Member Info for Alibi

Seems to me that the tax relief of 91% on investment makes a proper future plan a no brainier. Spend 100 million but only pay 9 million. If the BoD can’t see that and would rather hand that money over to the tax man, they really are in the wrong job. As for the SP, even a hint that they are going to do something other than sit on their arses raking in inflated salaries would sen the SP soaring. It shouldn’t take till September because they should have been thinking about a forward plan since the day the court case finished. Bond payments no longer a problem so what the pluck have they been doing? Planning some other con?

Many of us don’t have the time or money to travel to London for an AGM. For me it would have taken up 2 days and hundreds of pounds in outlays. Well done to those who went, and thank you, but to expect hundreds of folk to travel to an AGM is a bit optimistic and dare I say it, a rather Londoncentric viewpoint.

Email sent (with the full backing of my 868400 shares).

"Hurricane is diminishing from one day to the next irrespective of the amount of free cash it is producing. At some point that income will stop dead in its tracks unless it does something to allow continuation."

Whilst that maybe be true, HUR will very probably continue to be a cash machine for some time to come and when (if) output ceases from the single well, there should be a lot of cash in the bank which should translate into share value. There is also the possibility of a longer term forward plan and that could transform the longer term picture. Another well or an alternative source of income (such as an existing producer) would of course underpin the SP and probably lift it significantly as the risk factor would be reduced significantly, and it is to be hoped that the recent board additions are indicative of a company that does not intend to shut up shop any time soon - although of course it might be bought out.

Could be very good for us if he does exempt (or even reduce the tax rate for) smaller oilers.

Went to add some shares in my ISA when the buying price was about 6.13p but Charles Stanley Direct have some sort of technical problem which results in a message that I can't buy any shares (not just HUR) at the moment. By the time I got through to their helpline the buying price had risen about 10%. I've very rarely had any problems with CSD & they are exceptionally helpful, but the timing is unfortunate. Seems to be a problem affecting a lot of customers, and it's not specific to my own computer or any particular browser. They did offer to put the trade through manually but I'll hang on to see if the SP drops back a bit later. It's never easy with this share, is it?

Regarding the trial on well 7, I see the water cut is given as 96%. Would anyone who knows about these things like to comment on the results of the trial? Does it tell us anything?

Yes, I put another 50,000 in my ISA today. When HUR falls, it tends to overshoot a bit. i may be wrong but I think this will recover once the true implications become apparent. The main thing here is to pay off the bonds and I don't think that's in danger of not happening.

Yes, clearly the strategy should be to pay off the bonds asap and anything that is left should be used to invest in additional wells, sidetracks, and, dare I say it, have they actually relinquished Lincoln yet cos we pretty much have an asset there that could be brought into play for a lot less net cost. If they just pump oil and stick the money in the bank, they lose 25% in tax. Will still be a decent profit but common sense says invest while there are decent tax breaks. A decision should be made now, not just kick it into the long grass.

Surprised about the Lincoln licence being relinquished. I would have thought that they would be tying it in, given that it was a viable well. I know it costs money, but what are they thinking of spending the cash pile on? Even if the intention is to sell the company, surely having Lincoln, even with its current dormant status, would add significant value.

I do have some concerns that the two remaining bad apples on the board are still using their positions to poison the well even as they head closer to the waste disposal chute. Might the Lincoln decision have been influenced by them at all? I don't like having saboteurs still hanging around.

I see Maris posts on here as Noelpbz. Only feasible explanation for that toe curling hagiography.

I think it was turned off as there was an increasing water cut compared to well 6. IIRC it is perfectly possible to turn it back on provided they don't pump too fast.

It was said in the past that the water was thought to be perched water, but I don't know if that theory has ever been proved one way or another, and maybe the BoD didn't want us to know. given we are now almost out of the shadow of the bondholders, consideration will be given to drilling another well, hopefully more optimally positioned to increase output - as well as reactivating Lincoln. Current income seems to be sufficient to fund more drilling, and I think that would make sense as we currently have a well that is possibly deteriorating, albeit I think we have until 2025 before it runs out of steam completely.

Regarding the abandoned Lincoln well, can anyone tell me if it is possible to unabandon it, or is it a write off requiring a completely new well to be drilled? Does the abandonment process do anything to damage the casing etc. or can it be re-opened by breaking out the concrete plugging it? As a civil engineer, my initial thoughts would be that it should be recoverable but I don't know much about the practicalities of drilling oil wells.

Well said, Senseman. The Tories in particular in this Russia business up to their armpits, and they have a direct financial interest in what is happening in Ukraine - the sanctions needed are being delayed to help their donors get their money to safety. Meanwhile we have some particularly crass Tories rabbiting on about preventing refugees getting in to the UK. These matters are affecting HUR, although I think much of the rise in SP would have happened anyway albeit at a slower pace due to the company sorting itself out and the attempted theft being thwarted by CA and shareholder action.

I see the oil price rise being a longer term thing as Russia's output, which is I believe mainly heavier oils, is going to be less attractive to much of the world. The geopolitical tectonic plates tend to move slowly and I suspect it will be a few years before any rapprochement is reached - though I suspect Putin may well have signed his own death warrant with his actions, which do not seem to be welcomed by Russian citizens from all accounts. Maybe they're heading for another Russian revolution, or maybe just a re-release of Boney M's "RasPutin"

I've just donated because it's a very worthy cause. However it gives me the boak to see that fanny Boris Johnson trying to play the international statesman with this crisis in order to wriggle out of his career-ending conduct. I wouldn't like to think that he would get any kudos whatsoever by trying to take credit for spending public money this way. If he donated some of his own wealth, fine, but he'd probably try to reclaim it on expenses. Meanwhile it turns out his Russian pals have a month to move their wealth before any UK sanctions bite - horse, stable door etc.

It's not HMG matching donations, it's taxpayers. not that many folk will be against them doing so, but it's always worth remembering that the government are never actually spending their own money, just spending money we give them.

I was thinking about how much the oil price will affect profits. It has been suggested that the cost to produce is $30 per barrel. If that is about right, oil at $60 a barrel produces $30 profit. At $120, profit is $90, i.e. three times as much. I’m not sure how much profit that means in terms of a tanker load, but clearly the profit goes up proportionally more than the oil price increase. In simple terms, at this level, we’ll soon be at the point where the monthly income is close to the market value of the company - well, maybe not quite but you get my drift.

As I understand it, that's an exploration or assessment well that goes straight down so only contacts a small interval. For production they drill horizontally so there is a massively larger contact and thus the oil flow would be expected to be a few orders of magnitude higher. They do seem to have pretty massive amounts of oil so maybe explains the apparently high valuation. Also they have a number of fields in Alaska so not a one trick pony. If we ever get to exploit our full acreage, maybe HUR will do something similar.

"There is no comparison. PANR and HUR are 2 completely different opportunities."

Aye, no direct comparison intended, but both doing well after recovering from a bit of bother. Onwards and upwards.

PANR actually looks a good prospect if you read the RNS info. I'm over 150% up on it and I think it's got a lot further to fly. That 32 bopd is just from a vertical hole but they will actually produce form horizontals so 32 is not representative.

With HUR now recovering and PANR looking good, I am optimistic for the first time in a couple of years.