Ann: Alameda-2 - Successful Flow Test of Lighter Oil to Surface, page-533

Hi JM -

Ort is, and will remain, a very simple creature, which is why he can understand and easily digest your following statement -

" We’re sitting on a shitonne of oil here just in this first patch of block 9. "

I finally had the opportunity to listen to Mondays Podcast in the tranquility of the chair nearest the wood heater today and my simplistic Ort-like synopsis goes something like this;-

AP and team have a dilemma - or otherwise interpreted, an embarassment of riches ....... flow here , reopen there, start the next one , open up that one , revisit this one , plan those other pads , what about Zap, is Errols' hair turning grey , do we care if it is - I mean he's old enough anyway.....and should we ignore the Chinese, Arabian, Indian, Russian and even African gentlemen kicking the tyres on the trucks lining up near the holding tanks?

I mean - these are tough decisions and AP and co intimated in the very honest and open discussion on Monday that " robust " discussions are taking place regarding the right moves going forward ........I believe we have a team in place , both technically and in managerial ability, to take this project forward, but a nagging feeling persists.... let me digress

Just before Meo declared Artemis a duster I had a detailed conversation with the then Ceo J Hendrich in their swish offices in Collins St where he was adamant that if the well delivered they " would be taken out immediately..." or words to that effect.

Well here we are almost 13 years laters and Melbana indeed have appeared to have unlocked a magnificent geological puzzle with the backbone of the technical team which drove my confidence all those years ago, greetings to Dave Maughan, and all we hear is the sound of the market saying ok big deal....

The disconnect between the companies discoveries and management positivity compared to the market ambivalence is obviously disconcerting .....but not entirely hard to understand due to the slump caused by the previous ann aka " killed the well." ....and I'm not the only wishing we could reverse the order of the past two market updates which means the difference between a Cayenne Turbo vs a secondhand Lada ........for Ort at least!

I'm hiding in the undergrowth listening for the sniff of a predatorial takeover - I mean this is the oil industry not St Vini's, _ we are currently valued under 300m- even if it is indeed Cuba and those Communist heathens refuse to worship Western capitalist ideology ( remind them - scratch a socialist and you'll find a capitalist underneath..) - they still need to make the wheels go around , which they are admittedly struggling to do.......someone somewhere will be running the numbers....

On a more positive note , I'm expecting nothing less than a Cuban equivalent of Man of the Match for Errol, or at least most improved, and best Team effort for the drill crew supported by the Cupet trucking folk - they'll know that route well by this time next year -

Ort