The Kurdistan based oil producers have largely been kept in limbo in terms of when international oil exports might begin again, as well as what will ultimately happen going forwards in terms of contracts with the government.
Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) and Genel Energy (GENL) are good examples of what can happen when geo-political factors come into play and highlight why you always need to consider those risks.
As you would expect, Gulf Keystone (GKP) has been severely impacted by the suspension of oil exports from Kurdistan to Turkey, following Iraq’s victory in an international arbitration case which deemed that some aspects of the deal between the other two parties were illegal.
Oil has been showing signs of weakness in recent months after hitting highs of nearly $140/barrel – for Brent – earlier this year, and has suffered over concerns about the economic situation in many countries in the coming months.
Do you remember when Gulf Keystone (GKP) was the darling of the Bulletin Board Morons? Its market cap surged to £1 billion as its lying charlatan of a founder and CEO Tod Kozel claimed it had reserves greater than Shell. The self described “Tod Squad” of Bulletin Board worshippers insisted that folks like myself, Lucian and Was Shakoor who called out Tod’s bogus claims and the insane valuation were being reported to the FCA and would go to jail. Oh what sweet irony…









