There appears to be a close connection between Primary Petroleum...

There appears to be a close connection between Primary Petroleum and Bounty in the past from the following ASX release by Drillsearch:

"25 May 2009

Sale of Surat Basin permits to Primary Petroleum Pty Limited
Drillsearch Energy Limited (Drillsearch or the Company) (ASX:DLS) is pleased to announce the completion of the sale of its interests in Surat Basin permits ATP 823P and ATP 552P, Queensland to Primary Petroleum Pty Limited.

As a part of the sale, the Company will receive 1,000,000 fully paid ordinary shares in Bounty Oil & Gas NL (ASX: BUY).

This sale is the result of an ongoing strategic review of the Company�s assets following the merger with Great Artesian Oil and Gas Limited. At the annual general meeting of Drillsearch in November last year, the Chairman, Mr. Peter Simpson, announced the intended disposal of these Surat Basin interests to increase shareholder value by
preserving cash and focussing on further exploration and development in the Companys core areas through the rationalisation of permits.

The sale of these permits is consistent with that strategy and importantly represents an expenditure saving to the Company of more than $10 million dollars in expected
work commitments over the next three (3) years. This substantial future expenditure saving enables Drillsearch to prioritise key exploration and development activity in
other areas.

The interests sold in the two permits are as follows:
ATP 823P 100%
ATP 552P 50%
Drillsearch no longer holds any interest in either of the permits."

The transaction let Drillsearch off the hook to pay $10.4M for works in ATP 823P and transferred the obligation to Primary. I cannot find any further references to ATP 823P after the transaction...was it abandoned to save committed expenditure? Perhaps someone with access to Mines Dept Qld records could shine some light on this.

Later on, Drillsearch bypassed Primary with the following deal:

"On 16 August 2010, the Company announced the sale of the Naccowlah Block (Drillsearch 2%) to Bounty Oil and Gas NL for $1.15 million comprising $950,000 in cash and $200,000 in Bounty common stock."

So! Primary buys Drillsearch assets by giving Drillsearch 1,000,000 BUY shares; or, did BUY give the shares to DLS - the statement is ambiguous imo. But there was no announcement by BUY regarding the deal. Somehow, according to the BUY 2010 Annual Report, BUY holds 33.33% of the 50% of ATP552P Purchased by Primary.

The reason for my interest in Primary and BUY is the potential for BUY to get control of the entitlement to earn 12.5% of ADE interest in ATP 855 that BPT are so keen to maintain an interest in after drilling the exciting Encounter shale well with Holdfast looking just as promising. The impact on BUY value is significant if they hold a sleeper position in Primary.