interesting preopen, page-18

Spoke to the MD last week and from my knowledge about Shell, they are hot to trot on any potential big play. 4 years ago they had to write down their oil reserves in Malaysia in a big way and a few top people got the chop. Also there are problems in Nigeria - as always. So with this knowledge one can assume that Shell will go ahead with the well. They have plenty of cash and they also walked away from the ground that Hardman made a discovery in Mauritania (next door and the same basin - different reservoir type though). The type of target is a river delta - similar to their Nigerian operations. So they have a good pool of talent with understanding the region.
They wouldn't want to miss out again. That would be bad for their ego. Whoever makes that kind of decision might make a career limiting move by not drilling the well. That's the way big corporations work. They have a budget to burn up and the project will cost more if the rig rates start to go up (as oil is back above $70 USD). So I can see that they will go ahead.