Ann: Southern Cooper Basin Operations Update, page-179

I think it's a bit harsh to start questioning the technical abilities of the company without knowing exactly what has happened at Le Chiffre and Klebb - whether it be water saturated, water invasion from overlaying wet sand from over-frack, or some other reason/s). Even with all the new technologies available (CSEM, 4D seismic, etc), it is still human's guesswork of what is really down there. Hence the adage that one set of drill data is worth more than a thousand seismic. The lab data confirmed dry, gassy coals from the core samples, as did the wireline data. All the post frack data seems to contradict everything we (and probably all other Cooper players) had expected. This is a greenfield frontier stuff, so such unexpected challenges should be expected.

Your comments regarding the reasons to drill the play in the first place might be correct - a touch of luck involved but that goes with pretty much every drill. The industry is littered with finds that far exceeded predrill estimates (eg. Jubilee in Ghana). The point is that they did pursue it based on all the data available to them and we are now here with a gusher reservoir but not knowing if and when the gas will flow.

Time will tell the truth soon enough. It might even prove that their initial prognosis was right in that the reservoir is dry. Looking at the BP report, given that the fraccing had, I quote "been very effective radiating some distance from the well bore" unquote, it remains a distinct possibility that the fraccing had indeed penetrated into the wet sands.

Let's also not overlook the other positive in that the two drills also confirmed the homogeneous nature of the reservoir across a rather large stepout, which reflects well for the play across the entire block - if they can gas to flow.

Will now go back to my other life and wait for the news

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