My personal opinion is COI are wildcatters looking for a TO and...

My personal opinion is COI are wildcatters looking for a TO and not operators. STO know this, its a small world and know that COI are always going to be dependent on them. CSG is a large, scale game, almost resembles manufacturing as opposed to the old school oil game.
everyone at sto knows that coi are not doing anything without there say so. Senex would be about the only people capable of upsetting that apple cart and force the issue with a bid, coi management certainly haven't, that 10 tj/day proposal from northern block to the old dension trough infrastructure was a vain attempt at forcing some development options with sto. Until STO makes announcement re development, COI announcements are and will continue to be almost irrelevant

I must admit they did a good job at fleecing ORG from their share of the field