Perhaps. The beauty of speculation is that anything is possible....

Perhaps. The beauty of speculation is that anything is possible. I don't know enough about Woodside's other assets to know if Exxon would be interested in buying the entire enchilada. What I'm much more confident about is that Exxon wants to get involved in exploration and development of offshore Namibia, and it looks to me like PELs 83 and/or 87 present their best opportunities in that regard. But if they think a buyout is the best way to go (I think someone may have already mentioned it above), Exxon taking out Pancontinental seems like the best bet. Instant minimum 20% of PEL 87. They then have immediate access to the 3D seismic data volume, and they can go on to negotiate with Woodside, with even greater leverage from there. I wonder how open Iain and others here might be with that? The cost to do so would be peanuts for Exxon, even with a massive premium most PCL shareholders would be happy with.