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Thanks everyone for contributing here. It's been quite some time since we've been able to have this quality of discussion - one of the reasons I stopped posting was because every thread usually deteriorated into something that was not worth trying to save.

I'd like to reply to all of the points raised but I don't really have time so I'll just respond to a few. Firstly, I agree that all of the options discussed here are equally valid and I wont be surprised whichever ones eventuate. That said, I think some are more likely than others.

Camdenbob, I did expect you to be one of those who didn't agree with my predictions but I want to say that is because you are definitely of the optimistic persuasion - something that I admire about you and will admit has been one the factors that kept me hanging around after I sold out. Two things I would like to comment on in relation to your reply. Firstly the concept of a shareholders mutiny at further delays for seismic would certainly be more likely if the majority of shareholders where people like you and me - small retail investors who post on HC. Fact is, they aren't and six or twelve more months delay to make sure they get it right and maximise their returns is not a problem for them. In my opinion, it's one of the reasons why many of the decisions made by the company seem counter productive to us - we simply don't have the same mindset as the big shareholders.

The other point is that I wasn't ruling out a JV, I was trying to suggest that we need to be careful not to be blinded by what appears to be a good offer but actually turns out to be opportunistic. Let's look at the JV scenario you proposed - free carried on 10 wells for 40% interest. Now I'm not sure whether that 40% related to all our interests, just the Amadeus interests or just this tenement EP111. Given the Amadeus has a P50 recoverable of 1bn barrels of oil I assume you weren't intending to give 40% of that away for about $80m (being generous and assuming each drill will cost about $8m to complete and bring to production). That form of JV offer would value the entire Amadeus at just $200m. Even if you were only intending the JV to cover EP111 then I still think such a deal is under-valuing it. As I proffered above, I reckon we have a good chance of proving up the P50 number for Surprise which could legitimately be valued at $200m by itself so you are therefore getting nothing for the rest of the tenement.

Sure, an offer like that last month would have been snapped up in a heartbeat by every shareholder, but now we have proved up Greg Ambrose's theory that there is viable oil in the HVS, and the game is therefore completely different.

Resourcebull - I am a fan of your PE valuations and think they are entirely valid. I also expect them to be proven correct once the market "gets it" with unconventional plays. I agree that another leg off the existing S1H1 vertical would be cheaper than my proposed numbers, but I was more thinking about a completely new vertical and three radial horizontals. I was also over-estimating the costs to make sure any delays or problems were factored in - we are after all drilling a long way from anywhere.

I really hope you are correct and we can get 1000bopd flows out of this hole, but I suspect we are going to need a greater length of contact with the formation to get to that number. Regardless, 360bopd is a good result given we only have about 230m of horizontal (with probably a total of 400-450m of contact with the producing formation).

I also suspect you are correct in that Central's past performance will make it more difficult until such times as we have overcome our current reputation.

cmonaussie, good point about taking more through the SPP and if they do and it works, it would certainly provide opportunities to do things differently than the way I described them.

Robs12, I'm conflicted on this one. I think a really solid JV partner prior to the TSX listing would have the benefits you describe, but I'm still wary of selling the farm too cheaply. I'm also probably more confident that the greater understanding of unconventional plays by investors on the TSX might just be enough to overcome the lack of a JV partner and make for a really successful raising.

Cheers

Badfish