General Thoughts, page-852

A technical perspective and a few opinions on timing:

The 3D seismic will take some months (and more) to evaluate to a level where prospects are identified, delineated and described (particularly stratigraphic targets) and including resource estimates and risking. Indeed, to fully pull apart a 3D of this size (6,593sqkm) should take years. I do not expect you will see anything in a press release that will be causing tumescence for some time yet. All partners will have their people working on the preliminary fast-track dataset to understand the general structure and to identify areas of interest on which to focus once the final dataset arrives. The fast-track data is not scheduled to arrive until late August. Fast-track data generally do not include offset stack data (you may recall OldGeo mentioning these in an earlier post - these are helpful in identifying hydrocarbon fluids).

The final dataset (with offset stacks and gathers) is not expected until a few months after that (let's assume end November). Following this, Woodside have 180 days to exercise their option for a farmout agreement. During this period, Woodside must share available data and interpretation outputs with PCL, although the latter may be minimal. Woodside are likely to withhold exciting details from PCL during their analysis, in anticipation of forthcoming farmin negotiations (whilst the broad terms of the potential farmin deal are already agreed upon, the devil will be in the detail). PCL will therefore be relying on their own contractors to generate leads and prospects during this time so that they are well prepared for negotiations.

The good thing is that PCL remain Operator during this time, so they may have some influence over press releases. Knowing Woodside however, they are likely to have entered an agreement with PCL to gag PCL on releasing anything without Woodside's consent (I don't know this for certain, but in my experience it is common). PCL say as much in their July 2023 presentation where they say they will provide an update once interpretation is corroborated with JV partners. We should get a better feel for this in the coming months.

One thing that I am unclear on is that the 180 days after end November is end May 2024. As I understand the latest extension means the current exploration period ends 23 January 2024. Of course Woodside can enter a farmin at anytime before that, but I am not sure why the May timeline exists. Perhaps it is in consideration of a further short extension. Some further news required to explain how this will play out. Unless I have missed something in this regard?

Looking forward to some new speccy images...in due course.