News

June 23, 2008

The Success Of Nighthawk Energy Shows That UK Oil Companies Can Make It Big In America

By Alastair Ford

What is it about Nighthawk Energy that has made it such a phenomenal success? It’s an easy question to ask, given that Nighthawk’s shares have more than doubled in value over the past twelve months. Indeed if you measure from the 12 month low of just under 35p, hit late last autumn, then on the current price of 104p the shares have just about tripled. To take the story back just a little bit further, Nighthawk listed on Aim in March 2007 at 25p per share, raising £10 million in the process, and giving it a market capitalization of around £38 million. That means that anyone who got in at the float price is sitting on gains of 400 per cent. And those who got in at the earlier seed stage are doing even better. So no argument, even allowing for market exuberance: so far Nighthawk has been a success.

It wasn’t necessarily obvious that it was going to be so, though. For one thing, UK companies operating oil assets in the USA don’t always find it easy. Just look at the saga of Meridian Petroleum, owner of assets in Michigan, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. Meridian has suffered a long series of production issues, a string of bad news events that was recently compounded by the revelations of some rather unusual behavior by a former director. The resulting £75,000 fine from the FSA won’t...