billiton exiting may be a good thing, page-14

"Second point = Fail. Woodside drilled Pluto off its own bat, Chevron drilled Wheatstone. Both of these wells were high risk."

Most certainly the exception rather than the rule...you know this OK!
Diff's point was good, and represented the rule rather than the exception!

Q1 cash balance likely to be unchanged little from Q410 imo - slightly up or down...Q1 expend estimate US$6.3M...Q1 revenues US$??? (GPC still owe for Q410 liftings).
In 6mths time maybe totally different if Duhat-1 is wet...a wildcat in SC55 might then be an option (next sub phase is drill one deepwater well and commences August 2011, ends August 2012).

Why didn't NDO drill Gindara off it's own bat...they had the funds, are much surer of it's outcome than OEL is of anything in SC55, yet the Shell farmin deal did not reflect the potential imo...imagine the farmin deal they could've gotten if they'd drilled solo and come up a winner...why didn't they? The reasons have already been mentioned above in other posts...you know this too!

So, iyo, if OEL lapse on SC55 commitments and it goes back to the DOE, you assume BHPP automatically get it...wrong!...we've been through this before.

If BHPP don't exercise their farmin option, then before SC55 lapses we will have seen the result of the Gindara drill, and more importantly, the drill in the southern end of SC63 around Aboabo...I'm sure BHPP would like to know the outcome there before commiting to SC55, but if they wait til then it will be too late...I guess you can't win 'em all!