Ann: Good Oil Conference Presentation , page-4

it's all about commerciality! No matter how good your resource is if you can't engineer it out of the ground for a profit then you may aswell leave it there and come back when price or technology make it so!

I'm getting the impression "fast" that the coals represent a vast resource over a large area of PEL94 and possibly into PEL96 - extraordinarily thick seams! The thickness adds to the potential commerciality of the resource by multiples!

Yes, vertical simple csg wells (ie easily drillable with existing rigs in Aus) are far cheaper to drill than complex hi-tech horizontal shale wells (ie not many rigs in Aus). More importantly, the coals are so thick they may not even need fracking to flow. Fracking needs heaps of water, could be expensive and difficult to find in the CB!

It may be very cheap to get a reasonable return here, especially as these coals are close to grid! The pilot program will ultimately determine the best engineering path or terminate.....

Also, though not on the slides, I know that the water content of the coals at Dav1 are thought to be negligible (due to their depth) compared to normal csg resources!!! Most csg deposits need de-watering, this takes heaps of time and the brine(ie salty water) is an enviro issue - more expense!

Dam shame that the "entire country" is worrying that the "entire resources boom" ended some time last week, when ore prices finally hit home - ridiculous! Many miles to go, and plenty of ore to be shipped well into the future!

LNG boom hasn't even started!!...but who am I to say what will or won't be. Having said that I just attended Breakfast with the Economists in Syd this morning and they all agreed that the resources boom is essentially still on track.


Cheers

HC