Afternoon H. Am enjoying a (non-earned) day off. They assumed like everyone else that the woeful offers for the COP deepwater portfolio meant that COP would sit and hold a while longer. Am pretty sure that they were thinking Cairn would sell first, and that's why they did their first roadshow a while ago. But we were all wrong and COP has blinked. Since then we've seen a few of the supermajors release their results and they have all been horrible - so maybe easier to understand. Personally am lukewarm re Total. They have a lot on their plate and are ditherers at the best of times. My guess it is a left field player. I know of one PE outfit (a behemoth) who dismissed it as too early-stage about a year ago. Much has happened since and suitors will be getting a sniff of the likely upgrade, and if that's as good as I think it is then maybe that's enough to get it out of the early-stage box.
And for the impatient, just look at gold and how that sector has revived in such a short time. Last year the mood at Diggers and ~Dealers was like a morgue. So different now. Oil's time will come.
FAR Price at posting:
8.1¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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