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Have others wondered what it is that MEO have to negotiate? The fact that they are still at the table suggests only positive things to me.

I can't see MEO doing a deal for anything less than their 20% equity. If the potential farminees had proposed such a simple deal, why would there be a need to negotiate for weeks? Wouldn't it be a simple matter of - I take 20%, you take 50%, you pay to drill well by X date and drill two more wells if we hit gas. Such a deal wouldn't be that complicated and I'm sure they could get an in principal agreement pretty quickly.

There is clearly more than one potential farminee at the negotiating table (going by what the company has said). So, while the delays might frustrate everyone and get the speculators and uninformed traders talking up all kinds of conspiracy theories, perhaps the competition between the farminees and strategic location of MEO (remember the Chess Board on their annual report) means they are currently negotiating a better deal than what they originally proposed? Could they end up with 25%, or 30% of Atermis?

Perhaps they might be negotiating a higher equity holding, for an agreement to sell the remaining stake to the major farminee if they hit gas? That would then provide them with funding to develop tassie shoal and explore their other permits, without the need for a dilutive capital raising.

Who knows what they might come up with? Point is, I feel that, in the circumstances (huge demand for new gas discoveries and more than one potential farminee), it is likely that the need to continue ongoing negotiations might be a good sign and result in a better deal than what MEO had expected at the start of the process.

Clearly any higher holdings MEO can retain in Atermis will result in higher risked valuations per share and is likely to mean a bigger share price rally when the announcement comes.