Ann: Cuba, Block 9 PSC Appraisal Well Program Update & App 3Y, page-86

IMO today's after market announcement has been carefully thought through, and obviously has a good and a bad side.

Firstly the good: Rig mobilisation on site in 2 days. Thus we're counting down the days to spud, presumably within the next 2 weeks.

Secondly the share sale by 2 directors. IMO on this occasion one needs to separate the actions of the directors from the investment thesis in the Company, notwithstanding there are questions I have that relate to corporate governance and insider trading. I will explain what I mean by this after noting the facts:
1. AP's share sale in aggregate of 10.0 million shares occurred over a number of days, from 9th - 16th May (despite an error declaring sale from 9th - 12th May earlier on on form Appendix 3Y).

2. AP also bought shares last Dec (ASX announcement 6th Dec 2022), 1.18 million shares at an average price of 4.2 cents per share. Clearly he was not concerned about raising cash for property or tax last Dec!

3. Coincidentally there was a Special Trade S3 of 10.0 million noted last week, at a price of 8.2 cents. Was that Special Sale last week related to AP's share sale, which apparently only completed today? Seems unusual if they are related IMO!

4. And AP sold his 10.0 million at an average price of 8.7 cents whilst those sold LAST week traded at 8.2 cents! If they some how are related then I'd assume that a broker acted on behalf of the parties, for 0.5 cents fee?

5. NO ONE, either insider or outsider, knows what the outcome of the drilling of Alameda2, other than it is an Appraisal Well, and for a considerable length of the hole including Amistad Unit 1A and 1B will be very close to the location of Alameda-1, which had ennumerable oil shows from immediately beneath the casing shoe at 466mMD. Thus neither AP nor PS knows anything more than us shareholders as to the success or failure of the upcoming Alameda-2. But in all likelihood this hole should provide a better result than Alameda-1 for a couple of reasons - it is a slimmer hole, that should improve well hole integrity, it has been altered to test a location up-dip of A-1 in the sub-units 2 and 3, with an expectation of longer lengths of the pay zone due to the change in trajectory at these depths.

There is a question as to who knew about the share sales by AP and PS? Clearly there is a possibility that such inside information could have resulted in others dumping shares on past days - this is something that the regulator should be reviewing, but I won't be holding my breath!

Anyway my view is this:
I bought shares in MAY because of Block 9 oil prospectively, I didn't buy shares in AP! I'm not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Nothing has changed wrt the technical facts of Alameda-2, other than we know that the well spud is not far away, after a few hiccups over recent past months.
Anyone who sells shares in the next few days because of AP's action may regret it, and probably the announcement today removes the likelihood of similar dumps due to the expectation of director selling during drilling over the next couple of months.