General Thoughts, page-8420

It is important to understand the likely nuances of the decision by WDS. They provided guidance of a US$200m exploration budget for this next year at their FY24 Results on 25 Feb'25. The PEL 87 well/the cost of the carry for the farm-out deal would have been ~1/3rd of this entire global exploration budget. They would have weighed up the opportunity and its risks on a global portfolio basis and decided not to pursue it.Sintana Energy (TSX-V: SEI), who holds 49% of Custos Investments (Pty) Ltd, a 15% JV partner in PEL 87, announced last night that a process is underway to secure an alternate farm-in partner at the earliest opportunity, pointing to the other supermajors operating and drilling wells in the basin, which appear to be the most likely potential farm-in partners, that would be able to move quickly, potentially utilizing an available drilling slot on a rig (currently 3 drilling) in the basin.Not all disappointing news though, as PCL also announced prospective resources for the key prospects/leads in the permit. The 8 leading opportunities, at multiple levels across the Saturn Complex, have a total in-place oil 2U Best Estimate gross Prospective Resource of 5.4 billion barrels, with a gross upside case (3U) of 16.95 billion barrels, comparable to GALP's quoted 10 billion barrels of oil discovered in the Mopane Complex in PEL 83 directly to the south.The two key individual prospects, Oryx and Hyrax, in their own right carry 2U Prospective Resources of >500 million barrels recoverable (~30% recovery factor), on a gross basis, importantly with Class II AVO support, an apparent important factor to the billion barrel oil discoveries nearby through the offshore Orange Basin. These opportunities also carry secondary stacked drill targets that could be targeted through single exploration wells.