trading halt, page-21

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Yes, it's risk management again. If you have a look at the major o&g fields around Australia, you will see that there are a lot of JVs between the majors even though any of those majors would be easily capable of drilling alone on any of those projects. That is because of risk managment.

NSE was saying "the company is equally prepared to drill the well on a 100% basis and look at further options for farm-out after drilling", but that was mainly for gaining an advantage on JV negotiations IMO.

This is O&G business. You can't be sure that there is gas or oil down there even though everything is in favour of your decisons. There are many many other factors which can negatively affect the potential of the resource. The only thing you can do is to manage the risk smartly. If you are strongly sure that you have the goods, you can demonstrate it to the other party and you can sell your shares at a good price. We will see how much NSE is getting from the JV partner now.

We are considering this anns for Merlinleigh JV but it could be something else as btw, despite it is a little chance.