"With SC59, they did not (to my knowledge) take a farmin option...

"With SC59, they did not (to my knowledge) take a farmin option as with SC55, but just farmed straight in. Perhaps they have some doubts as to how far the Malaysia/Sabah fairway extends to the Nth East, and hence the farmin option with funded 3D seismic over SC55 to validate their expectation"
True "they had some doubts as to how far the fairway extended", hopefully now they dont have those doubts(and may also be interested to see if it extends further north?)or at worst have confirmed hawkeye's and others potential.
Its also worth noting for those who dont know, BHP paid OEL approx $20M in advance to do the 1800k seismic and interpret etc.BHP are also doing their own anaylysis in conjunction, so the real cost to BHP checking over SC55 could be closer to $30M .
Also OEL ran their own independent seismic over Hawkeye at i believe "a shallower depth"(?).I'm no expert but I'd imagine this would have useful cross referenncing.
Both parties get to share the information gathered which i believe has certainly not been discouraging.
BHP coming back a second time adds weight.
C