Sama - Gambia, page-18

"Why would Erin had farmed out so cheaply".

A few possibilities......

• In 2015 and well into 2016 the oil market sentiment was simply on the nose. Erin didn't want to get caught with their pants down ....... like APCL next door. Securing a deal gives certainty to their own shareholders. We don't know what pressure Erin management was under at the time.
• FAR would have intimate knowledge of the SNE seismic so having them in the mix would certainly be seen as having an inside advantage to understanding the relationship between SAMA and SNE next door.
• At the time of the open data room, how many other players were serious at all. Perhaps only FAR??
• Is 20% actually selling out cheaply? I know of quite a lot of deals where the junior usually keeps around 20%. It seems to me to be about par for the course.
• FAR has been successful in getting majors interested in projects/areas before (eg. Senegal, CNOOC), so Erin thought ok...we hold on to 20% and now let FAR do the work as operator.

And just for some balance to this discussion...... "SEISMIC data over a prospective target of 500 million barrels-plus at FAR’s Sama prospect in The Gambia is getting potential farminees “very excited” to participate, independent analyst Peter Strachan said".

Presumably the above comment came directly from FAR and/or CN. Lets face it. Of course Cath would say that, wouldn't you, to make sure plenty of interest generated when trying to farm down!! Hopefully it is true though.

Whatever, I received an email from FAR not too long ago when asking about The Gambia. In their response they appeared confident they were going to succeed.

Just need to wait for the announcement!