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I've just had a reply on this issue from II too. My ISA has been refunded but for reasons best known to HMRC, SIPPs may see some action in April 2025, presumably to cover 2023-24 as well as 2024-25. It's too much of course to expect Interactive not to have seen this one coming before January 2024 . . .

Andrew Coombs bought £2.25 million of shares @ around 87.5p c. 18 November, and another £3,178 @ 79.73p a month later. That's got to hurt, but at least he will be sharing other shareholders' pain. FWIW two brokers are claiming fair value should be 115 and 125p, so there's some hope value. A new German government and a not-entirely-one-sided resolution to the Ukraine war in 2025 might help . . .

Good article - thanks! I work in new-build residential and office construction and with everything leaning towards air-source heat pumps replacing gas boilers, it was interesting to read about fuel cells as an alternative.

But what a disappointment that Ceres can't find a UK manufacturer and is forced to use a licensing model! This will diminish the economic potential of its technology for the UK many times over.

See report below by Malcy on a new RNS by Sound Energy, re negotiations with the Moroccan government over Sound"s potentially huge gas fields in the east of the country at Tendrara.

The main takeaway for me re SDX is the proposed pricing: $8.50-9.00 mmBTU does not, as I feared, radically undercut SDX's hope for prices of $10-11 in Morocco. It is also very generous compared to the $2.85 (if memory serves) that SDX will be getting for SD gas in Egypt.

The Moroccan government seems very keen, what with 10 year tax breaks as well, to encourage indigenous gas production, whether by SDX or Sound. Presumably it has hopes to build new local pipeline systems for consumers and businesses, and if possible export revenue by pipeline to the EU via Spain; piped supplies should be considerably more cost-effective than the LNG exports planned by Egypt.

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Malcy: "Yesterday Sound put out a most interesting update with regard to their negotiations on a GSA for the company’s gas reserves in the Tendrara Production Concession in Eastern Morocco. They are continue to negotiate the terms of such a GSA and say that as part of these ongoing negotiations it has received a letter setting out a non-binding offer from the Ministry of Energy and Mines, Kingdom of Morocco.

"The offer envisages that all gas production from the Tendrara production concession will be sold under a GSA to Morocco’s state power company ONEE. The agreement is expected to have a variable element linked to the Brent oil price with a fixed element to fully cover transportation of the gas through the the Tendrara Gas Export Pipeline. This would indicate, at a $70-75 Brent oil price a total gas sales price, variable and fixed, of $8.50-9.00 mmBTU assuming a $1/mmBTU pipeline fee.

"This proves that the market in Morocco is strong and makes the existing and potential for Sound in the region to be of considerable value, the next few weeks will be potentially very rewarding to the company."

PW's comments on the *possible* delay (half-glass-empty folks, please note) are from 6 minutes in the VOX podcast. To be fair to him, he says the point of including this reference to SD in today's RNS is to "flag up early" the possibility of a delay, though SDX still "expects" to proceed as planned with the Early Production System from 1 July.

Today's 10% fall in the SP seems massively overblown, and is a little worrying because, together with the large spread, it suggests there is a lot of froth in the share price being offered by the MMs. A 10% fall on such small-scale trading seems ridiculous, but it's definitely an opportunity for anyone thinking of buying in, and not such a good time to be panic-selling!

I am rather narked off with PW though, because he should have mentioned in interviews this distinction between Early and Final Production Systems (and the associated commercial agreements) much earlier; it wouldn't have taken much explanation, so why leave it until now? And why haven't they nailed the commercial agreements earlier too? There's been ample time as the SD development has dragged its way interminably through the Egyptian Government's processes.

A reverse takeover means a small company taking over a larger one. Here it probably means a takeover of SDX by the SDX SP. Wikipedia says "A reverse takeover or reverse merger takeover is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public. The transaction typically requires reorganization of capitalization of the acquiring company".

I have been an investor for over 3 years and I regret dsmith57 has made some very fair points. Every penny of profit is being spent on endless drilling, with zero, or actually significant negative capital returns for shareholders over several years now. AIM also seems to be hopeless at valuing companies according to anything like predictable or sensible measures used on the main market: it just seems like an arbitrary lottery, especially with natural resources and O&G companies. Everyone goes on about the highly profitable returns in Morocco but the volumes are small and so are the profits, which are immediately spent on yet more 3D surveying and "successful" drilling campaigns that just deliver small gas fields of limited lifespan. We are mostly just running to stand still in Morocco. The SD field(s) in Egypt are larger but the price paid for the gas is poor and held down by the huge offshore gas fields now coming on stream elsewhere in Egypt. And when was the last time SDX discovered any oil in significant volumes? It's all very well to claim that SDX has excellent long-term prospects, but how can this be true when every penny of profit is being spent on drilling and shareholders get nothing, year after year after year? I too am going to wait until SD comes onstream reliably and the current drilling campaign completes, but if there's no positive movement in the share price, I'll have had enough. It's all very well telling people to be patient but when does "long term" just mean "wait until you die"?

Workover, you wrote "other oilies are trading on a PE of 1-2! Some are trading at cash in the bank". Care to name some of these? Why might the market estimate an enterprise value at zero, I.e. in cases where the SP merely matches cash held?

zanmantat: capex isn't just drilling. We'll have been spending significant sums recently on infrastructure to connect SD to the Egyptian grid and the Moroccan discoveries to our dedicated pipeline network there. Plus we have to pay for the new 3D in Egypt, and some pointless drilling required by a past contract. I expect no increase in SDX's cash position in the upcoming report, and to have any increase in revenue and profits from c. 8000 boepd spent entirely on next year's drilling programme and hopefully new supply infrastructure. SDX is currently largely in the business of maintaining and increasing gas production through discoveries and connectivity, with new oil if we're lucky. This means no unproductive cash pile, no dividend, no debt, no main market listing, and all profits to be spent on growth - unless there's a well-priced meaty takeover available at some point. PW obviously hopes that, one day, the SP will start to increase directly in line with revenue and profits, instead of staying stuck at Jan 2017 prices for ever more.

I'll confess I'm very surprised by the SP response to the RNS, but perhaps I was misled by the oddly casual wording of the RNS. It says initially that "Some remediation work" will be needed, but later that extraction equipment may be taken off production tasks if "any" remediation work is needed, which implies there is some doubt on the matter. Well, which is it? The market is smelling uncertainty and potential hefty costs, but a 25% fall seems heavily overdone. The gold's still in the ground waiting to be dug up, and here is HUM being valued at $82 million, yet has about $30 mill net in cash, continued highly-profitable if temporarily reduced production using still-valuable capital assets (a virtually brand-new mine), a 30% exploration stake in Cora, upcoming significant drill results and a new announcement (after hours) that Dugbe's exploration licence MDA has been approved to 2040 by the Liberian government. I am about 40% down on my initial investment, which is deeply depressing, but I think this is actually a time to buy, not sell up, especially if HUM has further falls tomorrow. At these prices most of HUM's different elements are effectively being priced at zero and you will be buying them for free! Now is the time to be brave.

Not win/win if MTR burns through its Botswana drilling capital first, wasting its limited funds on ill-advised share trading and adventures in completely unrelated jurisdictions like Thailand. These results are an absolute disgrace.

These results are shockingly bad, and all without any prior warning to shareholders by the BOD: a £3.1 million loss by Trading, so they've effectively already lost 50% of the £6.2 million they raised in August - which did such huge damage to the share price - and all without a single hole being drilled in Botswana.

NAV has dropped from £15.4 million in December to £11.45 million by the end of June, so Trading has destroyed 20% of the business in 6 months. I'm not surprised the share price has slumped by 5% this morning. I hope someone is going to be fired over this!

I think Serica tripled in price because of some post-purchase discoveries and the recovery in POO. I gather they are technical specialists in recovering more oil than expected from old offshore wells: they believe they can make BP's North Sea wells last much longer and that there's scope for new discoveries too. Of course the deal's not done between SDX and BP and a lot depends on the price paid and other terms. But on the face of it the deal makes sense for SDX regionally and for its experience in re-working old oil fields. In one leap SDX will become a major player in Egypt's oil market and exports and maybe we'll get a better price for our SD gas too, as the Government pays more to larger producers? I'm completely unsure though what all this means for existing shareholders . . .

I agree with most of what Visitor says on where HUM's focus should lie: run Yanifolila well and crank out cash, firm up and extend the LOM, working with Cora, pay down debt, consider a small dividend, prove you're a sustained producer. For expansion, I too think Dugbe is a black hole to be avoided. Well done BOD for building a mine: now stick to your knitting and follow through with Yanifolila . Where we disagree is on BH: no, it's not going to break HUM, but it's a distraction of valuable management time and focus. The possible returns may be good, but why this mine, thousands of miles from West Africa, in a totally different jurisdiction? The BOD should be looking at the share price, down 30% this year, and worrying about and taking action markedly to improve that, not dabbling with small amounts of shareholders' money in American adventures!

OL - forgive my ignorance as I've never been through a TO before. What happens if the BOD recommends an offer and fewer than, say, 90% of shareholders accept within the given timeframe? Does the BOD just carry on with a disgruntled major shareholder and the remaining diehards? And if the 90% threshold is crossed, how exactly are the remaining 9.9% "squeezed out"? Are they forced to accept the offer price and have their shares sold against their will, for cash or shares in the NewCo?

Bolgas - no point in recommending people search for Bonker99's MTR Blog - it's been down for days.

On the price issue, I am beginning to despair of MTR. On Thursday 2 August, just before the ASX Trading Halt on MOD and its RNS, the share price was 3.03. It's now 2.475, a fall of 18%. What has MOD done over the same period, including the substantial fall in the price of copper? It's risen from 0.44 to 0.48.

MOD seems to be the share that is being rewarded for being a successful exploration company, not MTR. I'd like those who keep claiming "jam tomorrow" and "be patient" to explain why the share prices of two such closely-linked companies are performing so differently. I can't help agreeing with those who feel MTR's timing and pricing for the placing was appalling and has given a real and unnecessary kick in the teeth to current shareholders. MM argued in his Proactive interview on 7 August (see www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGZeC6UiuPY, at 7:05) that MTR started their fundraise on Monday 30 July and that they didn't know that MOD was about to issue its assays and make an announcement, but one has to ask: they obviously knew something was imminent, so why even risk tying the two events - MOD's results and MTR's fundraise - together, with the inevitable negative effect on MTR's share price? Yes, the new capital was needed for future drilling, and yes, MTR wants to offer good terms and confidence for its major investors, but they really should put more thought into timing in future.

Thanks daft63 and Southmead for your positive summaries and thoughts. I write as someone who's got a decent slug of my SIPP portfolio in SDX, with an average purchase price of 58p over the last 18 months - so I am still underwater, despite all SDX's best efforts and substantial progress as a business since January 2017. If I'd purchased my holding in full on 27 December 2016 c. 32p, I would be relatively content with progress, so clearly I have terrible timing as an investor!

I usually contribute to the SDX discussion board at II, but I follow the discussions here at LSE on a daily basis, and although I have been persuaded to keep invested by SDX's prospects and the quality of the CEO and its overall team, including the consistently good interpretation of its 3D seismics, the fact is that SDX's recent discoveries have been mainly in gas, not oil. SDX is really a gas company now, not an oil E&D one. OK, gas currently has good margins in Morocco, provided SDX can find reliable paying customers, but the company's current production fields are small, will deplete rapidly, and the company is constantly having to find new supplies to replace them and build up slowly its overall output; meanwhile, if Sound Energy is able to start producing from its huge discoveries in eastern Morocco, what is going to happen to the gas price on offer? Over in Egypt, SDX's current oil production is mature and will be declining soon, and its gas fields in the South Disouq concession (of which it actually only holds 55%) are massively outweighed by the discoveries coming on stream from offshore fields north of the Nile Delta; these are enabling Egypt to become a net gas exporter and must be pushing down local prices: and we still don't have an agreed price for our SD gas production when it comes on stream.

I really don't want to sound so negative: I fully appreciate the fact that SDX is not suffering from the recurring stability issues of pure small exploration oilies financed largely by debt, and the intended production increase to 8000 boepd by the end of 2018 will be good news. I'm not a trader or looking to AIM or small commodity companies for the adrenaline rush of discoveries, "news" and quick SP wins that quickly evaporate; I hope I can be persuaded to remain a long-term investor. It's just, like everyone, I find the lack of movement in SDX's share price intensely frustrating, and I'm getting tired of reading that we all need to be patient, that the SP "bounce" is just around the corner and that such and such a year will be transformational. May 2016 to May 2017 was meant to have been such a year, with the SD-1X discovery and the purchase of Circle Oil, then it was the 2018 drilling programme, and now it will be the 2019 programme . . . But perhaps that's inevitable, amidst the continual change of a company growing organically and by acquisition. GLA.

Daft63: you make some good points on EBRD and the upcoming large capital expenditures in the short term. Perhaps the latter is putting people off buying the shares: it's all very well SDX trumpeting its £30m cash, its lack of debt, and its increasing revenue stream, but much of the cash and income are just going into large amounts of unproven 3D and exploration drills. $62 million of capex is a hell of a lot given the market value of the company, and some investors may feel there's a lot of running to potentially stand still going on here.

A "research" account at II is free to set up and gives you full access to the SDX discussion board there.

Zelion: https://audioboom.com/posts/6820786-sdx-energy-sdx-cluff-natural-resources-clnr-phoenix-gobal-mining-pgm-and-russ-mould-on-gbg-rcn-rfx Well worth a listen. Start at 2:09.