Petroleum News, page-103

Hi Spiney....thanks for the link to the article. You are right that there is little of substance that we did not really know, but it is nevertheless reassuring and perhaps a bit affirming to see permitting activity on our Western Fairway being kept up to date in terms of drill preparedness. The article also doesn't connect the dots fully (IMO) on the Charlie well being (re)permitted...as it talks about it 'targeting stacked plays' yet only provides volumetric potential from the Charlie prospect. We know from the Announcements in September and October last year (which, to my knowledge, have not been amended or retracted by the company), that Charlie is part of a stacked drilling prospect that also includes Victor and Indigo prospects...collectively the three prospects being estimated at around 700m bbls (net mean to 88E).

Of course, this is just an article....but it raises the spectre that there are many permutations of what we may attempt to drill in 2020. Funding may only be one of the drivers of that decision. Another one may be risk. My interpretation of the ex post facto reasoning of the Winx result was that the drilling location may not have been optimal/correct....rather than the prospect being non-existent. Back on the Western Fairway, it may be that the preferred bidder, with the luxury of time on its side, may see the lower risk of a targeted Charlie drill as opposed to a higher risk drill seeking to thread three prospects with good net pay, all with one needle. I'm just speculating, of course, but I can see the merit (from a farminee perspective) of such an approach. While clearly not of the pace and scale that 'long suffering' 88E shareholders would want - success on such a drill potentially provides better curve creaming (lately, I shudder with that expression, but it is pertinent to the farmout approach and impact) - providing that the farminee has not precluded such upside in their options/conditions. One would think that this future constraint (in the success scenario) would be an unlikely outcome of current negotiations, given that (we are led to believe) the preferred bidder emerged from a competitive field.

We also know that no deal is assured till it is signed. And a solo drilling effort in 2020 (even if we could magically raise funds for it) would be a riskier prospect - in market perception if not in reality.

Hopefully the picture will be clearer before the end of this month.

GLTA.