Actually, it had alot to do with a change to tax write offs for North Sea explorers announced on July 5th.

The British government announced changes to a form of tax-relief known as the ‘Ring Fence Expenditure Supplement’ (RFES).

They're going to increase the annual rate of the RFES from 6 to 10 percent – which means that companies with insufficient taxable income will be able increase the value of losses carried forward from one period to the next to 10 percent.

All those current expenses will get written off against the oil revenue next year and voila, NO TAXES.

Alot of other London listed North Sea oilfield developers also jumped in price this week. Even Statoil of Norway, which had suspended $10 Billion in North Sea projects early this spring announce it would rethink its plans.

Hmmm, an offer for XEL looks nice to me.

Cheers,

PW