RP Newsletter

RP is pleased to provide a regular monthly newsletter in conjunction with Sentinel Financial Group.

Richard Hamilton

In our profile this month, we feature Richard Hamilton, who joined RP in August 2007 bringing along with him more than 20 years of experience in reservoir and production engineering.

A very private and quiet individual, Richard, who was educated in Holland, prefers to let his work do the talking. In his opinion, working as a consultant offered variety but there were also significant challenges. "You need to be flexible and adjust fast. You have to hit the ground running when you start a new consulting project," Richard said. "One of the highlights as a consultant is working with a small group of highly professional, dedicated people, all of who have a common goal and are all on the same page," he added.

Born in The Hague, Netherlands, Richard immigrated to Australia 11 years ago and has worked as a consultant locally in Perth's oil and gas companies as well in overseas locations such as Brunei, Denmark and Holland. Richard enjoys his life as a consultant as it gave him better work-life flexibility and the opportunity to travel to different places. "I love traveling and interacting with different people," he said. On the other hand, life on the road results in prolonged absences from the family and his advice is, "probably most importantly, one really needs a family that can manage this irregular lifestyle."

His advice for those considering getting into the consultancy business is the need for flexibility because of the need to adapt to different nationalities, locations and organizations.  "One needs to enjoy the diversity of people and environments," he said. Richard also remarked that gathering relevant work experience was also  important as it "generally doesn't work coming straight out of University,' and that engineers considering consultancy should build up their experience and in depth skills with large and small operators before starting out.

Italian Night

It was a serene night with a near full moon nudging the stars into the background. Mario, who was ambling past 94 Hay St, could just make out the strains of Pavarotti's 'O Sole Mio'. Was it just his imagination or could he also smell some delicious spaghetti marinara 'al dente' wafting in the light evening breeze? Little did he know, as he scooted off to find the nearest "Rosa's", that it was Italian night at RP. Guests had a selection of very fine Italian whites and reds and were treated to a very sumptuous spread of 'il cibo Italiano'. The Tiefenbrunner Pinot Grigio was the favourite white whilst the very pricey but highly quaffable Poggerino Chianti Classio with its dark vibrant red reminiscent of wilted rose petals, was the tipple magnifico.

Strategy Development and Problem Solving - The Workshop Methodology

Workshops are interactive group sessions moderated by a facilitator and designed and clearly targeted to achieve specific objectives. According to Paul Dominic, RP Integrated previously offered scoping and opportunity maturation workshops as an enhancement to its subsurface consultancy services. "However, to meet numerous client requests, we are now offering a number of packaged workshops as a stand alone service to clients" he said.
Paul has been involved in designing and facilitating workshops over the past six year. He said workshop costs are typically paid back many times over because strategies or actions plans generated from "workshopping" are more robust and have a higher possibility of success. "The workshops are structured such that a more strategic approach to the issues at hand is developed. The improved team alignment and commitment due to the workshop process subsequently translates into success," he said.

The packaged workshops being offered by RP Integrated include Opportunity Framing and Strategy Development; Subsurface Opportunity Maturation; Subsurface Realizations; Subsurface Opportunity Identification; Problem Solving and Team Building.

Paul said generic structures had been pre-defined for each of the packaged workshops that would be customized to suit the client's needs. "Significant client engagement is thus required prior to the workshops," Paul said.

Workshop durations depend on the objectives, deliverables and number of attendees and RP Integrated will provide final documentation of the workshop output he said. To date RP Integrated has conducted three workshops with two currently in the pipeline for November 2007.

For more information contact: pdominic@rpintegrated.com or call +61 438 943 038 or +61 8 6380 2467.

Crude Oil Prices - November

Crude oil prices closed Wednesday Oct 31st at a record high of nearly US$95 a barrel after a surprise fall in US crude inventories by 3.9 million barrels to its lowest level of 312.7 million barrels in two years. Analysts said the crude oil market was continuing to trade on fear and short-term news.  West Texas Intermediate (WTI) traded at US$94.53 a barrel on news that supplies at Cushing were under pressure. Brent crude traded near the US$91 mark.

Analysts added that the high price of oil futures was partly attributed to the weak dollar and a stronger US job market. The US dollar was at an all time low of $1.45 to the Euro.  Oil prices have risen by some 20 per cent over the past month and analysts said in any markets with such rises, investors would tend to sell to lock in some of their gains. While the trend has been upwards for most of this week, analysts said the market has seen volatile swings in both directions, the likes of which some say has not happened before. "The markets are not now driven by fundamental supply/demand news, but instead are being driven by speculative greed and fear," an analyst was quoted as saying.

Market Commentary

Australian shares soared to record highs by late October, as investors largely ignored local interest rate pressures, a looming Federal election, mounting talk of a potential US recession and surging oil prices. We anticipate the Australian share market will experience volatile trading conditions in the upcoming period as these issues are worked through the system and as US equity markets appear vulnerable to change in sentiment.

Locally, all bets are on a pre-election interest rate rise following higher-than-expected September quarter Producer (PPI) and Consumer (CPI) prices. This could prove a pivotal factor in the election outcome. (The RBA next meets on 6 November and will announce its interest rate decision the next day.)

We found it interesting to read Rio Tinto's (RIO) recent quarterly production report where it made special mention of cost input increases causing margin pressures in its Pilbara iron-ore operations.  This serves as a reminder to cost pressures throughout the resources industry and also has some strategic value ahead of the annual iron-ore price negotiations with key Asian customers commencing in about 1-2 weeks time.

One factor weighing on local market sentiment is the appreciating $A. As the long term chart (below) shows, the $A is near its highest point against the $US in almost two decades. Five companies have cited the rising $A as a contributor in downgrading profit guidance in recent weeks - Iluka Resources (ILU), AGL Energy (AGK), Aristocrat Leisure (ALL), CSL Limited (CSL) and Billabong International (BBG). As we approach the AGM season, we would not be surprised to see further revelations with exporters and companies with a high proportion of business in the US particularly at risk.

$A/$US - Monthly Chart (1988-2007)

Source:IRESS

S&P/ASX100 Companies - Selected Uncoming Events

S&P/ASX100 Companies - Expected Event Calendar
Last Updated: 26th October 2007
Week	Mon 29	Tues 30	Wed 31	Nov-Thurs 1	Fri 2
1
	BLD:AGM	ASX:AGM	ORG:Qrt rep & AGM	NCM:AGM	HVN:XD 6c ff
	TCL:AGM	PPT:AGM	FGL:AGM	WBC:P	ANN:AGM
	BEN:AGM	LGL:Qrt rep	SGB:P		RMD:P
			SUN:AGM
			DRT:AGM
Week	Mon 5	Tues 6	Wed 7	Thurs 8	Fri 9
2
		WBC:XD	CSR:P	NWS:P	WAN:P&AGM
			RMD:AGM	LEI:AGM	NAB:P
			TLS:AGM	AGK:AGM
			CBA:AGM	ANZ:XD 74c ff
				WES:XD 140c ff
Week	Mon 12	Tues 20	Wed 21	Thurs 22	Fri 23
3				XJO Option Expiry Day	WOW:AGM
	ORI:P	MBL:P	BSL:AGM	CGJ:Qrt sales	IOF:AGM
		IAG:AGM	QAN:AGM	WES:AGM	BXB:AGM
			CPU:AGM		MGR:AGM
					NAB:XD
Week	Mon 19	Tues 20	Wed 21	Thurs 22	Fri 23
4
	ORI:XD	CGJ:AGM	AWB:P	GFF:AGM
	JHX:P		LNN:P
	OST:AGM		SGM:AGM
	MBL:XD
Week	Mon 26	Tues 27	Wed 28	Thurs 29	Fri 30
5				Option Expiry Day
	ZFX:AGM		BHP:AGM		TTS:AGM
	TAH:AGM		SGB:XD		MCG:AGM

Important Notes

This information is based on company announcements, web sites and other sources.

These dates and details are indicative only and subject to change without notice.

Data covered represents a selection of the market only and should not be considered to be complete.

Ex-dividend (XD) dates are included only where information is obtainable

Additional XD dates and dividended amounts will be added as dividends are declared

Sentinel Financial Group accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of completeness of this informaion

Abbreviations

P = Profit Result

XD = Ex-devidend )ff = fully franked, pf = partly franked, uf = unfranked)

AGM = Annual General Meeting

Qtr = Quarterly sales

Qrt rep = Quarterly Report

TCB = to be confirmed

Upcoming ASX Floats

Company Name	Date	Code	Price	# of Shares
Alchemy Resources Ltd	Nov 22	ALY	0.25	24M
Alpha Uranium Ltd	TBA	AHM	0.20	50M
Anaeco Ltd	Nov 16	ANQ	0.25	20M
Apollo Minerals Ltd	TBA	AON	0.25	32M
Atticus Resources Ltd	TBA	ACZ	0.20	15M
Backreef Resources Ltd	TBA	BKF	0.20	40M
Bauxite Resources Ltd	Nov 7	BAU	0.20	25M
Bellamel Mining Ltd	Nov 6	BMM	0.20	50M
Blackgrange Ltd	TBA	UNO	0.20	50M
Botswana Metals Ltd	Dec 12	BML	0.20	56M
Buccaneer Energy Ltd	Nov 19	BCC	0.25	80M
Buchanan Resources Ltd	TBA	BUC	0.20	15M
Buxton Resources Ltd	TBA	BUX	0.20	25M
Carpentaria Exploration Ltd	Nov 12	CAP	0.25	30M
Clean Teq Holdings Ltd	Nov 7	CLQ	0.50	12.5M
Credit Suisse Pl 100 - Emerging	Dec 19	CSU	1.00	25M
Deltana Energy Ltd	Nov 6	DLT	0.25	64M
GBM Resources Ltd	TBA	GBZ	0.20	25M
Globalnet Asia Pacific Ltd	TBA	GNE	0.20	15M
Goldminex Resources Ltd	Oct 22	GMX	0.75	29M
Greenpower Energy Ltd	Oct 22	GPP	0.20	40M
Hot Rock Ltd	Nov 9	HRL	0.25	16M
Impedimed Ltd	Oct 24	IPD	0.72	25M
Krucible Metals Ltd	Nov 9	KRB	0.20	25M
Laserbond Ltd	Nov 1	LBL	0.20	12.6M
Lease Company of Aust	TBA	LCA	100.00	4M
Macq. Harbour Mining	Dec 4	MHM	0.20	30M
Marmota Energy Ltd	Nov 7	MEU	0.25	60M
Midwinter Resources NL	TBA	MWN	0.25	17.4M
Modena Resources Ltd	Nov 12	MDA	0.20	30M
New Guine Energy	TBA	NGE	0.50	13.5M
Oncaidia Ltd	TBA	ONA	0.20	30M
Resources Base Ltd	TBA	RBX	0.20	35M
Rum Jungle Uranium	Nov 2	RUM	0.25	48M
Silver Lake Resources	Nov 6	SLR	0.30	10M
Sinovus Mining Ltd	TBA	SNV	0.20	40M
Superior Resources Ltd	Oct 19	SPQ	0.20	25M
Tasman Goldfields Ltd	Nov 16	TGX	0.25	32M
Top End Uranium Ltd	Nov 27	TEU	0.20	9M
Uranium International	TBA	URI	0.20	30M

Source: ASX & IRESS

Codes are proposed ASX codes and are subject to change.  Listing dates are proposed dates outlined in the Prospectus and are subject to change. 

Publishing Credits:
 
RP Writer & Newsletter Editor: Angela-Tan Dominic
Sentinel Contribution: Norm Robinson
Layout & Mailing: Faith Narey