Blogs don't matter, Pacific Rubiales (PRE.to) edition

Here's a five chart of Pacific Rubiales (PRE.to) that shows the end of last week's action and the two days of this week.

And just so things are clear, this one shows PRE.to matched up against ^XOI, the Amex Oil Index, to show how the stock has done compared to the industry benchmark.

A 10% gap between the industry benchmark and PRE? Wowsers, so what's changed? Well, there was this superlative post about PRE.to by Setty that hit the wires on Sunday March 27th which pointed out the recent issues over at the company and especially how management has been playing the mushroom politics card...as well as making significant insider sales on info of bad production numbers that it held back from the world. And if you haven't worked it out already, Setty is a dude read by anyone who needs to keep in touch with the LatAm O&G scene .....due mainly to his brilliance.

The thing is, as Setty pointed out in his post last weekend it would have been much easier for the PRE.to IR department to have answered his mails and calls for replies to his queries and presented its side of the case that (knowing the fair-handed Setty as I do) would have made it into print to balance things up, but that never happened. We can only assume that the mighty and rich PRE.to Public Relations people were too busy lunching and couldn't be bothered to talk to a pissant little blogger. But hey never mind that, PRE.to IR department, you've only lost over $510m in market cap since Monday. What's half a billion between friends these days?

Screw the Ottotrans™, the Vennietrans™ is where it's at

Setty's got himself a brand new machine, the Vennietrans™. It's a marvel of interwebnetpipes science that translates the "nothing is ever wrong" world of Chilean biz reporting to the "nothing is ever right" world of Venezuelan biz reporting. Here's what happened when Setty ran this headline found in La Tercera....

"Chilean economy grows 7% in third quarter, biggest expansion in 6 years: According to data from the bank, internal demand keeps growing, but at a slower rate than in earlier quarters"

...through his magic machine:

"Chilean quarterly growth falls to 2% as internal demand falters: Fishing keeps falling as drought forces more spending on natural gas, water"

Now click through for the body of the text as translated by Vennietrans™, cos it gets better. We heart Setty.

Setty calls out the bizmedia on Venezuelan oil

This links to a great post and puts numerous newswires, media outlets and analysts to shame. Here's how Setty kicks it off, click through to read the rest:

Is there anyone out there who gets the numbers right on Venezuela oil shipments to the USA? Not as far as I can tell. Everybody — Reuters, Barclay’s, you name it — reports a U.S. import figure that is much lower than the reality. Here’s why, and how to avoid this common error. Note: If you are frightened of Microsoft Excel, skip this post and keep reporting the wrong number. Nobody cares except me. In fact if you do it my way you will piss off your boss, because it makes Venezuela look better than the EIA numbers. So really, just ignore this post. Truth will get you in trouble.

Continues here.

Post of the week

This week, 'Post of the Week' goes to Setty's Notebook, but more for the overall output in the public blog's first week of existence than any one specific post. Setty shows balance when talking about Venezuela, something that is sadly rare. Two examples:

This one, where the PDVSA press conference and supporting literature is examined and the obvious gov't pumping laid bare.

This one, where idiot anti-Chávez propaganda is made to look what it is: Stupid.

Put setty on your reading list.

Joyous News! Settyblog has gone public

Ladies and gentlemen of the LatAm-interested world, you are required by law to add Setty's Notebook to your list of links.

Setty lives in Venezuela and covers the country from a political/financial viewpoint better than anyone I know. He'll say when things are good, he'll say when things are bad. Neither overtly pro or anti Chávez (so govt and opposition stupidity is exposed with equal glee), damned smart when it comes to numbers and to cap it all off funny and highly entertaining to read, too.

Up to now Setty has run a invites-only blog, but he's finally taken the plunge and gone public. So here's the link to his brand new public access blog and go see for yourself why he's the bestest on Venezuela (and other places too).

Fanfare over. Mojitos served. The end.