City File: Clyde Petroleum

THE market does not seem to have noticed, but Clyde Petroleum is one of the few independent oil companies to have escaped the rigours of the new tax regime in the North Sea. It hived off its interests before the Budget into a joint venture with the Austrian state oil company, OMV - a deal described by Nick Clayton of Smith New Court as a 'stroke of genius'.

Clyde has already written down its assets, and with the downside risk eliminated, any new discovery from its ambitious drilling programme will come straight through to profits. At 50p - a small discount on asset value - the shares are better value than comparable stocks.