where to from here?, page-20

With 24 hours to go I belatedly want to thank you for your insightful and v thoughtful post.

Just a couple of comments:

I recall LNG's Morris Brand telling me a year ago that no business gets done with the Chinese around the Chinese New Year Spring festival (9-13 February). And none gets done in Australia in January for obvious reasons and then there is Easter at the end of March)

In addition there is also FIRB approval to go through both here and in China. The Chinese have a record of dragging negotiations on to exquisite degrees.

Is it possible that the major shareholder (forget name bah!) - needing cash now - put its stock onto the market not only because of the delays caused by the holidays above but also because it suspects that the Petrochina offer will be knocked back by the Board - delaying matters even further?

Unless Petrochina sweeten a binding offer (to a generous extent which is unlikely!) other players waiting for some sort of established price point and needing to secure gas by 2014 could enter the arena delaying matters even more.

Alas, as it does my cashflow projections no good at all, I can see this saga extending to the end of the financial year.

PS: There is gossip in the industry that Shell may be wanting to offload Arrow which if true would change all our thinking and projections.


hs