Pretty harsh on the Mauritanian acreage poo bear. If it was such...

Pretty harsh on the Mauritanian acreage poo bear. If it was such a dismal area:

1, We wouldn't be seeing majors such as Petronas, BG, Wintershall, Gaz de France, ect increasing interests in the area.

2, Exploration success rate of around 40% - well above industry standards. Remember the Chinguetti wells are not optimally placed.

3, Gaz de France wouldn't have given up interests in two producing Gas Fields (Johnston & Anglia adding 7.6 mboe to Dana's reserves) plus 18 million standard cubic feet per day of production to Dana. On top of this Gaz de France has included a 30% interests in the West El Burullus licence offshore Egypt where large discoveries continue to be made. In Exchange Dana has given GDF a 24% interest in Block 1, a 27.8% interest in Block 7 and a 17.5% interest in Block 8 with the added bonus of being free carried for a well in each of the Mauritanian blocks. Remember the majority of the Mauritanian discoveries are in block 4 which include Chinguetti, Tiof, Tevet, Banda and Labeidna. Blocks 1 and 7 host the sub economical Faucon discovery along with the potentially large Pelican discovery. I wonder what GDF would have given up for interest in the central blocks. Your looking at over a couple of hundred million dollars that GDF has paid for their newly acquired interests in blocks 1, 7 and 8 offshore Mauritania!

Cheers,
xmagx