Just history, mostly for new readers catching up with this fascinating unfolding story.
Sorry if I bore the old hands, however please correct me if I've got things wrong.
As Cujo says, I have been dead wrong so FAR.
"ConocoPhillips believes it has provided the information required in the preferential right notification, while honouring the joint operating agreement and confidentiality clauses from preceding agreements,"
Yes that was the statement that lead to about ten thousand posts regarding what was in the COP WPL deal besides the "headline" numbers that were advertised.
That the sale of the Sengalese assets possibly wasn't as cheap as advertised as apart from the "assets", that is, the Senegalese blocks including SNE, the company that WPL bought, Conoco Senegal BV, may also have contained liabilities, that were undisclosed for whatever reasons.
Conversely, assets, possibly?
That in order to offer a compliant PE notice Cop was required to offer the Senegalese "assets" to the other JV partners, (not the Company), together with a justification as to how the value for the Senegalese assets was set. This would be the PE price. The sale of the Company would still go ahead, however if the other JV partners decided to PE, the Senegalese assets would be extracted. WPL would still get the Company whatever was left in it.
That value may well be different to the "headline" Company sale value as the company may well have contained other liabilities or possibly assets for that matter, which were undisclosed.
Given that statement of COP's it seems that COP weren't prepared to disclose all the details, for whatever reasons. You well ask why, what do they have to hide?
It has been suggested that the Senegalese tax dept would like to know.
If they were not prepared to disclose all, then whatever they gave FAR on what was described as the, "single A4 page", was hardly likely to be a compliant PE notice, the question being asked of the ICC.
Was it we can't tell you, how we arrived at the valuation of the asset, you will have to trust us. Or did they offer the Company to FAR, again without all the details.
We don't know and can only speculate.
However this lead CN to comment something like, "who would buy a Company without seeing what was in it", that is, without seeing the books.
That statement of COP's about is one of the reasons many of us here believe that it is pretty unlikely at COP provided FAR with anything that remotely resembles a compliant PE notice to their JV partner FAR.
But that of course is the question being asked of the ICC.
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