Ann: Trading Halt, page-74

Zapato was a fiasco due to it’s timing. As it stands it is suspended pending 3D. The inconclusive result and delay of appraisal of Alameda couldn’t have come at a worse time for the company. That it was drilled in order to use up available exploration funds simply doesn’t wear with me. I advocated strongly for its delay by 18 months or more pending 3D. Had the company been in possession of 3D, would it have been suspended? In the existing circumstances, I was disappointed it wasn’t pushed deeper, having wasted so much time another week wouldn’t have made any difference but in a sense an inconclusive result is the worst result. If it is a dud we have to go back to prove it, wasting yet more time. Your assumption that those who consider it a fiasco have no understanding is false. IMO the timing was a tactical blunder, Zapato remains an enigma; great, that really helps the SP and momentum along with the resultant 16 month delay for appraisal, not helped by AP’s refusal to employ the second rig available.
If you are going to do the same old “they had no choice” routine used by numerous others then it is you who has no understanding of events, as outlined by AP himself. I accept his statement of events. Squeezing the last $ of exploration money possible from Sonangol is not high on the agenda of the average punter IMO. Many have left due to Zapato and the delay as is stated in a post today. That is a self inflicted fiasco. In a sense, success at Al 2 and 3 accentuates this; pyrrhic.