macquarie downgrades tiof and tevet

From The Sydney Morning Herald - might explain the selling this morning

The bad oil

It seems that Macquarie Equities analysts aren't quite as bullish on the oil prospects in Mauritania as joint venture partners Woodside Petroleum, Hardman Resources and Roc Oil have let on so far.

Early production difficulties at the Chinguetti development have dampened the investment bank's reserve expectations for the Tiof and Tevet projects.

"With no official guidance from the operator [Woodside], we have grown increasingly uncomfortable with our reserve estimates," said analyst Andrew Blakely, possibly in the hope that Woodside chief executive Don Voelte would elaborate when his company's half-year results are released today.

Macquarie yesterday slashed its recoverable reserve estimate at the Tiof project in half, from 220 million barrels to 100 million barrels. And the potential for the Tevet tie-back was cut by two-thirds from 75 million barrels to 25 million barrels.

from:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/xchange/has-api...134.html?page=2