clarification from company (opl)

Hi All.
After reading many posts with different theories on what the co. has announced, and what they meant etc. etc etc, which was confusing this novice even more. I stayed up a bit later tonight to ring Steve Graves (OPL) in the US.

Forget everything else you read, this is what he said to me 10 minutes ago.

OPL has had 4 discoveries in the last 12 months. This is the best of all 4 discovered so far. Lots of Monterey oil in multiple zones and a very good gas show.

Clarification is -
7 oil zones in the Monterey formation between 6500 - 9300 feet.
Very thick column of gas over 100 feet with lots of potential

They will be drilling a 2nd appraisal well in late Nov, early dec to test this shallow gas play as permits required etc.
If this well yields same results then you are likely to be looking at a commercial discovery. Well is very inexpensive well to drill and gas prices are currently $7 mmcf, approx 2.5 times the price of gas in OZ.

Currently (right now) they are preparing to test the potential productive oil intervals in the Monterey zone with fracturing to assess flow rates.
This will take approx 2-3 weeks before you see results.
They will target deeper zones first as stated by Slick Rick.

I asked what is considered to be typical/commercial flow rates for the area. His answer 100 bopd and above.

Without speculating too much I asked him what he thought this is likely to flow at? 100 bopd. Could be more. Could be less.

To clear up the confusion I read on previous posts most notably on NEO forum. Size of the discovery is not the issue on the overall success of this well. Productivity is.
In laymans terms it is the flow rates that will determine the success of this discovery.

In Steve's words the amount of oil is not the issue here. It's a mechanical issue. We know the oil is there, we need to know the mechanics of getting it out.

He stated "that if you can get 100 bopd out of this well then at current prices it will pay for itself in 8-9 months. Which is not a bad return considering it could continue to do that for the next 20-30 years"

As far as the talk on the Stevens Sands play not being drilled. The Stevens Sands is embedded into the Monterey zone and the sands they encountered were not that good.

Not to play that down, as he said they have had 2 very significant discoveries in this well. Oil and Gas.

JH#2 is likely to be spudded before the end of the year (I think I wrote that down correctly) to test the extent of the Monterey zone/formation, though he stated he wishes he could start to drill that tomorrow.

He also mentioned something else I thought was very promising to happen shortly but I have probably overloaded everyone with enough dribble for now.

I have not tried to embellish on what I was told and hope that everything that I wrote down whilst talking to him is at least 90% accurate. Nor am I trying to ramp OPL or NEO with unsubstantiated claims.

But if you are prepared to put money into a company then you should at least be prepared to stay up a little later spend $20 on a phone call to get a clearer picture of what is happening with your investment. Information is the key to wealth not some of the crap and speculation I have read here lately. Not all of it is though.

Folks do your research. Good Night!!!