directors shareholdings, page-13

buying oilers on the dips I agree with acturtle if you have held FAR through the drilling of China and seen your pre drill profits evaporate or worse still bought at prices in the 8-10 cents range and are now facing losses you either take the tax loss or hold for the next turn up which could be awhile away and lock your capital in.

And in my mind the Lake Long deep well, Muggles and some of the other activity it has on its agenda is unlikley to influence the stock as much as China did. The company is far more media conscius than it once was and that might help stimulate interest but then presumably there are a few "stale bulls" only too willing to get some money back whenever the share ticks up.
That will cap the rise for a while.

I remember buying FAR after Banjo in the mistaken belief that it would recover. It didn't in fact they had one of their regular small capital raisings which wiped 30% off my investment in a matter of days. I participated in the capital raising and averaged down
because I knew China was coming up twelve months down the track and that I should eventually get my money back.

As it happened I did but it took quite a while and I didn't hang around for the rise to 11 cents, I bailed happily at 8 cents. FAR had some $2 milllion in cash at the end of March but i would think most of that has been committed and they might need more $$$ before too long.

For those looking for stocks to try out the "buy early sell before spud" strategy to investing in the oilers, in addition to looking a forward drilling programs that might excite the market it might be wise to include on your check list whether or not the companies you are looking at have just had a capital raising. At least they will be able to finance a forward program. Companies that I am looking at include Icon, Nido, Essential Petroleum, and Voyager.

All have recently raised capital and in the case of Nido and Icon have done very little over the past couple of years but have plans to get active again in coming months. Right now the market thinks they stink so you can get them cheaply.

Voyager is a quality newcomer that will have a cash flow from Jingemia and next year from Cliff Head. It will drill Fiddich with Apache later this year (likely to be postponed from June to September). VOY should rise above previous highs of 33/34 cents in the lead up to this drilling program and is probably one reason the VOY options are in demand given the leverage they offer. VOY also recently raised capital to fund exploration and buy more of Cliff Head and Jingemia which was a good move IMO.

Essential Petroleum is a quiet achiever in the Otway Basin both offshore and onshore and should recover from current levels whihc have been caused by a recent cash call. They will also be drilling this year.

So they are my choices, I hold Nido, Icon, Voyager and another cashed up junior Sun Resources which has an interest in Muggles and Vesta.

I have sold my personla interest in AWE ahead of Pukeko and thus locked in a good profit. If Pukeko comes in I will buy them back at a higher price because they are a good stock that success in NZ will only make better. If Pukeko disappoints then I will buy them back at a cheaper price.

Either way I have not lost anything. And like OMR f I had been more disciplined with this strategy with Petsec I would have been laughing right now.

But for those still holding AWE and PSA at least you know you are onto great stocks that won't let you down in the longer term indeed with Yolla gas (AWE) and Vermilion (PSA) both coming into production in coming months both stocks should be considerably higher later in the year. The cash flows for both will be impressive.