WTI $53.99 +$1.40, Brent $63.29 +$1.62, Diff -$9.30 +22c, NG $2.34 +1c

Oil price

Markets and commodities turned at the end of last week, the irony was that a bad set of jobs data led to speculation about a Fed rate cut, ironic as President Trump had suggested that rate rises were inappropriate recently… Crude also jumped after it was revealed that the Mexico tariff war had been averted whilst at the SPIEF in St Petersburg the Saudis and the Russians got together to agree to existing cuts would be continued. Indeed whether the Opec+ meeting comes before or after the G20 it looks like it is merely a formality.

Brent fell $1.20 on the week whilst WTI actually nailed a 49c rise, the rig count on Friday saw overall rig numbers fall by 9 to 975 but oil came down by 11 to 789.

Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas 

Eco this morning announced the mobilisation of the Stena Forth drillship en route to the Orinduik block offshore Guyana. It is expected to reach the block on the 24th of June and to spud the Jethro Lobe prospect around the 26th. After that well the company plan to drill the Joe prospect a few kilometres away.

With $35m of cash following the raise in April the company is fully funded for up to a further six potential exploration or development wells. Both these upcoming wells will test the Upper and Lower tertiary aged turbidites and Jethro will also drill down to the Cretaceous section. With Exxon having discovered over 5.5bn boe on the adjacent Stabroek block with 13 discovery wells expectations are high that it will have de-risked the play but  Eco warn that they still carry risks of the quality of the seal and the presence of a trap. With around 4bn barrels of prospective resources any success would knock the £141m market cap into next week.

And finally…

In Canada the GP was won by Lewis Hamilton who actually crossed the line second but Vettel took a five second penalty for dangerous driving which put him second overall, might have been third but for team orders…..

The CWC has seen England beat Bangladesh, New Zealand beat Afghanistan and I was at The Oval yesterday to see India beat the Aussies. The weather is hardly ‘flaming June’ which has already affected the Windies v South Africa this morning.

And England beat Scotland 2-1 in yesterday’s WWC in Nice…