Small-cap oil. Slick pickings

Imagine you run an oil company. Not a major like Shell, but a small oil company listed on London’s Aim market. Let’s call it Cash Shell. This firm has no hard assets – that’s to say, no proven or probable reserves, which are those most likely to be commercially developed. But it has produced a sheaf of geologists’ reports that point to humungous «possible» reserves of oil. The distinction between proven, probable and possible reserves might have been enough to get Sir Phil Watts sacked as chi...