The Oil Man: OPEC, Trinity, EPI

WTI $50.84 +$1.07, Brent $53.89 +89c, Diff -$3.05 -18c, NG $3.69 +9c

It is back to Vienna, which is hosting this weekend's OPEC/Non-OPEC meetings, which the market hopes will confirm their part of the recent bargain. Yesterday the market was in a believing mood as Russia said it would cut, as did Azerbaijan, others may be a touch more recalcitrant.

Either way, in a speech in New York yesterday former Secretary General-El Badri indicated the deal would happen - so that's ok then…

Trinity Exploration & Production

There has been a story going round the market for several weeks now that has effectively said that Trinity has found a way out of its problems, that money had been raised and Bruce is back in business. Today's announcement confirms that Trinity is back in business - at least for the time being.

The company is raising $15 million at 4.98p, which will pay off the creditors, restructure the balance sheet and even drill four wells. Money is being raised from both the company's largest shareholder and management, and seems to be pretty much in the bag.

Post all this, Trinity will actually look in quite good nick. Operating break-even has fallen to $29.40 from $47.40 and, concomitant with other exploration and production companies, costs are down. Indeed, after all that has gone on at Trinity, I suspect that there are few other companies being run on such a shoestring. After this process I imagine Bruce Dingwall will be inducted into the Magic Circle post haste…

EPI Group/PDF

Leading private seismic consultancy EPI Group has acquired PDF Limited, a highly respected geoscience consultancy. Whilst both these companies are private, the combined group will provide an ever larger range of services to their blue-chip client base.

Dr Mark Enfield, PDF founder will join the EPI board and Edward Bowen will remain CEO of the combined entity. This "transformational" acquisition will create a broader range of advisory services to what is an increasing client base.

I mention this partly as industry readers of the blog will undoubtedly find it of interest and of course a company growing so fast will inevitably be considered for a quoted existence one day as this combination has the makings of a proper leader in its field.

And finally…

Another massive weekend of sport and top of the bill is Anthony Joshua who takes on Eric Molina in Manchester, no easy fight this. The other fight is Chisora v Whyte which is now not a title fight after the former threw a table at his oppo…

Rugby wise we are back to the European Champions Cup, too many great fixtures to mention here.

Racing is at Cheltenham and Donny both of which have great cards.

England played just about well enough yesterday in the test match yesterday but not so well this morning. 400 was ok but at the moment life is a cruise for the Indian batsmen who are 144-1 as I write.

So to the Premiership where there isn't one standout match. Chelski host the Baggies, the Noisy Neighbours go to the Foxes, the HubCap Stealers entertain the happy Hammers and Spurs go to the Theatre of Dreams.

This article is for information and discussion purposes only and does not form a recommendation to invest or otherwise. The value of an investment may fall. The investments referred to in this article may not be suitable for all investors, and if in doubt, an investor should seek advice from a qualified investment adviser.