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.

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.

AGM statement out:

Soco International PLC
24 June 2005

SOCO International plc

('SOCO' or 'the Group')

AGM Statement



At the SOCO International plc AGM held today Patrick Maugein, Non-Executive
Chairman, made the following comments:



'SOCO produced solid operating results in 2004, laying the foundations for a
successful year ahead on all fronts. 2005 has commenced well with the sale of
our Mongolia assets, announced in April 2005, due to complete shortly.



Our multi-well drilling programme is underway and has made an exceptional start
which will have a material effect on the future of SOCO. The recent results of
the CNV-3X well in Vietnam were very encouraging and will, we believe, lead to
an early Declaration of Commerciality. We are equally excited about the
potential of the TGT-1X exploration well in Vietnam, which is currently
drilling. Within Yemen the Consortium's programme for the year on Block 10 to
increase reserves, expand export capacity and maximise production continues to
return excellent results with the KHA-405, the most recently drilled well,
currently testing.



The outlook for SOCO is very strong. We have stream-lined our portfolio,
realising early value from Mongolia and are actively looking to build our
presence in West and North Africa. We believe the potential upside from our
multi-well drilling programme is considerable.'



24 June 2005



ENQUIRIES:


SOCO International plc
Roger Cagle Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Financial Tel: 020 7747 2000
Officer


Pelham Public Relations
James Henderson Tel: 020 7743 6673
Alisdair Haythornthwaite Tel: 020 7743 6676



NOTES



SOCO International plc is an international oil and gas exploration and
production company headquartered in London and listed on the London Stock
Exchange. Although the Company has designated core areas in the Far East /
Southeast Asia and Middle East / North Africa regions, it employs a strategy for
building shareholder value through a portfolio of oil and gas assets by focusing
on Recognising Opportunity, Capturing Potential and Realising Value.



SOCO holds its interests in Vietnam, all in the Cuu Long Basin offshore, through
its 80% owned subsidiary SOCO Vietnam Limited ('SOCO Vietnam'). SOCO Vietnam
holds a 25% working interest in Block 9-2, which is operated by the Hoan Vu
Joint Operating Company and a 28.5% working interest in Block 16-1, which is
operated by the Hoang Long Joint Operating Company.

SOCO's Yemen interests are held through its majority owned (58.75%) shareholding
in Comeco Petroleum, Inc. ('Comeco'). Comeco holds a 28.57% working interest in
Block 10, East Shabwa Development Area.


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

This ones starting to burn oil now, just watch it go.

cheers GF.

Good day here today GF. Oil price looking strong, as are the long futures contracts.

http://moneyam.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/200506280700331235O.html

Successful Testing of Well KHA - 405, Yemen


KHA-405 produced over 7,300 barrels of oil per day ('BOPD') when tested
against a 58/64 inch choke.

Now that is Blo*dy Good!

what a call. congrats you guys. shame i didn't listen gavdfc. enjoy the spoils!

Nice rise; and more to come over the following weeks with Vietnam still to come in?
Pity T & G still have a sell note.(http://www.newratings.com/analyst_news/article_892913.html) thanks to Carcosa on TMF.
Erik

Unfortunatly I have a small holding in these so I can not retire on the proceeds.

Mind you a river of blue is always good at whatever the starting sp.

Thanks gavdfc for the tip some while back.

Yes cracking news and a cracking increase in SP.

cheers GF.

What a cracking drilling result from Yemen this morning, certainly made my day! And they've spud KHA-406 and we still have the results of TGT-1X to come from Vietnam.

As to the sell note, what an absolute joke. Anybody who's sold on the advice of these and previous notes must be kicking themselves.

Found this:

LONDON (ShareCast) - Oil & Gas stocks were given even more support today after US broker Morgan Stanley raised its view on the European oil and gas sector to 'attractive'.

Morgan Stanley said the industry could well see a wave of consolidation
similar to that seen in 1999-2001.

Makes sense to me, the bigger companies could look to buy out the smaller ones with proven reserves. Should Yemen and Vietnam continue to come in with decent drilling results then I would imagine we would like quite tasty to someone.

From an AFX piece on todays results:

"Roger Cagle, the deputy CEO and chief finance officer, said oil reserves estimates on the field are expected to rise following the drilling results.

Kharir hosts the Basement reservoir which is believed to contain proved and probable reserves of around 250 mln barrels.

Further work on the site can potentially increase the reserves figures by 'another 30 pct,' Cagle told AFX News in a phone interview.

Kharir is currently producing over 30,000 bopd, a level that is expected to increase further as exploration and development work continues.

In anticipation of that growth, the consortium is now expanding the capacity of the export facilities on the site from 35,000-38,000 bopd currently to up to 50,000 bopd.

'We will have a big improvement in export capacity in 2006,' Cagle said.

The consortium is investing around 30 mln usd in the area. Soco has enough funds to back its share in the planned spending, he said.

At 9.42 am, Soco shares were up over 6 pct at 607 pence."

Link to the full article:

http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=846899

Nice 60k trade after the close. Excellent day all round here and a few beers to celebrate later tonight! :-)

From UK-Analysts stockmarket report email:

Independent oil and gas explorer Soco International saw its shares climb 34.5p to 605p after the company raised the possibility of a significant hike in reserves at its Kharir field in Yemen. The company said that following a recent drill programme, another well in the region had flowed at more than 7,300 barrels of oil per day. The drill hole was the fourth success of the five wells drilled so far in Kharir, since drilling began last August. The company now plans to test the exploration potential elsewhere on the block in an effort to increase its production and export capabilities. In an accompanying statement, Soco said that it expected oil reserve estimates on the field to rise following recent drill results. Newswires reported that chief executive Roger Cagle said further work on the site could potentially increase the reserves figures by another 30%. Soco holds a 17% stake through its 59% interest in US group Comeco Petroleum, which itself holds a 28.6% stake in the East Shabwa project in which the Kharir field is situated. The consortium, led by French operator Total, said it was now set to invest around 30 million dollars in the area as it moves to expand the capacity of the export facilities on the site from the current 38,000 barrels of oil per day up to 50,000 barrels per day.

I am amazed this is dropping back today.........

SWW, I'm just putting it down to a slight drop in the oil price and would expect any weakness to be a sector thing right now. US oil inventories just out and I think analysts were expecting a drawdown of 1.4m but there was a build of 1.1m.