The fund aims to achieve long-term capital growth primarily from a portfolio of companies engaged in the oil and gas sector, energy generation and transmission. Additionally, the fund may invest in companies seeking to develop and exploit new energy technologies, and companies that service the energy sector.
As the only part of the world in which sentiment towards the oil and gas sector is positive, the US has been a (rare) bright spot for the fund this year. This has largely been a result of the shale 'revolution'. Our analysis tells us that this has only just begun. So, after a difficult month marked by softer oil prices and overshadowed by the threat of tapering, we began to reposition the fund, increasing its exposure to US exploration and production (E&P) stocks.Having sold some shale stocks that had hit our price targets, we bought Pioneer Natural Resources, Continental Resources, Noble Energy and EOG Resources. As the rally in the US market pauses for breath, it is creating an entry point for us into this exciting arena. The robust US companies to which we now have a greater bias should be less fragile than the international names they have replaced.Elsewhere, while we continue to like the core basins of Africa and the Middle East, we will only invest in companies that have developments that can bear fruit in the short-term and which offer world-class project execution. Africa Oil exemplifies both of these qualities. It rose by 12%. We visited two of our Colombian investments - Amerisur and Gran Tierra - in November. Both companies are continuing to make excellent progress in the country's southern basins.Coastal Energy, meanwhile, received a bid from a European buyer, sending its shares 18% higher. Genel benefited from the completion of an export pipeline from Kurdistan to Turkey.
54.57p
