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.

Agree re the illiquidity, I had thought about that. I would say that that was one of the reasons why we moved up so quickly last year and at times, dealing limits are so small. When good news did come out, it was hard to get amounts of stock. Will be interesting to see what happens if some of the big boys want in and the directors or Pontoil dont sell them any stock.

Flurry of little people selling?

Probably Americans SWW from looking at the time when some sells came in. No news out to trigger it though.

Not that I can see, so back to watching.

Couple of delayed sells came through so perhaps they kicked it off. Case of follow the leader, 1 sells then another... Or maybe a few jumping out of here and into BFC since they came out with a good RNS around the same time. Just some thoughts.

Just to add, since it's Wednesday, US oil inventories are out at 3.30 so perhaps a few US holders spooked by that. Who knows really!

I'll worry if 515p goes. Not much volume (yet!)

The volume of sales doesn't seem to look too heavy to me. Interesting that you say 515 Al, any reason for that? Would that be some Fib level from it's recent high or do you just see that as a support level? Don't really know too much about TA.

Just the last level it was at, gav. Not like me to have lobbed the CFD's now, but wanting to see if the 250 thing happens. You're right volume is lowish, but I'll look again at end of day.

Thanks for that Al. Looking more closely at the chart, I can see where you get the 515 from and why it ties in with a traders thoughts. Think I need to look in more detail at learning more about TA.

Buys out number sells, so unless there's a bit of news, which I doubt, as there is small volume assiciated with the trades, this is a tree shake.

Out of the total trades in the buy column, you can take out 35895 and add them to the sells since they look like 2 delayed sells. Even with that, buys still outnumber sells. Perhaps with the speed of the sells coming in at 14.47, MM's took the chance of a quick mark down. Looking at the volume of sells, it's still pretty light.

Did negative sentiment from the US also play a part in the tree shake? We do often go up after the dow opens.

May well be the case Sandrew, but who knows really. The sellers were American IMO so you may well have a point. As you say, we have risen previously when the Dow opens which again, may have a lot to do with US buyers.

After hours announcement, but it would seem to be the reason why.

Small stuff even so.

Soco International says Pontoil Intertrade sells shares
AFX


LONDON (AFX) - Soco International PLC said Pontoil Intertrade Ltd has sold 250,000 ordinary shares, representing 0.35 pct, and now holds 15,005,543 s hares, representing 20.76 pct.

slm/

If I remember Pontoil is owned by a director? Can't be certain. There was an awful lot of companies owned by directors owning shares in SIA some years back. Dunno if this is still the case.

gav - re my stop level. This is not my normal tactic. I've loosened this one a bit because it's had a good run and I expect it to come back a bit. Ordinarily, I'd have bailed on the first MM coming back and cashed in.

So Pontoil have sold 250k, might explain some of the larger trades from previous days if someones picked them up who doesn't have to report it. They still have a large holding though. Pontoil is owned by a Dr Mario Contini and his son, Ettore Contini is a non-exec director of Soco. He bought the 40k on the 18th Feb and now holds 60k or 0.08%.

Al, thanks again for your traders thoughts. It's interesting to read how you are playing this as a trader.

gav thanks for the connection above.

I have again stolen it and pasted it on avdfn (you are credited of course), who are in the midst of a small discussion, apparently it has happened before in December 2002, Orale bought them and Pontoil ended up buying nearly twice that amount sold , a few weeks later.(davjo on TMF)

Odd move, sort of thing I do when I think too much.

That's why I no longer think.

gav - thought there was a link. Thx for digging it out.

sw - I think that was the kind of thing I was referring to earlier.

BTW, SIA is quite illiquid for this kind of level. You may find the bigger shareholders and directors lobbing some their way. Time will tell.

You mean this of course.

Hmmm.

So, you gave them the idea then?

Pack it up!