board and broker coverage, page-3

The Board isn't necessarily the concern (if not the problem!).

It is the continued technical ineptness of the company and the CEO seemingly unable, unwilling to step in.

How many technical stuff-ups before you start looking at your technical director and say "fella, it's time to move on"?

I have listed them before, but in the space of 6 months we have had 4 technical mistakes of significance.

The company has also shown an unnerving tendency to report bad news late, often very late and on one occasion we had a Hotcopper poster calling a technical delay which was followed by a company denial, only for the company to backtrack a week or so later and confirm the poster's original claim that there would be delays because of faulty electronics on the rig.


It was completely unacceptable by the company; that an outsider with inside contacts KNEW the consequences of the rig's condition yet the CEO was either oblivious to it or misleading shareholders.

Sam Willis comes across as a pretty honest sort of guy. So I don't think he misled the market at all.

I blame his technical people. They are leading him astray and he probably defers to them due to a combination of seniority (age) and his lack of technical knowledge.


He has 50m quid in the till. Call a headhunter and explore some options buddy. There's not shortage of players who'd like to make a name for themselves on a new frontier at a company with 50m + 2 heavy JV partners.


Sam Willis needs to be more decisive and hold his technical team to account. At the moment they are having a laugh at his expense. Pushing him into corners until he has to wear the responsibility when he should be holding them to account in the first instance.


I think Sam is in need of some proper mentoring by an outsider. A former chairman/CEO would be perfect. Sam is obviously talented, but such is his age and perhaps more relevant, his personality, that he needs appropriate guidance IMO.


Sam = good.
Technical team = not so good.
Sam not holding technical team to account = Sam's head.

The technical director should at least be feeling the tension that he is on notice.

Rig delays.
Electrical faults weren't noticed.
Overshoot drilling at Nicolay
Drilling stuff up at Gibb-Maitland.

No more. Enough is enough.

Put them on notice Sam.