But they can have best of both worlds! Secure their 10k now, and...

But they can have best of both worlds! Secure their 10k now, and a right of first refusal for further supply in the future.

Personally, I don’t think western strategy is playing a role in offtakes. Instead, I suspect it is all about nailing down the conditions and the equity the offtaker will input. Lawyers will be going back and forth trying to get the most favourable terms for each side and crucially avoid ambiguity for any potential circumstances (like say project delays for instance).

When lawyers are involved, it always takes time - they want their billable hours!

You can see with other companies what happens when you don’t have very concise contractual agreements - you might end up giving away a chunk of your company for a 100th of the end result ;-)