good news, page-20

Rojames, your post has prompted me to jot down a few thoughts I have been having. Based on drill times for Alma and Darr I would expect Sancho drilling to be completed some time next week all going well. The piece of news that I have been hanging out for, but has not yet eventuated, is spudding with drill rig number 2. This non eventuation I have found to be a bit frustrating. It was due to be commissioned in April then early May...then mid May...then early June. Then in mid June we got an announcement that it would be mobilized June 20 and would spud in the week commencing June 25th....

I have been watching the weather up there and they had a decent downpour at the beginning of this week. about 2.5 inches at Longreach and 1.5inches at Winton. Further rain was forecast but thankfully bugger all further rain eventuated....so hopefully by the time Sanchez is finished the ground should be dry enough to immediately mobilize to the next drill site....however this bit of rain may have caused a further delay for EDA #2. I have over the last couple of months emailed the company twice and phoned once to get the low down on EDA #2 and each time the answer is the same....it is coming very shortly and is still being commissioned. For a while there I started to get paranoid that there was a deep dark hidden reason but given the company was very specific with their June 20 mobilization date I think commissioning problems are in fact the most likely cause of delay. It would be very foolish of the company to make such a specific statement if they were trying to hide something and management do seem to come from good DNA so I give them the benefit of the doubt. None the less I will breath a sigh of relief when we are finally told that the damned rig is in the field.

I have another conspiracy theory...one that is a lot more positive for us. EXE had been working on acquiring the extra 19000 sq K of leases for quite some time. It was announced only on 27th June that this deal is now signed sealed and delivered. These blocks are to the immediate west of the current ones. To date it would seem that EXEs most encouraging results have been in ATP 999P with Katherine being a potential major conventional oil deposit and Bessies returning results similar to the Bakken shale in North Dakota.

EXE started their drilling campaign this year at Alma and to be fair this was probably because, after an extreme wet season, it was the driest site......but then they chose darr which I thought was a bit odd. The company was keen to emphasize in the spud announcement that darr was about testing the geology and would most likely end up being plugged and abandoned. So why in these dark financial days would the company not go straight to the area that had great potential in an effort to sure up the share price with a decent find ??

My conspiratorial conclusion is that they did not wish to draw too much attention to the new blocks with a possible exceptional result from Sancho or Winton or Rocky creek as these are close to the border with the new blocks and they would add to the good results already obtained at bessies and katherine. Perhaps they feared the QLD government might suddenly change the rules (because they dang well can do as they please) if the new blocks started to look a little too prospective.

Events ran like this: darr 1 spudded to test geology. new blocks officially awarded to Exoma on June 27th and then spudding at Sancho announced with potential for conventional oil target. I think perhaps Sancho is the best prospect so far this year and I am guessing that, if they have some success here they will do Winton and the two Rocky Creeks next.

This is all conjecture on my part, mainly to amuse myself....but who knows....maybe EXE believe they are onto something big in the ATP 999P lease....and maybe that also spills over into the new leases. We shall soon see.