re: is it calm before storm - no storm likely I shouldn't be...

re: is it calm before storm - no storm likely I shouldn't be doing Ted's work for him, but I'll point out something technical about the WPL reserves statement anyway:

If you read the fine print, WPL have stated Chinguetti 1P and 2P reserves on an 'economic interest' basis taking into account the fact that the Mauritanian government gets a significant slice of production under the PSC terms. From what I can make out the government gets around 20 - 35% of production with the rest being divvied up by the JV.

So to work out WPL's view of the physical reserves in Chinguetti from the 'economic interest' 37.5M 2P number, I think you have to divide by say 75% to take account of the PSC terms as well as by WPL's JV interest of 35% (as at 31/12/03). That gives a much healthier gross 2P number of around 143 mmbbl.

Other interesting things in the WPL releases:

- Banda oil removed from SFR : this means WPL don't think this is commercial in the forseeable future. I agree.

- only 1 exploration well shown as scheduled for Mauritania. This is very surprising and certainly a negative for HDR if it's real