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

Yes it dilutes our holding, but I think the question is why do they want the money raised by the placing. The market seemed to like it, a fair old scramble to get on board once the news was out. Also the institutions must be keen to take up another 72m shares. Big question is why they need the extra cash. New licences, more aggressive drilling, no farm out in Algeria, guess we will find out soon though. Questions questions questions!!

also on the bbc business site..

full story

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3693376.stm

Irish firm wins Algerian gas deal


Algeria supplies a quarter of the EU's gas imports
Petroceltic, a Dublin-based company listed on the UK stock market, has signed a production sharing agreement for oil and gas fields in Algeria.
The contract was one of eight signed by Algerian state oil firm Sonatrach.

Other contract winners include CNPC and Sinopec of China, US firm Amerada Hess, Australia's BHP/Woodside, Norway's Statoil and Repsol of Spain.

Well thanks for the explanation.

Still thick but not so much from Essex!

Loads more buys than sells but the price not moving up - puzzleing.

Decent buying at the open pushed us up a bit slowly, then a few sells and back down sharpish. A 300k and a 200k, look like rollovers to me, then some sells and down again.

Equally thick here in Dundee now!

Took a decision - rightly or wrongly - to get out at my breakeven, in the expectation of a drop and a buy back lower down. The thought of those 13p shares concerns me and I was totally over exposed if the ST well is dry. I usually guess wrong though!

On another board they reckon that a tree shake is going on - offer lowered and bid remaining the same. How does lowering the offer pursuade people to sell? I would have thought the reverse.

Chinapete, do you not mean lowering the bid but keeping the offer the same? Bid now 14.75 from 15 and offer remains the same at 15.5. Maybe just trying to panic or shake some holders into selling some shares. Yes if they upped the bid some more might sell, but more may buy thinking the stock is moving up. By dropping the bid, some may sell thinking it's going down. Maybe someone else would be able to give a better definition of a treeshake!

given a lot would have bought in around 16p++ on the last upand down rise would think treeshake a bit futile?? most will have to sit tight until c18p-20p reached to make some profit - having got out before at 11p and 14p breakevens - wrong move

Thanks both.

What happens if any of the Institutions decide to take the 13p shares and sell a corresponding amount 14p+ shares, making a quick buck whilst holding the same amount. If the offer price goes below 15p in the next three weeks I can buy back at lower cost than my original shedfull. I'm betting it will.

Tournesolf on another board reckons they are so risky that it is better to stay out. Watching them closely and only buying on a strike. You miss the first rise but they should continue to rise. Less gain but no risk. The added advantage that if ST is dry you might get them at say 10p on a market over-reaction, and they will then rise on subsequent drillings. How does that grab anyone?

the only sure thing is death and taxes.. the bigger the risk..the bigger the gain..keeps you thin!! if its dry(?) we wait for the next one - cant understand why all the jiggerypokery on the price - or perhaps I've missed the plot?

5 million buys versus 3 million sells, lets put the price down mm!

Placing was oversubscribed

Out of the 5m buys, I think quite a lot were rollovers. A lot of the late trades look that way to me.

Pete, you may be right about the institutions selling some at 14p, good call if you've played it right. From my point of view, I'm not too concerned about selling out then waiting for a fall to buy back in. If I was I would have done that a few times here before.

As for Tournesolf's post on TMF, that's his call and if that's his strategy then good luck to him. Yes I can see the sense in that if that's how someone wants to play it. But look at it this way, what if when they do strike the news is excellent and the price is marked up very sharply. Buyers see this and pile in from the start, price moves up quickly and you could miss a big leg up. Anyway that's just my thoughts here. Been in for a while now and prepared to stay in for the long haul. It may come good and it may not. Yes this is a risky share, knew that from the start, as I'm sure all who hold know. I guess everyones got their own way of playing it.

Cheers

Gav

gav - agree with your comments. If you look over the past few weeks, price is on plateau - mm need to stop messing about and let events and PCI take their course

At the moment apparently 1,134,000 buys and 766,000 sells.

If the three 250,000 buys are actually late reported sells, part of an ongoing Institutional offload which is still going on, and since the X trade isn't just a 135,000 buy but a 135,000 sell as well, the figures become:

384,000 buy and 1,651,000 sell.

Which ain't quite so flattering but does explain why the price isn't going anywhere.

Oh! and another thing. Why is the big seller selling. Glib answers about profit taking not required! Why, when we all think this is a winner, does someone think it isn't?

I am curious because I want to time my re-entry right - if I do it will be a first for me.

Blimey! 230,000 sell at 13p. Is that where were heading?

Pete, hard one to call here. But if it does go down again then you will be able to get in again cheaper as per your prediction. I would have thought that the 13p mark would have provided some support since that was what the institutions got the extra 72m shares at. Yes there was the 230k sell at 13p, but I think its hard right now to call where the sp is going what with the new shares coming on to the market. What will drive this price is drilling and hitting or not hitting oil IMO, I'm not too concerned with small ups and downs but I understand why some are.

As for the big seller selling on, well that's anyones guess. But yes they could have been selling above 13p and knew they could buy back at 13p making a quick buck, easy money for them if that's what they were doing. Would be good if we were able to do that!

Cheers

Gav