Well that initially felt like a left field announcement!But then...

Well that initially felt like a left field announcement!

But then again, how left field was it? There is a pattern emerging here:

March 2018 acquisition of 50% EP469 + operatorship to quote "'provide Strike's portfolio with resilience and potentially transformational gas supplies...''
October 2018 takeover offer for UIL, which may well be the masterstroke of the current decade if SE comes homes
August 2019 ''staggering'' Kingia discovery
September 2019 Nev Power joins BOD
September 2020 Waylering farm-in
October 2020 innovative pre-FID financing from Macquarie Bank
January 2021 announcement of Project Haber
March 2021 award of highly prospective Perth Basin block
April 2021 acquisition of geothermal rights

We may be impressed but really shouldn't be surprised. The Company has actually been 'surprising' for quite a while now.

If you don't become part of the future, you will likely be consigned to the past. This is so true, particularly in respect of the significant headwinds around fossil fuels. Leaving aside the announcement specifics and the clear early stage of this initiative, my takeaway here is that the senior management/BOD's thinking and vision is ten + years ahead and initiatives like today point to a considered (part fluid, part firm) sequence of moves to build future resilience and material upside for the Company and its shareholder base.

Contrast the agile moves of STX with some of the local oil and gas leviathans, the way they are labouring (for what seems like years) over whether to spend $20B on potentially stranded assets. I'm reminded of that quote, ''its a challenge to navigate a wheeled leviathan in rush-hour traffic!"'

For sure with Haber, with geothermal, with many things we are in the early innings of a complicated game of chess. As a shareholder I'm very happy to see the Company increasing its number of pieces on the chessboard. Who or what will be our rooks, our bishops, knights and queen - who knows. Simply happy to be invested in a firm with not only ambition, energy and speed but a very calibrated and insightful sense of what success looks like in our market space going forward.

Happy Easter and looking forward to the next announcement, presumably next week, on WE4.

Cheers

Adaltiora