Ann: Hickory-1 Operations Update, page-111

Hi Doc,
You are correct in almost all of what you are saying for a while now, eg, one drill a year model, poor planning, CR timing, delay in rig mobilisation, poor announcement wording and timing, directors not having skin in the game and not experienced enough in the field, high admin fees, not responding to shareholder enquiries and the topper is their high and unjustified salaries most of the directors on, especially the MD on $710, 000 annually plus performance bonuses (not dependant on the outcome of the drill, but successfull completion), no doubt I agree with you there's so much to complain about.

The first annoucement did a great deal of damage to the sp momentum, I am probably more frustrated than anyone else with how things have transpired however the latest announcemnt was much better, and its what its for now, it'd be great if you could hold your fire and bottle up your frustration for the next few weeks, then we have another 10 months to vent our frustrations, do an indepth post mortem, and recommence the insane emoji war.

The one thing I'm not convinved and not agreeing with you is, whether a new director or MD would be better than the current ones. I personnaly complained a great deal about DW performance and the way he was handling the company, but then the AG appear to be much worse. Getting a new MD would take him/her sometime to get upto speed and probably put their spin and flavour on the way things done, and could potentially mean another stuffed up drilling project and more money and time wasted.

Neverthless there has to be some sort of penalty for stuffing up time and time, this can't be business as usual for ever. Perhaps 60% of their current pay should be based on their performance, and the KPI should be adjusted to returns to shareholders, in that case Gilbert's annual base salary would be $284, 000 (still not bad for couple of months work) and given progressive bonus amount based on their KPI's.