Well, the leverage argument is a pretty weighty one if you think Puntland will happen. There's no other explanation needed really- if you believe Puntland will happen it makes sense to go for RMP (or at least it did- I'm not so sure anymore now it's risen a fair bit, would need to redo the calculations but I'm sure on success RMP would rise more in percentage terms).
If you say we're targeting 1 billion barrels, with 30% recoverable and a CoS of 20%, that's 12 million barrels risked net to Range, which even at an optimistic $5 a barrel would only give an increase to the market cap of £40m, or approximately 2p a share. If RMP has 10x the leverage (does it? Not checked shares in issue in RMP as I've got no interest in investing there as I don't believe in the Puntland play) it makes sense the same drill would be worth, well, 20p risked net to RMP. So at 11p, if you thought the drill will happen, RMP was undervalued by almost 100%. There's been an increase in 'expectation' that spudding will happen recently, so that by itself explains the rise (although at 19p a share, I would suggest spudding success is now priced in to RMP, as Puntland is their main play and the market rightly discounts Georgia based on the disappointing first drill and poor seismic interpretation).
Success (i.e. moving the CoS to 100%) would value the Puntland drill at 10p for Range and 100p for RMP. So obviously if there's an increase in expectation for Puntland, RMP will rise more than Range if there is no news from Trinidad or Texas.
In my mind, there's still a very significant chance Puntland won't happen, spudding is now priced in anyway, and the security of the Trinidad assets makes Range an obviously better investment. But if you believe in all that stuff about Puntland having as much oil as Yemen, and believe Somalia can get sorted out and major players will issue takeover bids for the oil, RMP is obviously where you want to be (actually, you really want to be in HRN if that's what you believe in, but RMP is easier for UK investors to invest in).
RRS Price at posting:
13.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held