I recommend that everyone should re-read the bolded section of Cmonaussie's head post re HK's plans for future drilling.
And this from today's ann. "Austin runs the risk of being drilled out by an accelerated Halcón drilling program. While this is an exciting and attractive prospect for Austin, the exploration success also raises additional short term funding requirements to ensure Austin’s continued capacity to provide our matching share of Halcón’s rapid development of the Birch property beyond the agreed three well program/b>. After the third well Austin is required to contribute 30% to the cost of each subsequent well."
It is now very clear to deduce that Spifflemire has definitely surprised HK (if not AKK) and they have now planned to go beyond the three wells that AKK has anticipated in their funding plans. BUT,HK's plan also appears to be for only one more well in the immediate future which will spud in June!! AKK management simply did not plan for that and now must confirm with HK that they are capable of paying its share of that well, or, as today's ann clearly states, AKK could be "drilled out" of that well and, without funds, any other well in the Birch property that HK might just spring on them (howver unlikely). I don't think that there is anything sinister in HK's plans, they have the rigs available and they have a "sweet spot", but, they say that they also have other obligations over the rest of their 100,00 acre leases. I don't think that they will take advantage of AKK's financial position to go beyond that one extra well in this programme.
BUT, big but, they ARE definitely planning to drill that one in June and unless AKK can confirm that they can finance their 30% share, HK will very likely proceed without AKK (what's an extra 30% cost to them for one well???).
Sadly, it is one of the horrible facts of life being involved in a start up O&G company, the need for cash and the consequent dilution of initial shareholders equity. And that is not insignificant in AKK's case, as, if they do somehow succeed to raise that $6 million, it will mean that the I.C. goes to 2.6 billion shares, an increase of around 50% in just 3 months!!
But, it's like being between a rock and a hard place, if the SPP is not successful, shareholders run the risk of not being able to share in the benefits of that next well, albeit it won't do any harm to the overall re-valuation of the Birch property acreage as a whole. It is not the end of the world, and hopefully, AKK would have stitched up that $40 million loan facility and received some cash to cover any wells after that.
All depends on whether you consider paying out is worth it in your own investment plans. If you are very satisfied with what we now can see, you would think that this should be the last CR that we will see and that .01 is a very attractive price to still be able to get into this company's apparent exciting LT future. But, dilution will certainly hang over the SP for quite some time, but very strong catalysts such as are now in the pipeline with impending results, should mitigate that to quite an extent compared to most other SPPs.
AKK Price at posting:
1.0¢ Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held