i contacted arc for answers

I called the ARC office this afternoon.

The drill bit required changing. Why? Because the bits they use are rated for 600k revolutions. Simple as that. Apparently the bit they just replaced was worn and they have no regrets changing as they do not want to have equipment failure that far down the hole. He expected their next news release will be t’mrow (as per usual) with nothing extra to report until then.

As for not reporting this “bit” of info, their reasoning is they report every Thursday – unless something urgent and / or market sensitive happens - and to them changing a drill bit is not urgent news. They admit they have added Monday to their list of report days as a concession to pacify the partners who they describe as being more a bit more anxious in regards to news releases.

He conceded lack of news at a time as this, so close to the target, could be perceived as a bad sign, but as it was simply normal drilling procedure, they stayed to their press release format.

Re the drilling. Going according to plan. All gas shows encountered so far provide no indication of what’s below the seal. The target zone is lower than initially suggested, but that is of no concern based on the depth of the drilling. The current limestone does suggest a good seal / cap, but what is past this cap is still unknown.

He did acknowledge the gas shows encountered - so far - definitely “reduce the risk” for Stokes.

No more drilling plans for Yemen. Only upside was the drilling was not expensive.

He added Alcoa’s $40mil injection is a bonus in their exploration program, but conceded the agreement is not an endorsement of the Canning Basin potential, as the contract is simply to supply gas from any source with an option for ARC to buy back if gas cannot be supplied. So Alcoa is in no way speculating on the success of Canning Basin.

But as for Canning Basin, he stressed it is a long term project, and one which they are very confident and excited about.

Hope this makes your wait till tomorrow a little easier