in for the long haul

A good QTLY update from DTE. Confirmation of the drilling and seismic work that has been done with the help of Total & GDF Suez in the last few months. Hopefully results in Q3 will not disappoint. Also around that time if lucky we will have a decision on Airth PEDL 133.

What is encouraging though is the financial position of DTE. 12 months ago it was tettering on the edge of insolvency and stooped to as low as 3.6c. Fast forward 12 months and we have $34M in the bank, no debt, $45M loan facility for the development of Airth which is hopefully only months away from approval, essentially fully funded 3 yr drill program for large stake in Bowland Shale and now a significantly leaner operation solving the cash drain problem.

Despite the disappoint of the Board overthrow I would give the current management a B rating so far, not terrible/not terrific. Lets be honest they have not really done anything as they didnt need to it had already been previously done by the past board. What is most encouraging is that they havent changed course and it has been basically business as usual to what the previous Board had implemented. I was heartened to see the new directors stumping up some of their hard earned in recent times. The big concern with the new board in my eyes was the fear of the unkown with the 2 areas of major concern being would they change strategy and also the fact that they had no skin in the game. Thankfully both of those concerns have been slightly derisked over the past 3 months.

All in all I am happy with the Qtly reports. There is still a long way to go with increasing opposition from the green anti anything brigade (matched equally by the increasing government support), but most importantly DTE has the financial strenght to withstand the delays for a few more years to come. The backing of Total & GDF Suez as well as the impending approaval/income from Airth will have DTE in an extremely strong position in 3yrs time.

Its been a rocky ride but I am in for the long haul and I believe the good times are getting closer.