As an ex-NWE shareholder, I agree. I would respectfully suggest that the posters bagging Iain Smith from NWE days, do not know how challenging it is to run a public listed junior oil and gas explorer when you have a 19.9% shareholder- in this case Minres, that is a monster and runs it 'investments' and company on the 'my way or the highway' principle.
Iain Smith and the board, based on my own experience in the junior oil and gas public company arena, did well for the non-Minres NWE shareholders to hold out against Minres as long as they did. The NWE board also managed to extract a slightly higher takeover share price and all ex- NWE shareholders should be greatful that Minres did go to full takeover of NWE as post the very disappointing result of Lockyer Deep-2, if the Minres bid was not there, NWE would now be trading at 2-3 cents!!
And gentlemen, have no illusion. Should the Saturn prospect when drilled in 1-2Q 2024 be the mega billion bbl discovery that all shareholders hope it will be, then Woodside will take over PCL.
This is an outcome I would welcome as a shareholder in Pancontinental and Sintana, with the proviso of course that the PCL board extract the highest takeover price possible for PCL shares, fingers crossed!
Be very aware as a PCL shareholder that drilling offshore and developing a light oil discovery in 1000 metre+ water depth is definitely big company territory!
PCL is run admittedly by a very small team of very experienced oil and gas explorers. The major private shareholder of NWE was previous ex-chairman of NWE, Mr. David Kennedy. Mr Kennedy is also I believe the largest private shareholder in PCL and was also a previous Chairman of PCL.
The appointment of Iain Smith as advisor to the PCL board is an astute move by the PCL board as it gives a local liaison person for PCL with Woodside with the relevant oil and gas technical experience. It also gives the local brokers that supported the recent placement a local technical PCL contact. And if the PCL share price appreciates while Iain Smith is advisor to the PCL board, this would be a most desirable outcome, imho.
As an aside, it would appear from the APPEA announcement presentation yesterday by Woodside CEO Meg O'Neill , reported today in the Energy News Bulletin that Woodside are very much aware of the PCL block exploration potential and the surrounding industry drilling activity.
As previously reported, comparison by Total of the Orange Basin with the most recent 'hot basin' for billion barrel oil discoveries, the Guyana Basin in the Caribbean is very illuminating as to current major oil company interest and activity and more importantly major light oil discoveries in the Orange Basin by Total and Shell and by inference positive for PCL. "ENERGY NEWS BULLETIN, 17 May 2023 Woodside hopeful of Namibian play following recent discoveries WOODSIDE Energy Group chief Meg O’Neill told Energy News at the APPEA Conference 2023 in Adelaide that recent oil discoveries offshore Namibia could be just the beginning of a wave of investment in the region. The oil and gas giant signed an option agreement with ASX-listed minnow Pancontinental Oil & Gas recently, giving it the right to acquire a majority 56% interest in offshore block PEL 87 offshore Namibia. The permit is located north of the 2022 Venus discovery - which was declared the largest ever deep-water oil find in Sub-Saharan Africa by analysts. Speaking to Energy News on Tuesday, O'Neill said the company was hopeful of a seismic campaign being undertaken across the block and said offshore Namibia was highly prospective for the company. Woodside recently expanded the campaign to 7200sq.km. The campaign is underway and should be finished next month. "When we think about our exploration business we want to make sure that it does a few things, first off that it strategically meets where we want the business to go," she said. "The real imperative for exploration is we've got to be exploring for things that we can commercialise rapidly." When the move was first announced it left industry watchers scratching their heads given Woodside's recent insistence frontier exploration and elephant hunting is off the table. Late last year O'Neil maintained exploration would be targeted and close to existing operations that could offer tie-back options, such as within its Gulf of Mexico portfolio. "Where we explore needs to be with a clear pathway to commercialisation...the oil industry has a track record of technical success and the commercialisation side takes tremendous time," she said then. The Orange Basin has been home to some stunning oil discoveries in recent years but all are at the very earliest stages of development. Woodside is paying for the full cost of the seismic survey estimated US$35 million in exchange for the option to join Pancon in the future. If it exercises its option it will carry the junior's drill costs. On the broader potential of the basin, O'Neill noted that recent discoveries including Venus may just be the start for the African nation. "Namibia is a country that, in the offshore, has been underexplored, but there were a couple of quite significant discoveries in the last few years," she told Energy News. "We think the prospectivity is broader than that, and that's why we entered that agreement with Pancontinental." Now we await the drill option exercise by Woodside which I believe will happen as FOMO (fear of missing out) is a very powerful incentive for the Woodside board to exercise the drill option, given all the exploration success to date by fellow majors in the Orange Basin and the 1-2Q 2024 drilling of the Saturn Prospect.
And with exploration success, as a shareholder, the eventual takeover of PCL at the maximum share price the PCL board can achieve!
Obviously if exploration success is not achieved at the Saturn Prospect, the outcome for the PCL share price will definitely be 'sub-optimal'.
Risk in everything of course and exploration success is never guaranteed as we ex- industry people all know!
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