the catch-22 of reserves and takeovers, page-23

You sure have tried the Wedgie

Santos in the takeover stakes as you have said many times is Hopeless - couldnt get Delhi , or QGC

What else have they had a go at

Grows "organically" via serendipitous tenement purchases

Been around so long that it has tenements with vast amounts of gas untapped in the shales, tight sands and deep coals of the cooper - Remember Moomba-77 deep coal frac at 2700m, just a gentle frac gave 100,000scfd

Remember that 750PJ from the Cooper JV for GLNG - revenue will be used to develop the vast uncoventionals to supply an endless stream of gas

It makes sense that GLNG wants more gas eventually but they want it cheap and ESG may have to accept a captive's GSA price if they want to help STO fill the pipeline from Gunnedah to the north. That would achieve your objective of using up ESG's gas and earning some steady income for us shareholders. We could even get a dividend cheque in a few years time. Also Definitely help in the funding of the field development.

ORG - they are not much chop at the takeover either. The only one I can recall is the Contact energy merger of equals which didnt come off - the Kiwis didnt like the thought of a pakeha mainlander having their Contact

I reckon you are on to something with ORG.
Their tenement map shows that outside APLNG they dont have too much and Nil in NSW. They have got bass gas and otway down south connected to the grid into NSW.

ORG could be the one that is sniffing around. STO is too slow to notice. ORG once it gets to FID on the APLNG and reduces its Interest% would have some money.

I reckon we can forget about STO ever making a takeover move on ESG.

Lets try and get ORG interested. Best would be ESG and ORG having a friendly chat like some companies do these days and all of a sudden it is a "done" deal and ORG becomes the new majority owner of ESG and most of the JV. I reckon ORG would pay 1mth VWAP+60 equivalent at least. STO of course will have to decide it 20.97% but faced with ORG having more than 51% STO might just decide to take a profit and sell its % to ORG but retain its 35% of the JV. Swap ESG for ORG.That way STO gets a partner of similar strength with Gladstone interests for later-On Trains to more easily fund the huge field development bill. We as ESGers could accept ORG shares and ourselves transfer our stake into the more robust ORG. ORG can also use some of its gas for its local NSW needs.

I reckon you have cracked the Conundrum.



Cheers