Member Info for AIMOilking

Plenty of waffle from Eddie, about as useful as if he had got his Ukulele out and started "singing in the Wind" again.

As soon as he got a hard question, he sidestepped by offering the questioner a written answer.

Several things I did pick up, Ed "can't guarantee heat pumps will be cheaper" - is that with or without the £7500 subsidy or just on running costs - Oops.

"competitive edge industry decarbonisation" - not sure Eddie has told China to play fair.....Oops.

Eddie's reference to worst business situation caused by Ukraine War - sorry that was a minor blip compared to recent National Insurance hike, on going subsidies for renewable energy within electricity bills high interest etc.

Overall, a lot of Blah Blah from Ed and his PS but I detected a little back peddling across the board.

Thanks Ron for the link, although I think I have just wasted an hour, missed the beginning, so I suppose no one dared to mention NS O&G /EPL?

Just switched on to watch Ed squirm, just taking a beating over Drax, not just smoke at Drax, 49 Whistle Blowers, lack transparency, subsidies, questionable auditing and questionable sustainability......

Blue skies, slight breeze - beautiful morning!

Just 62% of UK electricity provided by gas - ouch! Poor Ed, when will he realise that with renewables based on wind and solar - he will need an expensive dual electricity generation system or worse a very expensive storage system as well?

ENQ sp is the only dull thing about this morning given the $80 Brent price.

It looks like Rachel in accounts has received a reprieve thanks to inflation figures, should give her a couple of extra weeks in post.

The drop in the £ by over 10% since September is interesting and should help reduce some of the UK Sterling costs and wages, this combined with the return to an $81 barrel of Brent should all be helping ENQ weather handing over the huge sum of shareholders money to the Government in the form of EPL.

We have chased around this subject, but I remain disappointed that no one has taken the Government to Court over EPL, I am sorry but I still feel EPL is theft on an unprecedented level and why are other industries being taxed to pay for their renewable electricity?

I started writing a comment about AI, Starmer etc etc dreams etc lack resources etc high cost of energy and security etc etc blah blah and the computer glitched and the words were lost, so I decided on jam and toast for elevenses instead - it was all this talk about jam!

Touching distance for $81 on Brent and yet we are down, let's hope the sp will end blue today, purely because we should be pulling an additional £100,000 a day net compared with last week - I do love FCF's!

"It means that installing a heat pump can actually lower the energy efficiency rating of your home." and they can be more expensive than gas boilers, partly due to environmental and social costs at 25% of a typical bill. The average dual energy bill pays 15%+ in "climate taxes".

Oh dear, people are starting to do the net zero sums, Ed is going to have back pedal to survive in politics a third time around.

The balance in common sense is steadily shifting sentiment towards the NS O&G sector for all the reasons so eloquently expressed on this BB.

Last comment - It is a gamble to invest in an under capitalised gold mine...........however, Gold is at an all time high and given current World events and with even the prospect of Global financial instability ahead, Gold is likely to stay high and quite probably go up significantly, plus the rarity of Welsh Gold adds a substantial premium.

It is also reassuring to know that the mine operated for a century and modern techniques and equipment will make a difference. The mine closed most likely for two main reasons, non compliance and gold @$300. ALBA assures us that they are compliant and a visual inspection of the mine would suggest they are making a good go of it and gold is @$2600 + Welsh Premium.

Gold mining is all about hitting pay dirt. ALBA is producing gold on a small scale and has sizeable target prospects mapped out that may well prove commercial and increased processing may make the mine more productive but probably more capital will be required, although gold sales would contribute. If ALBA hits a rich seam of gold, the company's prospects would be dramatically transformed over night and that is the real gamble. I am guessing the odds are better than the Lotto given all the work that has gone into getting this far.

Clogau is ALBA's biggest operation but not the only one that they are pursuing.

I was impressed by the team at Clogau, they want to succeed. ALBA remains a gamble as do may things.....

It takes time to market the coins to achieve best value and publicity - maintaining the "Welsh Gold Premium" is also critical and will contribute to the future success of ALBA.

Substantive news I believe will be within H2, ALBA cannot RNS each batch refined as grades will be different and thus raise or lower market expectations each time, therefore they have to present a considered average to the market which takes time.

The operation is modest but has a cost, when, if, how and when future finance is raised or gold sold, I have no comment and if I had any information that would be "insider" territory.

"Centrica said the UK now has less than a week’s worth of demand for gas in store, but the government has insisted the country has enough supply to meet demand."

UK has lowest storage capacity in Europe (12 days) currently 26% below last year with 7 days capacity remaining.

Ukraine pipeline situation etc etc. all adds pressure on Starmer and Co. to reconsider NS O&G policies. As I write 55% UK electricity provided by gas, wind 9.1% and Solar 4.9% - Ooops.

Simple operation and processes with professional small team that is actually producing gold, quantities and grades to be RNS'd in coming months once several loads of concentrates have been processed off site, each batch taking about 3 weeks. Blasting to continue as soon as quartz "wall" in front of last blast and ore cleared, in process. Mining target area drilled and clearly identified. All licences, environmental studies and compliance in place for this stage of operations. Coins to be auctioned in H2.

ALba team were most hospitable, informative and the visit well worth while.

From an investment perspective, it is all about time, costs/cash and grades, the operation is up and running and within H2 we should get a good indication of future success, including the premium for Welsh Gold and viability of scaling up the processing plant.

Brent $79.36 - just revising my earlier figures up to £50,000 a day better than yesterday and circa £18m p.a.

Plus, we are indeed now in the blue, hopefully heading North.

Update next month.

Brent circa $78 this morning, that is notionally circa £20,666 a day or £7,500,000 p.a. equivalent after EPL extra in the kitty for ENQ at the current 1.23 exchange rate.

As I said yesterday, we are looking good for a blue finish today.

I imagine Rachel in the bean counting department is feeling a little ragged today, she might have better luck at achieving growth by adding a little water to the beans. Although if there is nothing else in the cupboard - the beans may be lunch!?

Who knows what the markets will do as we have seen recently. It is a case of putting some stop losses in to protect the bulk of your investments or get out completely.

However, with LGEN you should continue to get a decent and reliable dividend and I am expecting a rise into the dividend, so you could always take your "dividend" as a capital gain, unless you are sitting back for long term income and growth. I came out last year year on the rise and came back in December, it will be rinse and repeat this year although I'll wait and see as I still think LGEN has sp legs and is as good as any share for riding the storms, after all it recovered after Covid and unlike many others carried on paying a dividend.

Others may have seen FI report on today's market turmoil and he said "Spending on Green growth out of fashion" .

This leads on from Ron, mine and others posts recently, saying that someone needs to do the sums on Net Zero. Market forces and the Government's lack of wriggle room and promise not to raise taxes further means that cuts are the only way forward.

I am hoping that as per my post 1212 earlier that the penny will drop that NS O&G is one of the only growth areas that the Government can switch on overnight with the right policy changes and assurances.

Re ENQ, today's sterling drop to 1.23 from 1.27 this morning should, if sustained, along with Brent @ around $77 add a little to the ENQ coffers.

Hopefully ENQ will end the week well in the blue. Actually added a few today. DYOR

Canada may well join the list of countries rolling back Net Zero ambitions and growing its O&G industry, adding pressure on the UK, simply by making the UK more an more the odd one out. Increasing UK energy costs and the potential for blackouts (or as mentioned, EV chargers tripping out due to low current), partly due to intermittent poor renewables performance will all add pressure. My worry is that as it dawns on the Government that they have made a blunder e.g. the sums don't add up - there is no money in the kitty to bridge the gap between the current EPL revenue generation and tax receipts increasing from greater NS O&G activity. My worry is that if the government waits until the loss of EPL tax receipts is less significant, it may be too late?

I wonder if the Treasury regularly reviews EPL receipts and projections, personally, I would be as it appears investment and production are falling faster than predicted and UK Government decommissioning costs will be increasing and earlier than anticipated. So how does the Government resolve this problem - increase normal tax revenue, push out decommissioning costs, boost GDP, increase energy security, retain jobs and supply chains, reduce imports, improve trade balance, boost MCaps etc etc. Simples - Remove or reduce EPL substantially and provide policies that encourage long term investment and avoid future Government interference (interference = thieving profits).

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-Future-Is-Bright-for-Canadas-Oil-Industry.html

If the government does a NS O&G U turn on EPL (38%), the ENQ sp would be a massive beneficiary.

I can't check, but I have a feeling a lot of the sells are buys?

Hopefully, even despite the current lack of buybacks, ENQ share liquidity should be tightening, with long termers hanging in for the 30-60p party and day traders worrying that they might be out when news eventually comes through.

I hope they announce the 2025 buyback programme a.s.a.p.

This is a quote from a poster on LGen (Triumph) - "That's the mistake that labour made. You can't plug black holes. If you feed them, they only get bigger, even more hungry and just as useless as before. This black hole is the state public sector."

It amused me - a good analogy.

Brent @$76.4 and on the rise, good news for ENQ FCF generation. Still no news on a deal, Waldorf must be in play with two sizeable defaults in the news very recently. My guess is Waldorf thought they were in a stronger position after rescue finance, low POO has undermined their position and AB is being hard nosed as he knows that ENQ is better off with no deal rather than a poor deal whatever the company's expansion aims are.

Ron, I heard FI as well and thought the same. It does not matter as to which angle you look at the whole Net Zero issue, it is too costly - it is all about the maths -someone independent within government needs to do the sums!

Once the maths reveals the true fantasy of some of the zealots, a few heads need to roll; a change of guards to politicians with some business sense.

I would not object to a special dividend, or a sustained dividend policy, however, I still prefer a buyback policy as it allows me a little more control of my tax affairs. Having said that I would like to see a $30m scheme for this year implemented immediately to give it some chance of completion. The alternative is just keep paying down the debt and eventually the value of the assets and FCF will show itself in the sp.

I hope they announce in January rather than waiting until the update in February, although news of a buyback policy for 2025 might be a good smoke screen after payment of EPL, which will have dented progress in debt reduction figures for the end of 2024.

I hope they will also provide debt figures for the end of January to compare year end, plus if Brent (currently @$77.26) holds or goes higher, it should help.

Https://www.aol.co.uk/news/labour-apologises-tiktok-video-inappropriate-090452174.html

This at the same time clueless Starmer tries to head off Musk and an proper national inquiry into a long running scandal.

A few resignations are now overdue, the trouble is who will replace these incompetent idiots?