VOG 2005 New Thread

THE phrase 'not for widows and orphans' could have been coined for companies like Victoria Oil & Gas

The Aim-listed explorer has told the City a story that has a seductive chance of success, but at this stage in its development there is also a real chance of failure. Indeed, the shares yesterday fell 6½p to 93½p on nervous selling fuelled by gossip that colourful chairman Kevin Foo's plan to find 'rescue' financing has hit big trouble.


Apparently, Victoria will run out of cash in about eight weeks and is desperate to continue its exploration activities in Russia. But institutions have so far given Foo, who has been around the block with companies like Aberfoyle Holdings and Bakyrchik Gold, the bargepole treatment.


Recent speculation has suggested that Foo wanted to raise up to £10m by offering investors shares at 100p.


'No chance,' said an informed source last night. 'Not at this level. There is no guarantee whatsoever that its well in Siberia will provide commercial quantities of gas.'


The source went on to say: 'Even if the gas discovery is proved successful, who exactly is Victoria going to sell the gas to? Why take a chance in what has often proved to be a dangerous 'jam tomorrow' sector'?


Victoria's shares more than trebled to a peak of 128p last month when it claimed it had made a large potential gas discovery in western Siberia. Victoria paid just £6.4m for its three-quarter share in the Russian field



so obvious a plant by either a shorter or someone wanting to buy cheaply