I agree that Invictus should not have done any work last year without a PPSA even if they had successfully raised the capital. I probably won't invest in early stage exploration again in the future, but if I do, I will not invest unless the tax agreements are already in place. It puts the government in too strong of a negotiating position if the company has already sunk significant money into exploration, especially if that exploration resulted in a discovery.
However, it's interesting to note that a lot of the supermajors in Namibia are running into issues with their agreements where they want tax stabilization put in place so that the government cannot arbitrarily raise taxes in the future. I thought this would have been done ahead of time but apparently it was not and now the Namibian government has been pushing back against it after several major discoveries have been made. NJ Ayuk, who runs the African Energy Chamber, wrote the below op ed discussing the issue. So it's not just Invictus who makes mistakes with their tax negotiation. I would argue that the super majors have made a similar mistake in Namibia (but maybe to a lesser extent).
Link: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/time-namibia-oil-companies-act-fiscal-stability-fast-nj-ayuk-jd-mba--yin9e
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