Any views on Gulf Keystone Petroleum

LULULU1

Been reading a lot about a company called Gulf Keystone and have invested a bit in them.

Today the IRaq govenrment passed its budget which meant doing some deals with the Kurds where the company has several drills ongoing.

Just wondered what anybody else thoughts were.

Cheers

Theyarv1

VERY basically they had some oil fields, but the Iraqi government didn't recognise the Kurdish authority who gave GKP drilling rights, so they didn't have liscences to drill and get the oil, until quite recently (couple weeks ago i think). Then they made a deal and everything was ok. So now you are essentially betting on how much oil is in ground, 200m or 2.2b barrels of oil, and the price of oil.

LULULU1

According to their site they have several billion barrels already discovered and have now started apraising one of the wells.

"several billions" is a very big number. Hope it continues to go well but as its in Iraqi anything could happen.

Good luck all and have a good week.............

sabretoothtigger

I thought they had not sorted the licenses just yet. Main thing is who pays costs and whats the profit split on everything. Places like Egypt or Libya take half of everything

amistupid

GKP is a frightening roller coaster, there is no doubt they are sitting on a lake of oil, they have discovered another 1.8 billion barrels and the share price is currently up 21% today at £1.38. I took a gamble on them last November bought at £1.76, since then they have been up and down like a bride's nightie, have been as high as £1.90 but as low as 84p. I think it would be fair to say despite them sitting on a lake of oil, and speculation that they may enter the FTSE or be subject of a takeover they are still a high risk investment as the Iraqis and Kurd can't agree foreign oil contracts and there is an ongoing legal case with another company who have made a claim on some of GKP assets. I knew they were a punt when I bought and although I'm showing a 26% loss I intend holding hoping for a good return if they are taken over. If you've got weak heart they are not shares for you, if you do take the plunge I suggest you buy brown underwear.

ses6jwg

I have been holding GKP on and off for the best part of 3 years.

I originally bought them at 34p, and being green I sold them at 78p.

I bought some more again about 18 months ago at £1.01, have been holding ever since.

Personally, I think that with the huge US infliuence over Iraqi politics, and the US pushing the view that the Kurds should get autonomy, and add in the fact that their thirst for oil will continue unabated until it runs out.... I feel that for the medium to long term they are good hold.

However as with AIM you have to be prepared for some volatility.

The CEO gets paid a ridiculous amount while the company makes losses.... however this could change as they have recently started production and are recieving a modest income from the local market.

Ideally, a move to the FTSE would provide confidence to institutional investors and tidy up a somewhat shadowy past that the company has (ETAMIC, Excalibur involvement)

Ark_Welder

ses6jwg wrote: »

Ideally, a move to the FTSE...

Move from AIM to the Main Market, not FTSE (which is usally shorthand for the FTSE 100).

ses6jwg

The FTSE all-share I meant.

amistupid

amistupid wrote: »

GKP is a frightening roller coaster, there is no doubt they are sitting on a lake of oil, they have discovered another 1.8 billion barrels and the share price is currently up 21% today at £1.38.

Today they finished at £1.81 soaring at the moment.

sabretoothtigger

You can thank Tony Hayward for this I think. He has setup a firm which has done a deal in Iraqi oil assets thereby reminding everyone of the latent value in all these explorer companies out that way

The question of Baghdad vs the Kurds on revenue shares of oil production is not resolved but people say it will be by end of this year.

Im switching my interest from Gulf over to Heritage who are also Iraqi oil with producing assets elsewhere also much more so I see them as also undervalued and slightly less risky. Better capitalised too maybe

I sold some Gulf today, I'd only consider the rest at 200p or more but I think its a jagged road we travel :money:

ejlmcdonald

Hi, I've been invested in GKP since last November too. I agree with the Rollercoaster!

The reason it's soaring at the moment is because Tony Hayward (ex-boss of BP) and Nat Rothschild (company is called Vallares) just bought in to Genel and are going to list it on the FTSE. Genel's main licence is called Behr Bahr, huge potential, an owned 40% Vallares, 40% GKP and 20% KRG (Kurdistan Regional Govt. GKP's other licences are next door. This is a repected outfit who have decided it's worth the risk in Kurdistan, so de-risking GKPs investment. It also puts a price per barrel on Kurdistan oil - not before available - showing that GKP were sorely undervalued.

The only thing that's certain is that there will be more fireworks before GKP are probably taken over. Personally I think there's huge upside and I always did like rollercoasters.