Small Talk: Range deploys resources away from war zones

Even by Africa's often miserable standards, Somalia is a failed state. What appears to be disaster and destruction for some, however, can of course be considered an opportunity by others. Range Resources, the Aim-listed oil and gas-exploration group, has been digging around in the north-eastern Puntland region of Somalia for some time. It may be decidedly less dangerous than areas like the capital, Mogadishu, but we would still not expect Ryanair to fly there any time soon. Range holds a 20 per cent stake in two so-called production-sharing agreements in two prospective basins covering more than 20 million acres.

Like any number of Aim-listed exploration groups, if the operations in Somalia strike significant amounts of the black stuff, the group will be transformed but even the most experienced and adventurous frontier explorer would decide that it might be rather a good idea to "diversify" away from their traditional home, and into more stable territories.

So it might come as something of a surprise to learn that top of the company's wish-list is the former Soviet republic of Georgia, which has been in a war of words with neighbouring Russia over South Ossetia for several years and, of course, they came to blows over the region last year.

Unperturbed, Range Resources penned an agreement in July to buy a 50 per cent interest in two oil and gas blocks in the country, at a cost of A$10m (£5.4m). And in what is rather a change of tack, the company last week announced that it had bought a 25 per cent interest in the North Chapman Ranch project in Nueces County, Texas. The operator, US-based private oil and gas company Crest Resources, has already commenced drilling the first well. The project area encompasses approximately 1,280 acres in what the company describes as one of the most prolific oil and gas-producing trends in the area.

Green shoots sprouting for Plant Impact

Today is a big day for Plant Impact, which has been one of the Aim's few winners in the past 18 months.

The group will announce this morning it is due its first milestone payment after encouraging progress of its Bug Oil pesticide.

The payment is the first of a potential £20m it could earn over the next decade from its licensing agreement with Arysta, the Japanese agrochemical group. Plant Impact says it has three more products with potentially even greater revenue. The company produces a clever technology that allows plants to absorb more calcium, which is useful in what it calls poor abiotic conditions – that's bad weather, to you and me.

Eco City puts its money on bigger cabs

As everyone has always suspected – despite the protestations of the average black cab driver – there is money in London's taxis, a point that Aim-listed Eco City Vehicles is likely to prove tomorrow.

The group, founded by former cabbie Peter DaCosta, is a specialist vehicle distributor that also offers an after-sales service centre for the London taxi owner-driver market.

It is likely to announce much improved first-half turnover figures tomorrow, which should include a return to operating profit.

The company is already a distributor of the famous Black Cab. It claims to have a strong pedigree in distributing the TX4 – the latest model to hit the streets from Coventry-based black cab manufacturer Manganese Bronze.

From next July, however, Eco City Vehicles will cease to sell any new TX4 taxis, after Manganese Bronze terminated its 20-year old dealership.

Mr DaCosta believes that London's famously grumpy cabbies can be persuaded to embrace a plusher alternative, Mercedes-Benz's Spanish-built Vito Taxi, which carries as many as six passengers. The Vito has already won approval from the Public Carriage Office and Eco City has secured exclusive distribution rights for the London area. According to the company there are already 400 of them plying for trade on the streets of the capital.