The FTSE 100 is flat at just below 7,000 at the start of the new trading week. The corporate agenda is dominated by activity in the oil and gas sector.
BP (BP.) has made several interesting moves. It has taken 10% stakes in Abu Dhabi’s ADCO onshore oil concession and the operating company. BP will issue $2.3bn in shares to the Abu Dhabi government.
BP will also buy a 62% stake in exploration projects owned by Kosmos Energy for nearly $1bn. The money will be spent over a number of years covering both exploration and development costs.
San Leon Energy (SLE:AIM) has received a takeover approach from an undisclosed party, sending its shares up 22% to 52.75p.
Hurricane Energy (HUR:AIM) jumps 21% to 51p on positive drilling results from its Lancaster field although there is no indication of the oil/gas mix. Analysts are excited about the next phase of exploration work.
‘(Hurricane's) forthcoming well, Halifax, which lies on-trend from Lancaster has the potential, in our view, to be an even more significant step towards a transformation of the scale of the hydrocarbon potential in this part of the west of Shetlands,’ says Charlie Sharp at Canaccord Genuity.
Canadian Overseas Petroleum (COPL) slumps 73% to 2.12p after exploration failure at its Mesurado-1 well near Liberia.
Angus Energy (ANGS:AIM) advances 27% to 12.38p after increased its position in the Brockham oil field from 55% to 65%.
GVC (GVC) has sold its payments business Kalixa for €29m. Kalixa was inherited by GVC as part of its takeover of Bwin.Party.
A $1m contract win triggers a 3.8% rise in WANdisco (WAND:AIM) to 205p. IBM will use a rebranded version of the small cap’s cloud solution on a contract with a large automotive company.
Commodities trader Noble has secured the right to buy up to 12.5% of Mkango Resources (MKA:AIM) at 6.6p per share over the next two years as part of an agreement to help the miner find the best markets to sell future rare earth production from its project in Malawi. The news sends shares in Mkango up 15.4% to 3.75p.
A proposal to delist from AIM sends Arria NLG (NLG:AIM) down 7.3% to 12.75p.
