Member Info for Alfa

The delay is due to the results having to be submitted to Ecopetrol before they can be released. The jurisdiction is entirely with Ecopetrol, so we must all wait for them. As luckedup points out below, Ecopetrol are currently involved in a share offer – reportedly worth some $2.82 billion – so potentially they may be busy at the moment. It seems (rightly or wrongly) that BLR did not anticipate Ecopetrol's interest at this point, but hopefully this is due to the size and quality of the find. Frustrating, yes, but at least BLR shares are worth substantially more than they were a couple of months ago, which is more than can be said for the rest of my portfolio! - our patience should be rewarded.

Well we have a bunch of delayed trades now, but these would seem to be the buys that lead to the recovery of the sp (they appear marked as sells, as they are being compared to the price at the time they were declared, rather than the price at the time of the trade). So maybe you're right Rorker, just the MMs trying to spook the nervous into selling – looks like it no one sold into it though.

Price pretty much recovered now; maybe some delayed trades will show up later to explain it, otherwise just our market-making friends getting a little overexcited. I can't see any signs of news anywhere and (declared) volume is low, so just back to sit and wait, I'm afraid...

Not quite – if you only count every third day ;) Although the article is from a respected publication, I'm not sure his assertion that "a situation where a company can issue 10 per cent more equity without shareholder approval should raise eyebrows" really applies here, for a small oil explorer – a company with huge costs and zero income – if we were talking about a FTSE 100 company then fair enough, but we are not. I also don't think BLR were attempting to hide this – the RNS even quotes the 143% - the consolidation was all about BLR giving themselves plenty of room for manoeuvre for a placing, both in terms of price and quantity. A nasty article indeed and why wait two months to write it? – if I didn't know better I'd say he was deramping...

Welcome rally today +7% at 988-992p. Probably a good time for anyone who sold out on the way down to get back in. I've held from the high 12s, so hoping there is some good news behind this rally.

Certainly possible and if not, by the end of next week – if it was likely to be any longer I think BLR would have given us some indication or at least we'll get another timing update before then.

Yes, that is my reading of it - the 10-20 days were for the results, but it would seem it wasn't anticipated that Ecopetrol would then hold the results before they were made public - so we are just waiting on Ecopetrol. Thankfully Colombia isn't Russia and Ecopetrol don't have a bad reputation, so I would expect them to either take their option to "back-in" or not, rather than to try to change the rules. Assuming Ecopetrol are going to announce their decision with the results, it may take them a while to decide and to dot the i's and cross the t's, especially if the discovery is "big".

It may just be down to short-termers needing to close – last week's timing update would have been bad timing for anyone positioned for an announcement by today. How long Ecopetrol will sit on the results is anyone's guess and BLR didn't put a timeframe on it in the RNS.

The drop is probably just on disappointment that the results are going to be later rather than sooner. The MMs may have been seeking to encourage some selling to pick up some stock cheaply before the results are announced. The news article shown on this site is a bit misleading, as most of it is old news from the RNS on the 18th that was included in today's RNS for background, the second paragraph is the news; "The joint venture operator, Kappa, is currently conducting the mechanical pump tests of the two test zones and the Company will make an announcement of the test results when these are released by Ecopetrol and made available to the Company." Ecopetrol have the option to take a share of Acacia, but would only be expected to do so if the discovery is significant. BLR didn't previously mention that Ecopetrol would be effectively holding the results ahead of their announcement – Ecopetrol's interest at this point could be an indication that the discovery is every bit as significant as we are hoping.

They are corrections – there were trades with the same values reported earlier and these cancel them out, as they were incorrectly reported for whatever reason. A very good day today, almost wall to wall buying, with very little selling despite an 11.63% rise. Volume was strong, but not to the extent of leaked news, just people positioning themselves for the announcement – next Tuesday would be the end of the window and I would expect it'll be closer to then than today – plenty of time for some more rises on speculative buying – and I think the higher we go beforehand, the higher we'll be on the announcement – exciting times :)

But IEC up – news, rumours out there? – or has the sp been punished enough?

When the market is down so much as a whole, all stocks tend to get marked down generally, even if there isn't any selling – perhaps to encourage some. BLR has held up nicely however, as often small stocks do – their own particular circumstances outweighing general market sentiment. We are in to the 10-20 day zone for the announcement now and we've seen some nice big buys over recent days – everything is looking good and is a nice distraction from the rest of my portfolio, which is getting redder by the day.

Provides a good summary of our current position and points out what we need to be looking for in the test results; "The results of the production test, due in about ten to twenty days time, will be key. Crudes in this part of Colombia tend to be heavy, which can make them difficult to extract without investment in assisted lifting facilities such as steam flood. Investors will be looking for more information on the porosity, the thickness of the pay and, crucially, a commercially-viable flowrate." Full article at http://www.oilbarrel.com/email_index.html?page=/news/article.html?body=1&key=oilbarrel_en:1184810420&feed=oilbarrel_en It's good to see the sp has held up well and sets us up nicely for a run up to the results and another jump from there. I'm happy with my current holding and won't buy anymore unless the sp drops back, but in isolation BLR is certainly a buy – I think Jimarillo is right, £1 on the results is very much a possibility.

It's not often we have been able to use those words with BLR, but today we can!! Great news, greeted with a great jump in the sp, currently 78%!! A much needed and welcome shot in the arm for all of the BLR faithful – but keep that faith guys, this is just the beginning. A small confession though, I have sold some of the ones I bought last week, just enough to cover their cost and have ended up with a load of free shares. I'm still at a loss overall however, but only a small one now. So where from here – I wouldn't be at all surprised to see us fall short term from here; BLR holders are long suffering and may wish to get back money they thought they'd never see again – however the news is very good and we could see some more serious buying - certainly interesting and any weakness will see me buying some more.

No news may well be good news; sometimes you do hear drilling being abandoned early when things aren't going according to plan. Although BLR are not known for their timely news updates, to be fair to them I wasn't expecting an announcement until towards the end of the month when the initial testing is complete. Certainly confidence is low in BLR at the moment and it would seem a combination of profit takers from the rise, longer term holders choosing to bail at the improved price and now just longer term holders choosing to bail! Volumes have been low however, so I don't think it is based on any information we are not party to. I may live to regret this, but as the current offer was so tempting, I've just bought some more, which has nicely reduced my average, but I may consider these separately as a short term punt.

Sorry for not replying sooner; I'm having a busy week and have been out of the office. The debut of the consolidated shares has been a bit of a non-event really, I was hoping it would attract some buyers ahead of the Acacia news, but so far we've just seen some selling into the recent rise, but nothing serious and there a still a while to go yet – depending on whether we are counting from the spud date, 30 Jun, or the announcement, 03 Jul, the 20-30 days should take us to 20-30 Jun or 3 days later (not that I'm counting down the days!!). I was kind of expecting some more news on the placing around the time of the EGM; as that hasn't happened, it would seem BLR are waiting on Acacia in order to get a better price, which would mean less dilution for the same funds raised – good news for shareholders, as well as a sign of confidence about Acacia from BLR. My broker has usefully reworked their sp graph retrospectively, showing year highs of 75p back in November – a return to there on the initial Acacia results is what I'm hoping for and building from there as the appraisal programme continues.

Hi Rorker, I hadn't, but it is great news that Acacia is finally underway, the sp has reacted very positively, 0.65-0.75, up 35% - this is the time for speculators to jump in ahead of the results – today's increase is just a taste of what could happen if results are positive – our patience could be very much rewarded, but now we have another wait of 20-30 days for the results!!

"Good things come to those who wait". Apparently the management are in Colombia at the moment, so some news re Acacia should be getting closer.

I believe that the last chance to sign up to convert existing ETL shares into those of the new Group Eurotunnel SA company was yesterday. I think the intention is to delist ETL after the conversion happens later this month – exactly where this would leave shareholders of ETL I'm not sure, but not in a good position is my guess.

Good to see the Chairman, Peter Levine, buying 50,000 yesterday, worth about half a million. Although a drop in the ocean of his now 4,132,777, it can't be taken as a bad sign.