So I've knocked up a script to grab some data from Yahoo - the quality of their data ain't great, but it's easy to get and I've cleaned up some of the real howlers. I started with their Energy sector, ditched the likes of the integrateds, put the services to one side for now, and shuffled a few as appropriate (they classify Wood as integrated, Tomco as drilling etc) to be left with what we'd recognise as E&Ps.
First I used the difference between the Yahoo reported enterprise value and market cap to look for pseudo-cash shells. Valeura (VLU) is trading at around 20% discount to their £30m of cash, I've not really looked at what they're up to in Turkey but presumably it's complicated. Cadogan (CAD) is in Ukraine - nuff said (qv Enwell). Longboat (LBE) is perhaps more interesting - the former Faroe management in new clothes - trading at about their £38m of cash, which they've just raised to spend on drilling 7 wells over the next 15 months, targetting a mean 104 mmboe net. All offshore Norway as the name suggests, so any production would be ... enthusiastically ... taxed, they suggest transaction values of US$4/boe, but at least the geology is familiar so they're typically 25% chance wells. They're three weeks in to their first well, although it's only a small one for them, 6mmboe net.
Shares are off a third from their highs of a quid, feels like people have got a bit bored and are nervous about the environmental side, but if you fancy a fairly straight bet on drilling success then you could do a lot worse than Longboat?
I also looked for companies with "momentum", defining it as the difference between the 50ma and 200ma, divided into the 52-week range. It's not perfect, I would go for shorter timespans as eg at the moment Advance still shows high despite a horrendous duster this week whereas Borders & Southern doubled on Thursday (presumably someone got confirmation that they'd renewed their licences?) but aren't prominent here. But 50/200ma are the ones that a lazy person can easily get from Yahoo so it's somewhere to start. I also looked at the current shareprice in relation to the 52-week high/low (eg if shareprice is 180p and lo/hi is 100/200 it's 80% of that range). Then I took out the silly-bugger listings with over 75% "insider holdings" as defined by Yahoo - PennPetro, Phoenix Global, Indus, Zoltav, Enwell and Caspian.
No I haven't suddenly become a momentum investor. But it's one way to get a feel for what's going on in the sector, as places to start digging. Given the macro environment, I suspect that just buying a basket of the top 5-10 of this list will do alright over the next 6-12 months. Not that I'm going to do that, I'll be having a good poke at some fundies. Not surprisingly, Mr Market likes bigger, production companies and is out of love with small exploration cos - twas ever thus. And some of the "snoozing" companies will wake up at some point - Longboat is one (up or down!), Diversified (DEC) might be another. A £900m agglomeration of gas producing assets in the US is never going to be too exciting, it's the sort that just keeps grinding out a 10% yield whilst they wheel and deal and Henry keeps the cash flowing. Been knocked down on environmental fears which they claim are overplayed, but on first look they look the share to pay your gas bill....?
But a final reminder - this data is from Yahoo, which can be a bit squiffy. I've manually patched up some of it so some of it won't correspond to what's on Yahoo.
EPIC Name Cap SP Momentum SP/hi-lo
SQZ Serica Energy £633m 239.5p 33% 81%
IOG IOG £179m 35.5p 27% 87%
PANR Pantheon Res £576m 75.9p 24% 74%
TGL TransGlobe £167m 240p 22% 94%
ENOG Energean £1692m 956.5p 21% 92%
HUR Hurricane £91m 4.455p 21% 82%
PTAL PetroTal Corp £258m 29.5p 21% 94%
ZPHR Zephyr Energy £77m 5.95p 17% 59%
GTE Gran Tierra £226m 60p 15% 68%
CHAR Chariot £74m 9.22p 14% 54%
CNE Capricorn Energy £943m 191p 14% 78%
ADV Advance Energy £6m 0.68p 14% 3%
KOS Kosmos Energy £1428m 334p 14% 98%
SOU Sound Energy £33m 2.05p 13% 45%
FOG Falcon Oil & Gas £108m 11.65p 13% 67%
PXEN Prospex Energy £11m 5.65p 12% 84%
GEEC Great Eastern £49m 41p 11% 90%
DELT Deltic Energy £33m 2.4p 11% 72%
I3E i3 Energy £159m 14.6p 8% 81%
JSE Jadestone Energy £440m 94.5p 7% 47%
TXP Touchstone £200m 89.5p 6% 37%
PHAR Pharos Energy £119m 28p 6% 94%
GKP Gulf Keystone £457m 216p 5% 91%
PPC President £36m 1.775p 4% 14%
AXL Arrow Explo £20m 9p 4% 89%
TRP Tower Resources £6m 0.27p 4% 13%
GBP GlobalPetroleum £4m 0.535p 2% 9%
EME Empyrean Energy £40m 6.15p 1% 46%
HBR Harbour Energy £3226m 359.4p 1% 44%
AEX Aminex £31m 0.8p 0% 63%
CORO Coro Energy £7m 0.32p 0% 21%
PTR Petroneft Res £28m 2.9p -1% 51%
88E 88 Energy £330m 2.38p -2% 46%
JOG Jersey O&G £45m 138.5p -3% 20%
TLOU Tlou Energy £15m 2.15p -4% 1%
EGY VAALCO Energy £145m 250p -4% 83%
ANGS Angus Energy £13m 1.1p -4% 55%
WCAT Wildcat £52m 2.375p -5% 46%
ORCA Orcadian Energy £24m 36.5p -5% 81%
CEG Challenger £5m 0.625p -5% 1%
TLW Tullow Oil £845m 59.62p -6% 85%
AST Ascent Resource £4m 3.5p -6% 2%
BOR Borders & Southern £7m 1.25p -6% 33%
EDR Egdon Resources £9m 1.75p -6% 40%
ZEN Zenith Energy £15m 0.875p -7% 13%
PATH Path Investments £5m 0.27p -7% 19%
EOG Europa O&G £9m 1.6p -8% 49%
CAD Cadogan Petroleum £9m 3.5p -8% 58%
VLU Valeura Energy £24m 27.5p -8% 80%
OEX Oilex £15m 0.18p -8% 24%
RKH Rockhopper £49m 10.3p -9% 73%
ECHO Echo Energy £6m 0.44p -10% 1%
IGAS IGas Energy £18m 15p -11% 9%
SCIR Scirocco Energy £6m 0.825p -11% 9%
ENQ EnQuest £391m 21.7p -12% 63%
NTOG Nostra Terra £3m 0.4p -12% 18%
UKOG UK Oil & Gas £16m 0.1025p -12% 2%
DEC Diversified En £918m 110.6p -13% 45%
GENL Genel Energy £419m 153.8p -13% 49%
BOIL Baron Oil £8m 0.07p -13% 24%
STA Star Phoenix £2m 1.25p -14% 12%
BLVN Bowleven £10m 3p -14% 11%
PRD Predator O&G £18m 6.52p -14% 19%
MATD Petro Matad £35m 4.18p -14% 27%
PVR Providence Res £27m 2.65p -14% 9%
SEPL Seplat Energy £789m 93.8p -15% 60%
VOG Victoria O&G £12m 4.85p -15% 57%
COPL Canadian O'seas £57m 36.75p -15% 32%
PMG Parkmead Group £44m 40.65p -16% 29%
LOGP Lansdowne O&G £4m 0.475p -16% 2%
SOUC Southern Energy £20m 26p -17% 30%
TRIN Trinity E&P £61m 131p -17% 35%
SENX Serinus Energy £19m 1.8p -18% 14%
SLE San Leon Energy £183m 37.35p -19% 80%
WTE Westmount Energy £12m 8p -19% 17%
NOG Nostrum Oil & Gas £13m 5.52p -19% 21%
CLON Clontarf Energy £2m 0.245p -20% 10%
ECO Eco (Atlantic) £55m 26.25p -20% 51%
UOG United Oil & Gas £19m 3.1p -20% 25%
WEN Wentworth Res £39m 21.4p -22% 30%
LBE Longboat Energy £36m 63.5p -22% 8%
MSMN Mosman O&G £3m 0.0825p -22% 8%
PET Petrel Resources £3m 1.65p -22% 3%
ARG Argos Resources £4m 1.6p -23% 31%
RBD Reabold Resources £23m 0.265p -25% 21%
SDX SDX Energy £20m 9.7p -26% 25%
ADME ADM Energy £2m 0.925p -29% 5%
BLOE Block Energy £9m 1.425p -34% 21%
UJO Union Jack Oil £17m 16p -37% 17%
UPL Upland Resources £2m 0.275p -39% 8%