Auto - been away for a week, got back to all this unnecessary...

Auto - been away for a week, got back to all this unnecessary negativity !

You have stated many times that the opinion and analysis done by these clowns (as some of them are) is worth nothing.

With regard to the writedowns :

- $8 million for Bianchi. But it was a valuable gas strike and therefore the 'writedown' is actually an investment which in time will undoubtedly be worth 2 or 3 times the cost. Otherwise they surely wouldn't pay this sort of money for the attempt.

- Starfish came in over budget (in their opinion)! TAP have never released the actual cost but given that it came in trouble-free and a week early, my guess would be that it came in under budget. It was wildcat, there was no 'carry' and the market forecast correctly that it would be a duster .... there was no premium built into the s.p.
I suspect that they believe the cost was the $21 mill which actually included the costs associated with Taunton.

- Taunton was a disappointment given the rig problems. So no definitive success or failure yet but Troy does refer to it positively and I believe that it will end up as being commercial. Bit like Tallaganda in this respect i.e. no initial announcement either way and then BHP acclaim as their biggest gas strike of the year !

Fair enough stating that their cash balance is reducing but in most cases it is actually being spent on projects which will in time repay the investment many times over (Zola, Bianchi, Manora, Tallaganda). It is simplistic in the extreme to ignore the longer term potential of these projects and focus on the costs. Bottom line is that it is not 'wasted' money.