hitting the shoals

I can mostly see this having a negative effect on the value of our Seychelles license area. If someone wants a licence they put in an offer (low ball), wait 90 days and then pick up an exploration licence on the cheap. Cheap licensees will devalue the value of our license. (SN is the master at this having low balled and picked up licenses in WA and VIC with small work commitments)

"So far, Afren Plc and Australia's WHL Energy are the only companies holding exploration licences in Seychelles, an archipelago of islands in the Indian Ocean northeast of Madagascar. A few others have expressed interest.

Belle said that after April, once a company had approached the government for an exploration area, other interested ones would have up to 90 days to submit bids for the same block.

After the 90 days expired, the government would evaluate and award the exploration area to the company that showed it had the financial capability to conduct exploration and then go into production if it struck commercial quantities of oil.

"We are talking about companies which will have to start with exploration and if they are successful they will move on to exploitation," Belle said.

Belle said WHL Energy was still looking for a partner but was committed to drilling, while Afren had completed a 3-D seismic survey covering 3,350 square km and was now processing the data and identifying a drilling location."