind in the mass bull market on oil companies.

Forget, Burren, Regal, Dana and the rest in my opinion this is the one to be on.

So.....why buy Soco now?

Four inter-related reasons:

1) Newsflow is now very much in sight on several fronts. None of it has yet emerged though, so analysts have yet to revisit their old views and recommendations. There was, and indeed remains, a chance to get in before serious interest picks up again.

2) There is, IMO, a decent chance of some very large price rises within the next 6 months, accompanied by increased downside protection. Once newsflow starts, the shares will come back onto institutional radar screens - you can wait for it to emerge, or you can speculate now at what I think will prove to be a lower price -perhaps much lower!

3) The market thinks there is nothing happening and has gone to sleep on the prospects. You can see this in the broadly sideways drift and very low volumes on most days [until this week]. They are wrong. Yemen and perhaps Mongolia should provide some near-term good news.

4) The time to buy is when no-one else seems very interested.

And heres the last results from the company......................

Soco International PLC
02 September 2004

SOCO International plc

Interim Results for the six months ended 30 June 2004

SOCO is an international oil and gas exploration and production company,
headquartered in London. The Company has interests in Vietnam, Mongolia, Yemen,
Libya, Tunisia and Thailand, with production operations in Yemen, Tunisia and
Mongolia. SOCO today announces interim results for the half year ended 30 June
2004.

HIGHLIGHTS

Operating profit of 4.1 million (2003: 4.2 million)

Net profit of 2.0 million (2003: 2.5 million)

Earnings per share of 2.9p (2003: 3.6p)

Cash balance of 26.7 million at half year end

Finalised the sale of an interest in ODEX creating a consortium of SOCO
(34%), Oilinvest (46%) and Gazprombank (20%) in the special purpose
entity to progress initiatives in Libya and other countries

Continued reinterpretation of existing 3D seismic and acquisition of 650
sq km of new 3D seismic in Vietnam prior to commencement of drilling in
Q1 2005

3D seismic programme completed in Mongolia with two wells drilled, both
apparent discoveries, and a third well spudded

First ever deviated Basement well drilling in East Shabwa in Yemen



Ed Story, President and Chief Executive of SOCO, said:

'Following an extended period of quiet preparation, the release of interim
results coincides with the commencement of a very active drilling programme for
SOCO, one that I believe has company transforming potential'

2 September 2004

ENQUIRIES:
SOCO International plc Tel: 020 7457 2020 (today)ENDS.

This could really be a craking stock and is worth getting in at these lowly price figures.

Please DYOR

cheers GF.

Blimey

The price looks at a fair discount with all this going on.

May take a big 250k loan out................

On second thoughts.........

SWW, I think thats a pretty decent sized buy by Maugein adding to his already sizable holding. I do like to see directors owning good chunks of the company, it inspires confidence. After all, if they thought the prospects weren't good would they put their own money in it? Well thats just the way I see things, others may see it differenly. Of course, it doesnt mean that every company having large director holdings will be successful, but combining this with recent drilling successes make me feel even happier as to the story that is unfolding here.


I sort of compare it to Hugh Hendry, the hedge fund manager of Odey Asset Management. I saw an interview recently with him on CNBC. I've got a lot of time for what he says so always listen out for him. He was asked where he puts his own money as there was a discussion along the lines of would you put your own money into a hedge fund if the manager didn't put his into it. He answered that he has all his own money in his own fund so if he runs the fund badly it's his family that would suffer. I like that way of thinking.

Article on today's Oilbarrel.

27.05.2005
SOCO Excited By Outstanding Drilling Success In Vietnam
An appraisal well on the Ca Nqu Vang structure in the Cuu Long Basin offshore Vietnam has come up trumps for London-listed SOCO International. The CNV-3x well in block 9-2 tested at a rate equivalent to 13,040 barrels of oil per day, comprising just over 9,000 bpd of oil and 22.6 million cubic feet of gas per day. The well is a follow-up to the CNV-1X discovery of 2002, which flowed the equivalent of 4,500 barrels of oil per day during testing.

Ed Story, SOCOs president and chief executive, described the latest well results as outstanding. We expect that these successful results will lead to an early declaration of commerciality, said Story.

The company is already quietly confident it has a commercially viable project on its hands and has initiated the necessary documentation to submit to the Vietnamese government, including a reserve assessment report and development plan.

http://www.oilbarrel.com/home.html

A piece in today's Chicago Tribune, seems Wasatch International Growth Fund are holders of Soco. From the article:

"Health care, consumer services and business services are its largest concentrations. It owns fewer industrial materials stocks than are represented in the broad international indexes. The fund's top holdings recently were AWD Holding of Germany, Puma AG of Germany, PARK24 of Japan, United Drug of Ireland, SOCO International of the United Kingdom, Orpea of France and Cairn Energy of the UK"

Full article:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0505290235may29,1,7931859.story?coll=chi-business-hed

Moving up nicely from this months low's.

Excellent rise today, allbeit on light volumes. Hopefully we will move up and test the all time highs of end Feb start March.

Then low volumes I see as good.
I think that we are cleared of a big seller and with the volatility since, we will get greater sp movements up.

Could be wrong and often am................

Good rise this morning and again it seems on low volumes from the start. So if a seller has been cleared then perhaps we will see the volatility and tightness of stock that we have seen here before. Lets see what happens when the US opens.

Just popping in to say "hi" since I was poking about on the site :-)

You'll have noticed that the two exec Directors exercised their options yesterday and that the long oil futures finished at new record highs last night, I assume?

Offers being lifted [in a small way only, so far] this morning.

See most of you on TMF no doubt.

ee

Good morning ee.

Nice to see you.

As you see gav does an excellent job here of research and updating plus we have a nice graph a few posts back.

All looking very promising methinks.

Hello EE and welcome to the thread. Hope your'e enjoying the L2 trial. I did indeed notice the late RNS from yesterday, here it is in case anyone missed it:

http://www.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/200506091811433969N.html


And yes have noticed that the Dec 11 contract closed yesterday at new highs and is again up today 0.30 to 54.55. Also noticed that it has risen quite significantly from it's low of mid April to where it is now. Quite an increase in the oil price yesterday with the first hurricane of the season passing Cuba heading into the GoM this weekend.

Good to see your first post over here and hopefully we'll see some more.

Gav

PS - the streaming prices here put advfn's to shame! :-)

Back from 18 days hols to see good progress on all sides. Keep up the good work,gavdfc; I'm sure it's all down to you!

August, hope you enjoyed your holiday. Always nice to come back and see that things here are looking good, although they were never looking bad! Perhaps you should go on holiday more often! ;-)

Seen some decent buying here earlier on, only to see the sellers come out as soon as we move up so perhaps they haven't finished yet. Also, the June spreadbet contracts expire today so perhaps some are closing into the rise earlier. Just some thoughts of the top of my head, could be all wrong though.

Looking at the futures prices for oil today, I noticed that the contracts out to June 06 are down, but the long term ones out to Dec 11 pretty much all seem to be up about $2 :-)

Seen an interview with Matt Simmons on CNBC earlier today. He was asked about how he sees the oil price for the next 5 years. His answer was "that it would go through the roof" His new book will be out soon, should make an interesting read.

Seems Pontoil have sold a few here, still a sizable holding though, 20.53%:

Soco International PLC
17 June 2005


SOCO International plc
('SOCO' or 'the Company')

HOLDING IN THE COMPANY


The Company was notified on 16 June 2005 that on the same day, Pontoil
Intertrade Limited sold 500,000 (0.69%) SOCO International plc ordinary shares
of 0.20 each ('Shares').


Following this transaction, Pontoil Intertrade Limited holds 14,910,543 Shares,
representing 20.53% of the issued share capital of the Company.



Contact: Carol Fan, 020 7747 2000



This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

Pattern here.

They obviously do not expect any major price moves soon imo.

These prices are as a result of high oil prices.

Only right they should cash in twice now.

I now think this is a sitter, so I will sit.........

Some more director activity today:

http://www.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/200506201715168073N.html

Not doing badly this one GAV just sitting in there and letting the dosh come home.

I beleive we will have some good news imminent if the Motley fool boys are anything to go by.

cheers Gf.

Hi Goldfinger,

Yep doing really well here so far and looking for more over the rest of the year and into next with drilling in Vietnam and Yemen. Hopefully we should get some news on TGT-1X soon.

Just in case anyone else is interested, the drilling program can be found here in the 2005 presentation. The 2004 report and accounts document is also well worth a read.

http://www.socointernational.co.uk/downloads/presentations/2005_May_Presentation.pdf

Cheers

Gav

Cheers GAV excelent information.

Another good day here. GF, did you get your copy of the 2004 report and accs? I tried to get mine a while ago through the free reports service, but for some reason SIA was included for a hard copy. Had to contact Carol Fan who sent one out the next day.