questions for the sydney meeting , page-7

Without defending the competance or otherwise of the WPL geos. A couple of points:

WPL might be operator, but given that non-WPL companies hold a significant % in each of the Mauritania blocks, I would think that they would have sufficient experienced people and collective clout to act as a devils advocate for any of WPL's decisions, particularly concerning development wells and I would have thought, exploration wells.

Large companies like Woodside and BHP move like snails. It takes them ages to realise that there is a boom on and it is only after a very large proportion of their staff have left that they act. Because so many of the management have grown up working for the one company, they also seem to think that just working for the company is a reward.

Incompetance is probably not the correct word. Promoted or recruited for work beyond their level of experience is probably more correct. The number of years of experience required for a particular level drops dramatically during a boom.

Or, alternatively, they are overloading them with too much additional work. I am currently doing the work of 2 and sometimes 3 that worked on the same project last year. My pay has gone up a lot, but my health has suffered.

G