WTI (July) $70.10 +$2.01, Brent (July) $74.28 +$1.68, Diff -$4.18 -33c
USNG (July) $2.15 -11c, UKNG (July) 54.62p -6.38p, TTF (July) €23.4 -€0.86.

Oil price

Oil is up about a buck today ahead of the Opec meeting on Sunday, probably no outright cut after the 1.2m b/d one in April but the word is that it might be a ‘hawkish hold’. The Debt Ceiling Bill went through the Senate and will be signed by Sleepy Joe over the weekend unless there are any sandbags in the way…

Hurricane Energy

Hurricane has provided an update on the recommended acquisition by Prax of the entire issued, and to be issued, share capital of Hurricane to be effected by means of a Court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement under Part 26 of the Companies Act 2006, which was announced by Hurricane and Prax on 16 March 2023.

Under the terms of the Acquisition, the Hurricane Board has resolved to pay the Supplementary Dividend in full, conditional on the Scheme becoming Effective.  Accordingly, subject to the Scheme becoming Effective, the Supplementary Dividend of 1.87 pence per share (£37.2 million) will be paid at the same time as the Transaction Dividend of 3.32 pence per share (£66.1 million) and the Cash Consideration of 0.83 pence per share (£16.5 million), being within 14 days of the Scheme becoming Effective.

So, subject to the Court next week Hurricane shareholders will now get all three payments as the board has graciously agreed to pay out to them. I think that I have made myself clear in recent blogs about the demise of Hurricane so I won’t repeat but suffice it to say I hope that Prax, of whom I have heard many good things appreciate what they have got…

Predator Oil & Gas

Predator has announced that the Star Valley Rig 101 will commence drilling the MOU-3 well within the next 24 hours.

A further update will be given, which is subject to partner approval, when MOU-3 reaches its intended pre-drill total depth of 1,500 metres TVD KB and prior to the commencement of wireline logging operations.

An important time for Predator and for the strongly held view of significant gas in the Guercif region of Morocco which to his credit the CEO has held for as long as I have known him. 

Predator/Challenger 

I have had some feedback from readers who seem to think that in writing about the lack of comment on a complex issue was perhaps somewhat irreverent to both sides, even the Ministry. Nothing could be further from the truth and as I understand it the situation is indeed not that complex.

Firstly with an already busy schedule, the Ministry has a great deal to look at, and secondly with a new work programme and licence fees etc the three parties were always going to take some time to complete the negotiations which I am sure they all have in their best interests.  

Reabold Resources

Reabold announced yesterday that, further to the Company’s announcement of 9 May 2023 regarding its initial investment in LNEnergy, Reabold and LNEnergy have agreed to extend the expiry date of the First Option and Shareholder Option by one week to 7 June 2023. A further announcement will be made in due course.

Now, to begin with I had this in the blog yesterday but felt that it was so simple and so short an extension that it wasn’t necessary and readers who had an interest in RR would have seen it somewhere and taken the same view as me. But just in case someone hadn’t seen it or hadn’t taken my view about it, there it is…

KeyFacts Energy Industry Directory: Malcy's Blog