It must be understood that the ERP grant recently awarded was...

It must be understood that the ERP grant recently awarded was not done in a vacuum of information. The government, via ARENA, wants to ensure that the end result or the purpose of the grant is actually achieved. To this end, considerable prior negotiation will have occurred as to the necessary monetary value, and whether and how the conditions could be satisfied. In turn, Terry Kallis would have had reasonable certainty from where his external funding would originate. It would not be a matter of just hope and guess work.

Even if Kallis knows exactly where his extra funding is coming from, the formal agreements still need to be constructed in terms of milestones, guarantees, etc, separately for each of the three or four parties involved. That takes time. I doubt that Kallis has to start looking from scratch to find $5M within 6 months.

Benny, I cannot help but wonder how complete your source of information was at Beach. Could you diplomatically enquire again? Of course everyone probably expressed frustration at the slow progress of the overall project, but for Beach to give up means to lose all the funding it has contributed thus far, as well as losing the achievements.

Conversely, in the present set up, any JV partner (Beach or new group) benefits from the various awarded grants and the fact that one good well (PAR 2) with proven reservoir, already exists. Well PAR 3 has just to be repeated through similar geology. It will still be expensive but they know what to expect.

A customer for up to 30 MW exists nearby and almost any source of energy will beat the cost of diesel power.

Juke