UK 15:43 Monday, 26 October 2026
Breaking news and expert analysis on fast-moving AIM and LSE listed shares
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from ShareProphets). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Eventually a lot of people are going to lose a lot of money on UK Oil & Gas (UKOG). This morning’s announcement from the company, laughably titled “Significant upgrade of the Horse Hill discovery”, has been wrapped in one of the most skillfully crafted and epic stock promotions of recent years. I correctly predicted this “Horse Hill super-ramp” was coming, last month. Today it is just sad to watch gullible and lazy “credible” journalists from the BBC, ITN and Sky News fall over themselves to interview David Lenigas. God knows what hysteria tomorrow’s papers will carry.
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Comments
Steve Holland
Excellent piece as always Ben.
Clarity through all the smoke n mirrors n b/s…….
Not sure I’d wanna buy at all but would certainly wait for the inevitable placing news first……
ps – I was wondering if you’d kept tabs on SOLG’s drilling campaign/results in Ecuador & if so what your thoughts were.
many thanks & regards
Steve H
wolfcastle_22
hmmmm……even if it’s fact…..would the green brigade let them drill it out….methinks not…..but even if they did….it would be decades before it’s lubricating the engine of your car….but apparently we’ll all be driving Prius’s by then….so why bother….with diluting Dave at the helm…..the placing will come at a cost to those holding…..then again RKH have plenty….but so what…apparently
DUCK AND DIVE
Wisely said, Ben. Of course, the pumpers will say that the caveats are standard boilerplate text used in every resource report – which is true. But these “independent” reports are invariably distilled from data supplied to the author by the company which is not independently verified by the report author.
Let’s see how the reserves pan out.
wildrides
Nice piece Ben …….. long longs beware ( I just swing trade it ) the key phrase is right at the end of the RNS :-
“The oil in place hydrocarbon volumes estimated should not be considered as either contingent or prospective resources or reserves” In other words ……….. its an educated guess at best .
To be fair to the BBC on beeb 1 at lunchtime they did report that “less than 10 % may be able to be recovered “ and that fracking would be hard to get planning for if needed .
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rod
https://www.mixcloud.com/shylou73/lou-collins-radio-show-30315-gordon-bowden-part-6-bbc-more/ .Louise Collins @loucollinsRS 1h1 hour ago
I am going to be interviewing #DavidLenigas brother on my radio show.. According to him this is another fake… http://fb.me/259klmBeI
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this might interest some of you
stilbite
Can’t see how everyone can call this an EXCELLENT PIECE?
What has been proved by the way it is a scam report.. because no big oil company has been there?
The “piece” states no credible evidence that the report is false and states the only fact is “the targeted source rock assessed in today’s announcement is both well known and long predicted”… WHAT?
I must be missing something ..
Yes we know only 3-15% could be recovered and we have been told it is not Fracking… why do people not actually read all the info before they comment?
wildrides
Stilly
because he is brave enough to fight the tide . This share will fall back again leaving many punters stuck in a Lobster pot for years . The time for a rise like this is close to production when all the permissions and hardware are gathered in place . Just saying the rise is too big , too soon . Not saying it wont reach and maintain these levels sustainably in the longer term .
Jonathan
As someone who works for a drilling service company which has completed many UK land jobs, I wholeheartedly agree with this article. More spin than a politicians yo yo!
Ben Turney
@Steve – Interesting you mention SOLG. I’ve been watching it recently and saw yesterday’s result of the Open Offer. I have a backlog at the moment, but hope to cover that one in the coming weeks
@wolf – I like the idea we will all be driving Prius cars by the time Horse Hill might ever come into production :-)
@Duck and Dive – Spot on, there is also the small matter of a new drill campaign to pay for, to reach the deeper targets
@Rod – Thank you for the link, I will try to listen
@wildrides – I agree completely about the warning at the end, but I think you are being too kind to the BBC. They helped trigger this crazy media frenzy and have behaved most irresponsibly I think. I guess you are hoping for some similar magic at LGO…. ;-)
@Stillbite – You are correct. You have missed something. In fact you’ve missed a few things. I haven’t said the report is a scam. I’ve correctly pointed out that such reports come with serious health warnings, we have not seen the full report yet, what appears to be in the report was expected by at least some in the industry and the widespread reporting of it all has been grossly misleading (which is the responsibility of the media outlets).