just an update for anyone following this thread....Rockhopper found 140millon B's of Oil, been upgraded to minimum 242 barrells - 695million. They will be getting the rig back in July to drill their next well, and then flow test the well they have hit!! City Brokers predcting between £6-£8 for Rockhopper on flow test results.

Good news for Desire is that the results so far show that all the north basin is riddled with oil and seems to be flowing eastwards. Desire have all the east wells and have 2 wells which are identical play types to the Rockhopper well (that has been hit). Desre have announced they are changing their next drill (which has been delayed to september due to Rockhopper flow testing) and they will drill this well (the identical play type). Des currently about 90p. Unreal price for this share compared to what it is likely to be by xmas!!!!!!

RKH went from 37p to £3.70 in 3 days after hittiing their well, desires are bigger and they have more!!

Good luck

would you have posted if you bust him to break the bubble and win the  seat

not so sure

Obv u don't know me Outrageous... But this is the closest I've ever came to getting physically violent on the poker table. This guy made my blood boil. I decided at the break even if I made a miraculous recovery I was going to post the story and let ppl know what happend. I have never been penalised on a poker table in my life so I was pretty shocked by that anyway. As for 2+2 I won't be posting there because its never interested me, seems its for americans and I prefer the british soil like blonde tbh ppl who are on the same wave length.

I can 2nd this, having played in the local poker club with James over the years in tournaments or watching the cash game, not once even a nasty comment after a bad beat so must have been bad for you to lose your rag!

You did well not to whack him!! Think I would have been banned for the abuse!!!!!

Evening All, I haven’t actually invested in Blatchs scam however I do and quite recently, have some good knowledge of this type of person and will quickly share it with you so you can see how these types of people have the same characteristics.

I have a friend who has done a very similar thing with his friends so have experienced all the excuses, lies, BS etc etc here are some of the things I can compare!

1 - His family may well be bailing him out. My Friends mother bailed him out 21k, 2 years later 20k and more recently 3 months ago 19k. All through his gambling problems, taking money by deception (£100 here, £200 there) and just trying to spin it up (bookie roulette machines and online roulette). So this does happen, I guess a parents love for their kids?! Who knows!

2 - The excuses are the same. Both Blatch and my friend just try to buy time. A recent excuse was that he had put £300 into a bank deposit box as they were closed (however you cant do this without a card to that bank to open the slot and put your details in the cash point machine) so clearly a lie. However the other person believed him and was on the phone to the bank saying "he definitely put it in there" etc etc. But it just gave him 1 more week to find the money

3 - He has no care about his friends / no conscience. My Friend always managed to get money off people because he had (over the years) built up a good reputation, good worker, and generally good guy and because people generally cared about him however, he doesn’t give a fk about the effect him taking as little as 200£ off a mate can effect their life (family, kids etc), as long as the sob story manages to get him his chance to have a spin on the roulette!!

4 - He also managed to hide his gambling problem for years, and then convinced everyone he was clean and was going to GA and would pay everyone back as soon as he could. He actually was def going to GA but this was to buy him more time!!!!!

5 - he offered friends (who did not know about his problems/debts etc) a 'investment opportunity' regarding buying/renovating property with a quick large return however fortunately word was starting to spread and he never got the money at which point he turned once again to his mother (who was convinced he had sorted his problems out) and she once again took a loan out (as he had drained all her savings) and paid off his debts. This time to some very nasty people who basically gave him a time frame to get the 12k he owed or he would have his legs broke!!

Its all come to a head recently with him, and the agreement with his friends is that the only way to help him is to stop helping him. No one is going to bail him out, lend him money or offer him anywhere to stay. No one any longer is keeping his problems a secret as they did before. By ousting him, hopefully it shames him into getting some kind of help and actually sorting his life out.

If I could give you a bit of advice, I would say DO NOT write the money off. Keep up the pressure with him. You have to remember now that the guy has been found out. He obviously doesn’t care about you or he wouldn’t have stolen your money, so now he has been shamed - why would he start caring now??? He has been ruined in his friend circles/poker world, he will hardly be able to ever show his face again bar a miracle....so why would he try and give you your money back? if he pays it back...nothing changes, still not trusted and will never be liked again. So if he can get away without paying you a penny it doesn’t make sense for him to pay it back.

He is definitely buying time with this 30 day thing. Those that have lost money, keep the pressure up. Those that know where he lives go round to his house and confront him. It’s easy to reply to an email, but confront someone and they may shock you!! its likely he will tell you everything.

I feel for you all, seen it and been burned before myself. Keep up the pressure, go to the papers?? Name and shame him so no one gets done again. Good luck to everyone I hope you all get every penny back.

How about just buy Rockhopper or Desire - read the news, anyone who purchased shares owes Cottonbud a pint!!!

http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?code=cotn:RKH.L&display=news&it=le

watch Rockhopper fly today, then watch desire fly behind it, then watch desire rocket in 2 months!!!

Had a heart attack today when watching live prices!! however, Sam moodys news release not only sorted out the dirty rats bear raiding the stocks and shares (funny how it happened at lunch time when big personal city investors were on lunch!!) but their news release de risked the results from Rockhoppers oil. Basically they have said the results will be good!!

FSA is investigating the bear raid today, you can see it on this mornings timesonline!! last time this happened someone was jailed for 4 years!!!!!

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/article7142940.ece

anyone holding rkh? if so, what is your game plan? this and des have been my first dip in the market and i could lock up and freeroll on des only..

anyone with any thoughts?

Sorry not been on for a while!

Im holding RKH and DES but not the other 2 Falklands Oileys. I brought in at RKH at 47p and with price finishing today at 2.51 nice profit, although DES is still the company with better prospects and is undervalued at 88p. Desires potential is huge as they have the pic of the wells and the bigger prospects. Short term RKH for quick profit (even at 2.51) as they are about (any day - today or tuesday is likely) to announce the strength of the oil find! Price anticipated to be £3-£6.

Des - so cheap at 88p, will go back to the original well and is now looking likely to be huge by the end of the year. Its not too late to get in, at 88p, this will look so cheap in the coming mmonths, however will not get the rig back til end of July - start of August to drill their next well. Rumour has it they are going back to the first well rather than moving to the next of their 9-13 wells.

If RKH announce strong oil, DES will rise to approx £1.00 - £1.30 on the back of the news!!

Good luck to all invested!! going to be a good year for anyone in these shares!!!

Dessie is getting a good caning at the moment.

Yeh, a little bit however there is no reason for the share price to move up atm, the price already has in it the argie situation, drilling with no assests etc,  so it should stay like this until around the 22nd march when the results of drill are released. Then its boom or short fall, I say boom or short fall because if there is oil then bang the price flies, if no oil in this well then there is 11 more to drill yet in an area of the 2nd source rock in the world!! chances of finding no oil at all are pretty slim unlike my mate Randy.

If there daily shares traded starts to increase and there is a big movement upwards or downwards (big not 3-4p) then you know news has leaked and follow the trades!!

March 17th - 22nd 2010 - The Luxor -

I love this thread.

I am now the majority shareholder of Desire.

love the bit about shorters are far smarter that those that go long....thats the best statement yet, thats like me saying im the best poker player in the world. On my day I could win the WSOP but i generally wouldnt because im no good...!! bad statement that!!

I'm invested in this and i know it's a risk. It's just deciding whether the reward is worth the risk and i decided it was for me.
Not gonna get rid now.

Rewards are DEFINITELY worth the risk on this one!!!!

No wonder half the people on my table had shares in this bit of hype at my GUKPT table at the weekend.  James speaks a whole lot of sense, as he is clearly not talking through his pocket.  If the company share price was expected to be £3 or £4 in the next couple of weeks, then it would be £3 or £4 now.

Anybody who has said, in all seriousness, that this company whose assets are a bit of cash and a licence to try and find oil is bigger than Cairn should have been laughed off the board.  His credibility is absolutely shot.

If you really want a serious investment discussion on Desire or Falkland Oil and gas, go to fool.co.uk as somebody has said.  ADVFN is pretty much full of rampers and idiots.

There is a very good article on the falklands oil prospects here from a respected oil investing expert http://www.fool.co.uk/news/investing/investing-strategy/2010/02/24/oil-investing-the-falklands.aspx  Basically there is a chance of oil, but it isn't a certainty and conditions could be difficult

cheers

LOL, are you a deramper? All oil exploration is high risk, nobody denies that, and why wouldnt the market price be held back when there is talk of war again? It was pretty much the only thing (war) that would hold this share price back, as anticipation on them striking and increasing over 1000% overnight forces a share price up.

For example, GKH was 9p a few weeks back, they struck oil, share price then hit over 90p over night. If Des strike recoverable oil in the first well, based on what they think is there the share price on recoverable oil at x million barrells works out betweek £6 and £11. They are not pie in the sky figures, they are calculated figures at oil around $80 a barrell. Thats also based one one strike.

Shelldrilled in 1998, 6 wells, oil shows in 5 of them, however as oil crashed whilst they were drilling from $30 a b to $10 a barrell, it was not commercially viable for them to continue.  The first well is anticipated at between 600m and 2.7 b barrells of oil (not including gas) this is bigger than anything found in the north sea for a long long time.

Also, all this war talk, fall out over who owns falklands, a group of tiny worthless islands 8000 miles away....do you think we lost 300 service men for pride or do you think there may be a reason for it?

good luck!! I'm in deep and have topped up this week at 96p, good to see them today at £1.09 although my average price is still in the 40p (approx).  and my information doesnt come from adfv, iii, fool.com or any rumour forum, it comes direct from the owners of the company, who do not give out false or inside information, just basic facts. I hope anyone who has took a punt on these how big or small holds their nerve as its a volitile share yet im confident we will all be smiling at the end of it!! the facts if you care to look are in black and white on the internet on desire website and most companies are now advising desire as a hold or strong buy!!

If the directors were that confident wouldn't they have used their own money to buy the options? (or even borrowed money, as surely the shares, bought at a discount, should return more than the cost of the loan). In essence it seems they've just gone a freeroll to gain more shares without any extra exposure (assuming what you say is true and they used all the cash from sales to buy options).

Well, these guys are on the rich list I believe, they're not short of a few quid. They purchased a company off a friend of mine for 22m, most of which was borrowed money. They buy up small businesses with big turnovers, mainly on borrowed money, and let that business pay off the loans, effectively freerolling that company for them.

Oil exploration is very risky, hence why this type of share can turn into a life changing amount of profit for a small investment. I'm not 100% sure of exact figures (this can be found easily on the website) but off the top of my head, out of the 300million + shares in play for desire, Stephen Phipps alone owns 40m ish, phipps and co as a company own 50m ish and then you have ann phipps, neve phipps, all own shares into the millions, Barclays bank own 15million. That is a hell of alot of money invested into a company with a very high risk. Now I know, no matter how rich I was, if my family owned over 150m worth of shares in a company with a very high risk....and I could increase my shareholding at no extra risk to myself or my family, I definitely would do. When they have invested so much money, why would they keep ploughing millions in? makes no sense. They may be rich but also they dont have an unlimited pot of money, sell 2m worth of shares to fund say 2.5m, great why not at no extra cost.

Did you know also, that they have 14 wells and are currently only drilling 1, If this one finds nothing at all (unlikely based on reports) there are 13 other wells to drill. Also, the next company to take the rig is Rockhopper, desire own 7.5% of their first 2 wells. the amount of money raised, spent, invested, 200k for a rig etc etc....to send a rig 8000 miles for a 1/10 chance is unheard of, thats why they announced the source rock they found is the 2nd richest in the world and why (and is quoted) the first well is as good as 50/50 for a gas or oil find.

and the share price is being held back by shorters and the Argie situation unfortunately, baring in mind, apart from drilling the company has no real assests apart from cash in the bank and that hasnt changed. However and to quote the Cheif Exec "I urge share holders to hold tight next few months are going to be very interesting". Results due in a couple of weeks on first drill...anyone invested!! good luck!

The share price by 4th Feb is anticipated to be a lot higher than it is at the minute, even by end of next week it is expected to be 130p - 140p.

I should have said something at the time maybe, didn't realise I had to look after you Hopkin, but this is just a ridiculous statement. If the share price was actually 'expected' to be anything next week, then that's where it would be now, because that's how markets work. I did look into this share myself, the price is based on pure speculation and the share is held in an unusually high proportion by private investors, i.e. punters. To top it off, the CEO sold a third of his shares (£200k's worth) on 10 feb, at a cheaper price than it is now, and a director and major shareholder sold another £2m worth. Not a good sign. Might as well hold on to them now though, it might work out in the end. GL

Thanks mate, I do need looking after most of the time.
Would it help explain things if I said it was one of those mornings I cant actually remember driving to work?
Yeah saw the CEO had sold a big pile.

Only bought them for a jape though so I wont be crying over any spilt oil.

This is the problem with people not really knowing the share market, did you know that Stephen Phipps sold 2m shares a few weeks ago? yet increased his share holding? people see that the director has sold 2m shares (of the 40m he owns) and so its all bad news. However if you do a little bit more digging you will see that the CEO and Stephen Phipps (phipps & co) sold shares to bankroll their purchase of share options they were awareded as company directors. So both sold shares....however, had increases their share holdings by taking up their share offers in a small window that they could do this without it being seen as insider trading.

Whats the latest on this? SP had a rough week.

Assuming drilling success, how long are you going to have to hold to realise a decent return?

Stock Market has been battered, oil price per barrell is down $10, so all oil shares down. The latest is that the rig arrives in approx 6 days (if on schedule), drilling will commence within 72 hours (very very latest), approx 20 days after drilling some news should start either leaking or come from company regards to results on the drill.

Ive held for over 5 years, I brought in very low, share price today £1.01....if they strike first well you're looking at 5-8 x this price minumum...with 13 other wells to drill...£20 end of year is what is speculated...if the company strikes and is brought out....so....lets say....a month for short term profit....6-8 months for massive profit (if all the results are favourable)!!