hartleys report, page-16

'something i cant quite grasp at present, have never quite understood why some majors farm out good potential tenements to juniors to explore when they are hugely profitable in their own right???'

There are no guarantees and you dont know that they will be hugely profitable, often not until you actually start producing and all technicalities or potential issues are solved. Look at how much exploration is going on around the world. Even the Shell's dont have the capacity to explore everywhere. The best way for Shell's is to have a certain amount of certainty and then buy out or partner with majority interest, the explorer. Sure it costs more to farm in, or to part with some of their own farmed out holdings, however its a hell of lot cheaper than becoming involved in every exploration at the early stages with immense cost. Ocean exploration does not come cheap.