lets get serious, page-12

HDR is really beginning to slow in momentum in my opinion. As each announcement comes by it is getting harder to see where the short-medium term upside is going to come from. Having bought into HDR 12 months ago I'm still sitting on some great gains, but anyone who has invested since June 04, is even -at best, and most likely down, possibly singnificantly. It is not unreasonable to ask where the upside is going to come from, especially considering the excitment generated by this year's Mauritanian campaign.

Over the last six months there have been approxiamtley two positive events for the share price - Tevet and the extra Tiof drills (as I recall this was in the one announcement) - I'm happy to stand corrected, but my recollection is that almost every other annoucment has been bad news or non-market sensntive information. That the HDR share price hasn't been whipped to within an inch of its life is largely testatment to the quality of the underlying and subsatiantial assets of Chinguetti and Tiof.

Counterbalancing these (in no particular order) I note the following negative events: Dorade, Capiatine, Merou, Ted's resignation, a coup in Mauritania, numerous delays of results to the market, and todays delay in the tiof test flow announcement.

Sure, these events are reflective of the risks associated with wildcat exploration, and a risk that I and others have been prepared to wear. But I think it is fair to say that we are some way off from what we all were hoping back in July/August.

I attended the meeting in Melbourne today (good summaries TGN & abuman, by the way). Scott gave an impressive presentation - he's clearly very nice guy, but there was nothing new said. Having said that he highlighted for the the potential of Uganda, which is much bigger than what I previously appreciated.

HDR is clearly in need of a big circuit breaker, or else i fear that the sp is going to drift. It's not just a case of being able to put a good spin on some disappointing results - the market is too sophisticated for that.

This week has really been a double whammy for HDR momentum - yes I belive there is great potential in the stock, but in the short term, it's getting harder for me to see unfortunately...I would be happy to be persuaded otherwise