# the company owes a debt of gratitude to Alan (and a few others behind the scenes I gather) for putting together the whole European gig, and the permits/projects in France.
# I am not into ageism, but Alan is no spring chicken and he has to be in the sunset years of his career.
# Alan is an Executive Director, specifically the Company's Technical Director and as such he is responsible for most if not all technical issues involved with assessment and development of the Company's CMM and CBM assests.
# As such, he should be accountable for poor technical performance, such as seems apparent so far at Lorraine ... the Folschviller and Diebling stratigraphic drilling program and the current pilot production well program have sucked up something like $10mill and we have suspended gas testing because the drainage sump isn't currently deep enough, and serious cost over-runs and time delays.
# At last week's AGM (Mark 1) Alan seemed a "protected species" as Tony M fielded all manner of technical questions fronm the floor ... not once did Alan attempt to offer explanation for anything.
# At today's AGM (Mark 2) Alan again had nothing to offer to those present, despite a lone shareholder (not me) venting his spleen over the current situation in Lorraine.
# I did get to meet Rod Bresnehan (sp?) at the meeting (cant remember his full name) the petroleum geologist who signs off on some of EPGs technical reports ... Rod was proudly introduced to us in an ASX announcement earlier this year and his 1 para bio in that announcement is impressive ... my broker covers EPG and their analyst says Rod is highly capable and well respected in the industry here and overseas.
# Personally I believe the Lorraine gas can be tapped with horizontal wells and a big implementation program aimed at multiple targets ... EPG management's role is to find multiple high value targets and package them up to a partner ... not bet the bank on one expensive pilot program drilled inhouse ... these are technical/risk mangement issues that currently aren't optimised imo.
# The intenton of the last few points isn't to say Rod is the man (he may/may not be), but he seems full of vigor and ideas and his background seems a good fit to develop projects. I don't know whether he is interested in the gig or not, but the Board obviously thinks enough of him to have him sign off on some Company reports.
# My issue with Alan is that he has had a chance and fallen short, a long way short. There is no shame in that, particularly as he can hold his head high for having put the French projects together in the first instance.
# Company management should turnover and fresh ideas and views should be encouraged. How often have we all heard that entreprenuers are not necessarily the best types to grow an emerging company ... well the same can be said for technical types moving into management positions imo ... a fresh approach is needed to unlock Lorraine gas and to develop strategies to advance the other company projects.
I am an investor in this Company because I have formed an opinion on the business potential ... the time has come formthe Board to get serious ... bring on a talented energetic technical director ... bring on a European Director ... talk up the comapny assets to significant interested partners.
Today I simply exercised my right to have a different opinion as to whether a director should be re-elected.
Sorry for the rant.
Dex
EPG Price at posting:
18.5¢ Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held
