Nccc, Great questions, of which we may never know the answer but...

Nccc,

Great questions, of which we may never know the answer but I'll speculate.

These are just my thoughts however, so readers can form their own thoughts and it might be a nice debate while we wait.

"i am wondering how the drilling partners who put in the $15 million dollars to drill these wells will get pay back on there investment"

I threw out a possible idea that this consortium that has been put together may have taken part in the recent CR. These partners may have already recouped their investment based on turnover since. Just an idea.....

"will they on sell there 50% to oil major"

Possible, but requires the find of a commercial and economic oil discovery, seems a risky position to take to me, of which you also seem in the same mind.

"or start there own oil producing company"

I believe this is highly unlikely, there is no infrastructure at the well sites, so would need to be tied back to Conoco. An expense I doubt these players are up for. Also one well will probably not confirm the full extent of any play, so further drilling will be required.

It should also be noted that any wells drilled and flow tested (or not) will more than likely be plugged and abandoned anyway. It's expensive to suspend, it would require monitoring, which would need to be done by helicopter during summer season.

So in short, I've no idea. To me seems most likely they took the placing have traded it out already and this Working Interest and drill are already paid for.

Happy to read everyone's thoughts on this.

Cheers