does happen?/doesn't happen ?

The main thing not to lose sight of is as to whether this will be drilled or not. The rest don't matter. I believe that MEO made sure they had themselves covered in the event things didn't go to plan. As we know, it didn't go to plan, but I don't think they are sitting round twidling their thumbs, they will be making sure they have picked their preferred rig and get the show on the way. And the bonus is they have their 70% still. An irrevocable committment was made to say they were going to drill, and that's what they'll do. That was long before any certainty in the farmin going ahead. They allways knew there was a chance it could go wrong so they made sure they could still get on with it in the event it did.