Cairn joined by Statoil in Arctic hunt January 23, 2012 CAIRN Energy yesterday announced a deal that will see Norwegian giant Statoil share the costs of its Arctic exploration. The area is a notoriously difficult and expensive place to drill, with the inhospitable climate hiking costs. Statoil has acquired a 30.6 per cent stake in one of Cairn’s exploration licences off the coast of Greenland. [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: IS CAIRN’S STATOIL DEAL A SHREWD MOVE TO REDUCE RISK? January 23, 2012 SANJEEV BAHL | NUMIS Statoil brings credibility to the project, but uncertainty remains on how much cash Cairn is to throw at further high risk/reward exploration. STUART JOYNER | INVESTEC This is a good move for Cairn, as it reduces their risk in Greenland and is a positive tie-up. Statoil is solid and will provide [...]
UK Coal goes back into the black January 23, 2012 UK Coal returned to profit last year, and agreed land sales worth £18m, the company said yesterday. The company said in a trading update for the year ending 31 December that it had continued to make progress on the group’s three year strategic recovery plan, which was launched in May last year. In a statement [...]
Gulf Keystone reports best well January 23, 2012 Oil company Gulf Keystone yesterday said its The Shaikan-4 well, located in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, achieved a flow rate of 563 barrels of oil per day and 3.65m standard cubic feet per day of gas in the first well test. Two well tests in the Triassic have been completed to date, with five [...]
Petrobras picks new chief exec January 23, 2012 Petrobras plans to name engineer Maria das Graças Foster as chief executive, promoting a respected technocrat from the Brazilian oil giant’s ranks to turn around its lacklustre performance in recent years. Foster, the firm’s natural gas and power director, would be the first woman to run Petrobras if the board approves her promotion on 9 [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS January 23, 2012 WEIR GROUP JP Morgan Cazenove has downgraded the engineering group from “overweight” to “neutral”, and says it expects uncertainty about near-term development in demand for fracking equipment to weigh on its share price. The company has been in the top three share price performers over the last two years. The broker expects continued growth this [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 23, 2012 Avoca Capital Avoca Capital, the European credit investment manager with €6bn assets under management, has strengthened its sales and marketing capabilities by appointing Rachel Black as head of capital raising for the credit hedge fund team, based in the London office. Black joins from Concerto Asset Management, where she was head of marketing and business [...]
FTSE hits six month high January 23, 2012 The FTSE 100 hit a six month closing high, driven by increases in bank and commodity stocks and investor optimism regarding the Greek debt crisis. The index closed up 0.9 per cent at 5,782.56, the highest closing mark since July 29 2011. Banks benefited from French Finance Minister Francois Baroin’s declaration that a deal with [...]
EU bans oil imports from Iran January 23, 2012 The European Union has banned imports of oil from Iran as Western powers increase the pressure on Tehran to abandon its nuclear development programme. The 27 members of the EU are collectively the second biggest consumers of Iranian crude and news of the embargo pushed the price of Brent crude futures to over $110 dollars [...]
Private equity firm buys Bonmarche from Peacocks January 23, 2012 Private equity firm Sun European Partners has bought the budget fashion chain Bonmarche for an undisclosed sum in a pre-pack administration. Sun European intend to close around a third of the chain’s 394 stores, resulting in the loss of around 1,400 jobs. 2,300 staff will continue to be employed by the new owners. Bonmarche was [...]