i will try to explain the accounting for you, page-5

It is indeed a black art, EL.

Sentia, you need to study the entire balance sheet and not just one number in order to take a full view. Note that their debt is going down.

Also, very importantly, bear in mind that there was considerable "cash in transit" at 31 Dec, whereby oil shipments had been made and not paid for (this may be the reason for the differing revenue figures pointed out by an earlier poster in the "rubbery figures" string) and I do not see this amount sitting on the balance sheet as a receivable.

NZO chose to accrue this revenue to their half year books and therefore it boosted their profit dramatically. I do not think PPP has made a similar entry and I think that is a little slack in my opinion.

So, the next quarterly report for PPP will show this lump of cash arriving in early January and similarly it looks like it will be reported in the second half results as well.

Also, in the second half figures, there will be no need for PPP to write off any exploration costs as they are not spending anything on exploration. But as Tui is produced, they will need to amortise the Tui costs on an ongoing basis to match off against the revenue. Again, the ongoing write off of Tui costs are not a cash item as the cash money was spent in the middle of last year.

I must say though that for shareholders that report is mighty confusing.