Australia
Oil price, Sound, 32nd round. And finally…
WTI $41.37 -14c, Brent $44.07 -36c, Diff -$2.70 -22c, NG $2.49 n/c
Oil prices
Oil was off a touch yesterday as some people drew on the more bearish signals from the EIA report, viz gasoline demand was down from 9.16m b/d to 8.78m b/d. My comments from yesterday remain as it is b obvious that gasoline, and other products will be weaker when punters couldnt drive due to bad weather…
The job stats were better than expected as were the PMI numbers and today we have the NFP figures, 1.37m jobs were added in August and the unemployment rate down to 8.4% which was much better than expected. This weekend it is the Labor Day Holiday in the US which traditionally signals the end of the driving season but with very hot weather forecast particularly on the west coast it may be a bumper end to the driving summer.
Sound Energy
With apologies, pressure of work and numerous conference calls yesterday meant a late blog, however I have had a chance to look at the announcement in detail and talk to ..

WTI $41.37 -14c, Brent $44.07 -36c, Diff -$2.70 -22c, NG $2.49 n/c
Oil prices
Oil was off a touch yesterday as some people drew on the more bearish signals from the EIA report, viz gasoline demand was down from 9.16m b/d to 8.78m b/d. My comments from yesterday remain as it is b obvious that gasoline, and other products will be weaker when punters couldnt drive due to bad weather…
The job stats were better than expected as were the PMI numbers and today we have the NFP figures, 1.37m jobs were added in August and the unemployment rate down to 8.4% which was much better than expected. This weekend it is the Labor Day Holiday in the US which traditionally signals the end of the driving season but with very hot weather forecast particularly on the west coast it may be a bumper end to the driving summer.
Sound Energy
With apologies, pressure of work and numerous conference calls yesterday meant a late blog, however I have had a chance to look at the announcement in detail and talk to Sound Chairman Graham Lyon.
To sum up, the company has received a notification from the Moroccan Tax Administration (MTA) regarding a tax audit for the period 2016-18 restating the basis of tax due.
The company believes that this arises from a misunderstanding of historical licence changes and that with its advisors will be engaging with the MTA to seek to resolve this misunderstanding. In addition whilst the Company will be engaging constructively with the Moroccan Tax Administration in order to resolve the perceived misunderstanding, it will formally write to the Moroccan Tax Administration to formally refute the assessment and the basis thereof.
It appears that the company are indeed taking a robust approach to this exercise by the MTA and will fight this claim to whatever stage is necessary. The company has excellent relationships within the country, I myself have seen how well they are rated by ONHYM and of course during the recent development funding process have also become close to banks and potential funders of their projects.
I understand it this process will not delay or cease the plan for the company to have FID by the end of this year and the Chairman tells me that it is business as usual in Morocco.
Morocco
I have spent a lot of time writing about a number of UK quoted companies who have been encouraged to engage in Morocco for its hydrocarbon opportunities as well as its fiscally attractive terms of business. This includes a ten year tax holiday which applies when a company comes onto production, I assume that the MTA are trying to nip in before that happens to Sound with upcoming development.
I also have enjoyed a really good personal relationship with ONHYM who I have met on many visits to the country and a little while ago where I was a guest speaker of theirs at a conference in Marrakesh where the opportunities in Morocco were propounded. I can imagine that the UK quoteds I refer to, as well as the likes of super major Conoco who have recently taken a substantial onshore acreage package, will be miffed by this action which can only detract from the image Morocco is trying to show in international energy markets…
32nd Licencing Round
Jersey Oil & Gas
JOG has been awarded a 100% WI and operatorship of block 20/5e which contains an extension to the oil discovery at J2 and significantly helps the companys Greater Buchan Area development plans.
IOG
IOG has been awarded 4 new SNS blocks, all adjacent to existing assets and within range of the Thames pipeline. Two awards are joint with CalEnergy, block 49/21e, containing the Viper gas discovery lying 5km from Elland with initial management estimated mid-case recoverable gas resources of 46 billion cubic feet equivalent and block 49/22b, containing the Sinope South gas discovery with initial management estimated mid-case recoverable gas resources of 35 Bcfe.
IOG has been offered 100% of blocks 48/23d and 48/24c, between the Blythe and Harvey licences, containing the AllerdaRead More – Source
Australia
Australia election: Why is Australia’s parliament so white?

Australia
Scott Morrison effectively ditches his promise to establish a federal anti-corruption commission

Scott Morrison has effectively abandoned his promise to establish a federal anti-corruption watchdog, confirming he would only proceed with legislation in the new parliament if Labor agreed to pass the Coalition’s heavily criticised proposal without amendments.
Morrison pledged before the 2019 election to legislate a federal integrity body in the parliamentary term that has just ended. The prime minister broke that promise, failing to introduce his own proposal before the 46th parliament was prorogued.
On the hustings on Wednesday, Morrison was asked – given his previous undertaking to create the body – whether he would promise to put his proposal to a vote in the next parliament in the event the Coalition won the 21 May election.
Morrison declined to make that promise. “Our position on this hasn’t changed,” the prime minister said. “Our view has been the same – when the Labor party is prepared to support that legislation in that form, then we will proceed with it.”
The prime minister has attempted to inoculate himself from criticism about breaking an election promise by saying he tabled the integrity commission proposal in the parliament.
Tabling an exposure draft, which is what the prime minister did, is not the same as introducing finished legislation to the House of Representatives or the Senate that is then debated and voted on.
As well as repeatedly fudging what happened in parliament, Morrison has also created the impression the proposal can only proceed if Labor agrees to its passage without amendments.
All governments routinely introduce legislation for debate without any undertaking that it will be passed by the opposition. Labor favours a stronger model than the Coalition’s proposal.
Morrison’s lack of urgency on the issue created tensions within government ranks. Late last year, the Tasmanian Liberal MP Bridget Archer crossed the floor to support independent MP Helen Haines’ bill to establish a federal integrity commission. Archer accused the government of “inertia” over the issue.
At that time, Archer said she was “perplexed” at her own government’s failure to release a revised bill almost three years after it was promised before the last election.
While Morrison clearly wants to move on from the issue, he will face renewed pressure from crossbench independents if the coming election is close enough to deliver a hung parliament.
A number of independents running against Liberals in metropolitan seats have made it clear that establishing a credible national integrity commission will be a key demand in the event any new government – Liberal or Labor – is seeking agreements for confidence and supply.
Haines blasted Morrison’s comments on Wednesday. “Mr Morrison broke an election promise to introduce an anti-corruption commission and his pathway to creating one is still as vague as it was in the last parliament,” she said.
The crossbench independent said it was “nonsense” for the prime minister to claim that he could not proceed unless Labor agreed with the Coalition’s proposal without seeking any amendments. “It would appear we are in the same void as we were before,” Haines said.
Australia
Chinese healer Hong Chi Xiao has manslaughter charge overturned and will face new trial

A western Sydney “slapping therapy” practitioner who was found guilty of the manslaughter of a six-year-old diabetic boy and sentenced to 10 years in prison has had his conviction overturned and will face another trial.
Hong Chi Xiao appeared in Sydney’s Court of Criminal Appeal on Wednesday.
Mr Xiao was extradited from London to Sydney in 2017 to face charges more than two years after the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, died following a series of workshops held in Hurstville in April 2015.
The boy’s parents attended the conference where the self-proclaimed Chinese healer showed a “disdain for Western medicine”.
Mr Xiao allegedly advised the parents to stop their son’s insulin injections and blood glucose tests.
A Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) investigation found that Mr Xiao told the boy’s parents that slapping therapy “could heal all diseases, including diabetes, and that no medication was required because insulin could be generated” through the treatment.
He also allegedly recommended the six-year-old boy stop eating for three days and only drink water or a “ginger date drink”.
Slapping therapy, also known as paida lajin, advocates the slapping of skin to release toxins from patients.
The boy became visibly ill over several days and began vomiting a black substance, but Mr Xiao allegedly told the boy’s mother that his body was adjusting to the “self-healing process”.
He began having seizures and was rushed to St George Hospital, where he died.
The NSW Coroner found the treatment directly caused the boy’s death on April 27, 2015.
A District Court jury found Mr Xiao guilty of manslaughter for breaching the duty of care he owed the six-year-old boy through gross negligence.
He was handed a sentence of 10 years with a non-parole period of 7½ years in December 2019.
District Court Judge Garry Neilson said Mr Xiao showed “no signs of true remorse”.
Mr Xiao launched an appeal against his conviction, claiming inconsistencies in the evidence and that Judge Neilson told the jury that there was “no defence” during the trial.
Tim Game SC told the court that Judge Neilson did not summarise the defence case and did not give enough evidence to the jury to make a sound decision.
After a short adjournment, Justice Derek Price, Justice Ian Harrison and Justice Mark Ierace granted the appeal and quashed Mr Xiao’s conviction.
However, he will have to face a fresh trial in front of a new jury.
Mr Xiao will face the Sydney District Court on March 11 for mention.
He has been permanently banned from practising medicine by the HCCC.
The boy’s mother, father and grandmother were also initially charged over his death, but they were found not guilty and acquitted.
Mr Xiao has been in prison since his arrest in 2017 but has long rejected criticism that his techniques endanger lives.
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