no ophir, page-22

This whole Ophir sinario was already talked about in the Hartley report which drew alot of the attention to FAR recently ----

AIM listed Ophir Energy Plc has an option to farm-in to the Senegal permits, which expires at the end of CY2011. In our view, exercise of the option was dependent on a successful outcome at the Kora-1 well, offshore AGC Profond. Given that the well was unsuccessful, we do not expect Ophir to exercise its option. Ophir would have brought operating capability, allowing energy companies with no deepwater drilling expertise to farm-in; however, larger exploration companies with operating capability would have been less likely to farm-in as these entities often desire higher percentage interests than what would have been available as well as operational control. We view the likely lapse of the option as market neutral and remain confident that FAR will achieve a farm-out once the license is extended.

If the boys and gals at African petroleum hit oil in Q1 / Q2 of next year then FAR actually don't need a farm in partner to suck away at the potential.... We can keep our hands in our pockets and lay casually against the wall and have others do the work and reap the rewards -

African Petroleum has stated in its November Investor Presentation that it plans to drill the Alhamdulilah prospect in Q1 2012 (we assume some slippage to mid 2012). The prospect is estimated to contain 500 million barrels of unrisked mean recoverable resource and overlaps by ~25% into FAR’s Senegal acreage. FAR is effectively a 22.5% interest holder in this prospect, given it net exposure of 112.5 million barrels, which could add over $1b, or >50cps, in value for the Company. This is around 20 times the current share price with no expenditure requirement by FAR. In the event of discovery, issues surrounding unitisation will be moot as we believe that FAR would be quickly acquired. Whilst we have high conviction that FAR will retain its Senegal permits, until the formal decree is given it is likely that the market response will be partially subdued to any activity due to the perceived risk of loss of ownership.

The farm in with Ophir was expected not to happen, let's hope the African oil drilling does and the government decree also