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Oil analyst on Bloomberg says that the oil majors are increasingly looking at shale as a source of revenue. Let's hope they're looking on this side of the Pond as well. Technological breakthroughs and reduced oil service company prices have together cut break-evens from around a typical $50 a barrel to close to $30 in many areas in the U.S. However it's not clear how quickly factors such as sand shortage, pipeline restrictions and service companies recovering margins will push up costs again. It's a completely new landscape for the worldwide O&G market.

Decent rise today probably on the back of Malcy's comments. Nice to see a recommendation from someone who actually knows what he's talking about. Wonder if Igas will make it to his bucket list. "Guidance for its conventional production is 2,500 b/d which is currently profitable and offers leverage to any pickup in oil prices yet with some downside protection. The UK shale industry is demonstrating a significant degree of momentum at the moment, IGas at 4.7p might just be the way to play it, albeit slightly later than planned…"

IMO EDR is one to hold onto, first shale gas in Q3 or Q4 from Third or Cuadrilla will mean a read across to EDR, plus movement on the planning appeals/applications will improve prospects for conventional production. Some larger company might also be interested in this minnow for a takeover given improved prospects for shale and higher POO.

Decent rise on the back of a positive recommendation from J P Morgan and a read across from better results from Schlumberger and Halliburton, the biggest U.S oil services companies. That's happening when the POO is falling which is encouraging since generally Weir mirrors the price of oil and commodities pretty well. All we need now is a renewal of the OPEC agreement to consolidate the move upwards. GLA.

Although the Tories may wish to impose a price cap that will have to cope with the energy company's rising costs. You can only screw down prices for so long if there are genuine cost pressures. An energy analyst has said that as a result of the breakdown of the Rough storage facility the UK will have to rely on the worldwide LNG market. At present there is a market glut of LNG but "UK winter prices are likely to be the most expensive in western Europe, with sharp price spikes likely during cold snaps on both sides of the Channel,” . I guess they might do something in the tax regime as a sop to the energy companies but certainly improving the incentives for shale development (which medium term will reduce prices) could also be in their thoughts.

"A senior figure at fracking firm Cuadrilla Resources has said homes in Lancashire could be heated by shale gas as early as the beginning of next year."

On 11th April PLLG investments acquired 4% of Igas. PLLG are about 31% owners of President Energy. A director of PLLG was previously a director of President. Sadly for us and of course for PLLG since around 10th April the Igas SP has fallen suddenly with several large 1 million sells. At the same time the SP of another similar company, Egdon, has held it's own. Bad luck for PLLG I guess. Maybe they should think about taking a bigger share now the SP's lower.

Weir has been described in the past as the "perennial takeover target". I guess with oil and commodity prices on the up and general greater optimism in both these fields, together with the relatively weak pound and the Weir SP only partially recovering towards historic highs, it must still be on the radar of US private capital with billions of dollars offshore looking for a home.

Not sure there's much wrong with the management. Igas took on a lot of debt in expectation of $100 oil and a rapid move ahead with the onshore shale industry. They were not alone there. They were incredibly unlucky to be stymied by the Saudi oil glut and the Preece Hall shale debacle. They got rid of AA fairly rapidly and have worked the complicated refinancing very efficiently. Even the previously sceptical Tom W seems to have been impressed. What I've heard from the CEO and the COO in the past gave me the impression of calm competence.

Protestors have lost their High Court challenge to Cuadrilla's planning permission, removing a hurdle to Cuadrilla's shale gas drilling initiative. Could be some read across gains for Igas and Egdon.

PLLG, who have just taken a 4% position in Igas, have an association with President Energy, a smallish O&G exploration company, probably most famous for their exploration in Paraguay but also with investments in Argentina and in the USA. Don't know what this means for Igas but it's worth keeping an eye on.

Just some gas news as a background to shale development. The UK's biggest gas storage facility at Rough is facing severe technical problems, basically due to age. There will be a report on its future around June. However gas storage across Europe is anyway facing difficulties basically due to current low prices and the glut of LNG especially from the U.S. shale industry. In the winter we will be increasingly dependent on imported LNG to cover spikes of increased demand. The rise of LNG makes it an increasingly transportable, internationally tradeable commodity like oil. But we are in a transition stage internationally where many nations in the East are aiming to move out of coal (the political imperative is to reduce pollution rather than reduce CO2) so LNG demand will increase especially in the winter months across the northern latitudes. I guess all this points to increased insecurity of supply in the UK plus greater volatility in the short-term price of both gas and electricity generated from gas. In my view the development of a UK shale industry will go some way to insuring against this insecurity and volatility. I suspect that these factors are some of those being considered by investors in IGAS.

I've been trying to buy IGAS this morning but my online trading platform just says "no assets found" when I search for it. Anyone had a similar problem?

Will almost certainly be an RNS message tomorrow as this is price sensitive news. £17m input for a company with a market capital of £27m is a big deal. No wonder Mr Abbott's been a bit distracted from Wressle.

Congratulations to all at Igas for pulling this round. It must have been very nerve-wracking and a huge amount of work.

Number of shares in circulation has increased from 300m to 2400m so a dilution by a factor of 8 but at least a stable, relatively debt free company with some cash in hand, and significant conventional and unconventional assets. I'm no expert but the difference between roughly 0.56p (4.5/8) and the SP tomorrow will tell you how the market now values the company. I guess simply the Kerogen connection will help things along. GLA.

Thanks for doing that, sounds positive.

I totally disagree. The FT article you cite is from March 2016, when oil prices were much lower, certainly some marginal production went to the wall but since that time the increase in production efficiency combined with the higher POO has revitalised the industry as illustrated by increased production figures, especially from the Permian basin. At the same time cheaper gas has combined with renewables to rout the coal industry as a source of electricity generation. It's not widely recognised that the USA has significantly reduced its CO2 emissions in the last 5 years while at the same time increasing GDP, and much of this achievement is due to the replacement of coal. This compares with Germany, where emissions have been relatively unchanged. So far from being a Ponzi scheme, IMO fracking has been one of the greatest technological advances seen in the last 50 years, both in terms of economic and environmental benefit.

I'm no expert but with the offer ratio being so low and the market price being close to the offer price it's not really surprising that the take-up has been so low. I suspect many small investors just couldn't be arsed to fill in the form for a small advantage. Also for many LTH's who have seen disappointment after disappointment in the SP it's not surprising they are risk averse. At the moment I'm out of IGAS but will reconsider after tomorrow's meeting. Very, very rough figures, production 2500 barrels a day at a profit of roughly $20 a barrel, say production 330 days a year allowing for maintenance equals $16.5 million profit a year, that's to be divided between how many? shares, well a lot more than the current 303 million but even if we assume 303 that's about 0.04p per share. So what have we got, a well run company just about managing to hold it's head up above water on conventional production at current prices but now with much reduced debt, it's got lots of potentially game changing shale assets and is a good bit closer (still maybe 2-3 years) to monetising them. So a company that's really a bet on shale development. That's my take anyway. Wow, I've just thought, IGAS has just changed into what Egdon was all along, just a bit bigger.

It would be good to hear how the Wressle planning appeal and/or new planning application is progressing. It's now 8 weeks since the last RNS message on the subject. I guess co-ordinating the next moves must be complicated but surely something must have happened by now. Hope we don't have to wait til the results on April 11th.