BASE, Until someone made an offer for the COP parcel there was...

BASE,
Until someone made an offer for the COP parcel there was no need to rush into arranging finance etc.
And when an offer was made, FAR could reasonably expect that it would be one that valued the slice appropriately. How was FAR to know that COP would accept such low-ball offer from WPL? When that eventuated, FAR had to say "This is too good an opportunity to pass up" never having expected to be in such a fortunate position.
These PE deals are complex and take time to put together (particularly for FAR, needing to tie up all sorts of side arrangements e.g. "We'll on-sell X% @ $Y if you free-carry us on the next Z drills") - Just all in my imagination, but don't be surprised if we eventually find that FAR have pulled off an amazing (albeit extremely complex) deal, which could involve - a placement, on-selling a proportion of their entitlement, free-carry on drills, forward selling of future production, etc, etc. Now add to that, possibly sharing it around with multiple suitors. The lawyers are probably propping their eyelids open with match-sticks right now, but FAR cannot speak of any of this stuff until there is something concrete to report and in the meantime it's constrained by confidentiality issues.
FUN TO DREAM ..........