Or Santos, or lots of other companies. Who knows? Coleman has...

Or Santos, or lots of other companies. Who knows?

Coleman has his work cut out at Woodside managing the mess he was left with. In spite of the company's strong cash flow, they'd be nuts to take on another huge commitment in an area where they don't have established expertise. They've got enough on their plate already.

I like the way Beach does things, but I can also see that they don't have the capital to do the shale gas development by themselves. This stuff is seriously expensive. (Also a bit alarming from an environmental point of view - you're talking about burning organic matter trapped in shale laid down many hundreds of millions of years ago.)

My feeling is that the current Beach management won't sell out the entire company. If you're buying on the hope of a quick takeover, forget it.