szaba Well the answer to that connundrum is that neither FAR nor...

szaba

Well the answer to that connundrum is that neither FAR nor Cairn nor Petrosen would be dreaming of pre-emmpting if the price offered for the assets by WPL (and accepted by a financially troubled COP) was at all fair. The reason FAR is looking to pre-empt in my view is that the price is attractive. So if in the future FAR say wishes to selldown some equity in the project (perhaps some of what it might soon gain by pre-empting) surely if the buyer pays a substantial premium for the asset (not the company) then that would knock out any desire to pre-empt by the other JV partners.

So likewise if FAR wishes to sell out and monetise all its equity in JV's Senegal leases in the future it could proceed as above. You may be right that JV pre-emption rights could act to restrict a takeover of any of the JV partners by someone wanting to acquire Senegal assets. Many of us would be happy with a final outcome being monetising our equity in the JV leases and moving on to appraise Djiffere and GB and maybe even Kenya if the oil market does improve.

H