Just had my call from Ben Clube... He really couldn't or wouldn't add much more detail to the essential question;
‘estimated timeframe to retrieve the tool from the Cambay well and for the well testing to be completed?’
Sounded to me like he was floundering to explain the current situation and based on my questions above, maybe he wasn't the right person to call me from the company. Seemed more like a PR exercise in keeping shareholders happy/quiet, than giving real information.
He explained what we already know, the tool fishing could take days, weeks or it may never be retrieved. He seemed to think that the drilling experts felt it was a ‘remote’ possibility that they wouldn’t be able to get the stuck tool out. But at the same time he didn’t seem to know what the plan might be if that were the case? Didn’t give me much confidence in their risk management capabilities.
I impressed on him that shareholders want to know broadly how long things might take. That until this was given, that the share price may drift down and long term investors might lose money and depart. He said that they (management) didn’t want to give any timeframes/dates unless they had ‘robust’ information. I said the board/management has to be careful not to go too far the other way and not give us anything to work with at all, even in complicated situations like this, there must be drilling engineer experts who can at least give some broad ideas based on analogous shale gas regions around the world…
I appreciate that what they are trying to do has never been done in this part of the world before, I will continue to hold my shares until they are complete BUT if it all goes pear shaped (and us long term holders know how it has been in the past with Oilex) I may end up regretting that I didn’t get out now while the going was good!
In summary the phone call conversation with Ben did not fill me with confidence and if I was investing in their managements abilities, I’d pull my money today BUT I’m investing in the future potential of what they have in the ground and I just have to hope for all of our sakes that the initial independent Cambay hydrocarbon assessment by Netherland Sewell and Associates Inc is an accurate representation of what we have to look forward to…
:-/ DamianWRX
OEX Price at posting:
23.4¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
