I listed it this way as both COE and Dragon would do the same...

I listed it this way as both COE and Dragon would do the same for different reasons. At the end of the day, this is the likely net income stream to both . Indeed COE quoted this in their market briefing as a reason to actually pursue the ST2.

So, if COE did receive a price from Dragon, they then have a position upon which to argue to the market to continue drilling and perhaps prove a higher resource than the price implied in the price they receive from Dragon. In doing so, they take on the additional cost, risk etc... Dragon would know this too, so it is a balancing act of where to pitch the price at. How much is Dragon willing to pay - they have to determine this based on marginal cost and factoring in a risk premium in their own DCF as well as some other intangibles like strategic linkages to their existing asset portfolio.

Naturally, there are shadow prices already for similar deals in the market, but they are all very different, so i just think COE (and therefore JKA) are conditioning the market about the likely scenarios well in advance of final decisions.

Discl. I dont own JKA, COE - but the principles are the same