Selling On JMC News Guts A Rally; Rebound Is Slow But Steady

Just as ERHC Energy (OTC BB symbol: ERHE) seemed poised to take off, waves of selling have taken the price down to Friday's close and lower in the first two hours of trading today, but a recovery began during the noon hour.

At 11:30am EST the price was $0.47 Bid and And $0.475 Ask on volume of 1,958,581 shares. Buys ran 2:1 ahead of Sells, however, 1,230,657 to 640,844, with 116,780 shares trading in the margins. By 11:38, the price had slipped another cent, to $0.461 x $0.465 and at 11:43 its was $0.455 x $0.46, and at 11:45 was $0.44 x $0.45.. By 11:48, volume was 2,239,004 shares and the slide had stopped. By 11:59, the low of the day, $0.43 x $0.435 was reached, but only two small ots actually traded at $0.43. By 12:24pm, the price had improved to $0.44 x $0.46, and by 12:345 the Bid was back to $0.45. The last few traders at 1:53pm EST have been at $0.46 and volume is 2,578,734, with about 1.5 million Buys and 900,000 Sells, and 186,000 shares unidentified. At 3:26pm, the price is $0.45 x $0.455, and volume has slowed significantly to 2,684,734. At 3:55pm the bid is up to $0.46, and the Ask, having recovered to $0.47 at 3:46, has slipped to $0.465. Volume is 2,937,034 shares, with Sells leading Buys 1,620,608 to 1,127,161 and 201,780 unidentified. At 4:02, the regular market close was $0.465, and three trades and one sale after hours left ther Bid at $0.461 and brought the Ask back up to $0.47 on closing volume of 2,976,049. All in all, it was not a very bad day, and while sellers took some gains the roof stayed on, the longs stayed in - the last two transactions were 10K Buys - and the weather looks good for yet another day.

The selling came on the news that the Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe Joint Ministerial Council are meeting today and tomorrow, with two new faces on the Sao Tome delegation - one of them replacing resigned foreign minister Ovidio Pequeno, who stepped down after becoming embroiled in charges he took liberties with a gift from the King of Morocco.

While that would seem to change the equation of support for ERHC's bid in Block 4, it probably will not. It is believed that Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Fradique de Menezes of Sao Tome and Principe made all the significant decisions in that regard at their surprise meeting last Monday and Tuesday in Abuja.