wpl briefing, page-10

Edd as an eventual point reached after a war in Iraq there could be an alliance with Mauritania that would preclude the likes of WPL and AGIP producing from Mauritania. This is probably the only real threat I see to the cashflow coming out of Mauritania ie some altering of the geo-political setting. WPL and AGIP and indeed HDR would have done reseearch into this and indeed Scott Spencer the HDR 2IC is an ex diplomat.

I guess yes it is a risk but these companies are in a far better position and have much more at stake and they will make their decision which I guess might include no go but it hasnt deterred them to date.

In any case in the leadup to this type of scenario where they couldnt produce out of Mauritania there would most likely be some pretty good exit points out of the stock (refer a post I did 9/12 or 10/12 on a how low can oil prices go thread).

Another important point is that the agreements with the Mauritanian government are covered by international law.