The Oil Man: Oil price, Cairn Energy/FAR, Empyrean

WTI $29.42 n/c, Brent $28.55 -39c, Diff +87c, NG $2.12 +2c

With WTI not trading yesterday, Brent eased, as the impact from any Iranian crude is likely to be felt on it rather than on the US crude. This may increase the positive differential for a while - dependent, of course, on how US exports get on.

This morning, with the China GDP data pretty much in line with expectations, Brent is up almost a dollar and WTI 31 cents.

Cairn/Far

I have put both companies in, as the Senegal discovery is the most meaningful to both of them. After the last announcement, I rather assumed that SNE-2 was good enough to enable Cairn to upgrade its numbers; today they say that "current drilling is expected to lead to a revision of reserve estimates".

Elsewhere for Cairn, they say that, with cash of $603 million (£422 million) and the RBL undrawn, they are comfortable and have $300 million to fund the North Sea development capital expenditure.

Finally, the tax row with India rumbles on; ST was seen in the Financial Times this morning saying that it was the "last chance" for the Indian Government to sort something out, but the statement today seems to indicate lengthy international arbitration.

Sundry

Empyrean finally took off yesterday, I was beginning to worry that the market may not give them the credit they deserved. I had a long chat with Tom Kelly and he is understandably pleased to get this deal done in the current environment. I don't think we have seen the last of him; I hope not, as he is a smart guy and is already looking at new projects.

And finally…

At the Australian Open tennis there are already shocks: Rafa is out in round one and Britain's Johanna Konta has beaten Venus Williams. Muzza is through - but no shock there - and Leyton Hewitt is playing his last Aussie Open.

Tonight sees the FA Cup replays, I guess the pick is Villa v. Wycombe or maybe Pompey v. the Tractor Boys…

And as for Chris Ashton, just don't get me started, all this time whingeing about not getting in the team under Stuart Lancashire and…

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