Note that its WPL:HES's Martell-1, discovery is 100kms North West of Pluto & in relative deeper waters. There's a slide on MEO's recent presentation with a map showing these prospects.
Another interesting development was, Petrochina (PTR) taking up a stake in CUE last week. In 2007, PTR had signed a $45b deal with Woodside to buy LNG from its Browse basin projects. This deal was negotiated at market rates, unlike the 2002 deal between WPL & CNOOC for $25b.
Given that Pluto stage-1 comes online in 2010, WPL will b keen to grab MEO & perhaps even get a smaller stake (5-10-15-20%) in KAR, who knows.
This gives MEO's board all the reason to smile like the Cheshire Cat, for now !!
Remember reading this article in 'The Age', below in early June, it set the tone for MEO.
Woodside v Chevron and all that jazz
A JAMES Morrison jazz session under the stars and on the lawn out the back of the Darwin Casino was the highlight of last week's oil and gas bash, attended by more than 1500 oil and gas operatives.
But that assumes you like jazz.
For Garimpeiro, the highlight was the stoush between Woodside and US oil group Chevron on just who would be accessing all of that third party gas in the west Carnarvon Basin.
Woodside wants it to expand its Pluto processing plant at Karratha while Chevron wants it for its proposed plant at Onslow.
The stoush is very good news for Melbourne-based MEO Australia.
It holds permit WA-360-P in which its Artemis prospect is generating a lot of interest. The reason is simple. Artemis could be an extension to the Pluto (Woodside) and Wheatstone (Chevron) gasfields that underpin Woodside's and Chevron's big liquefied natural gas expansion plans in the region.
MEO reckons that Artemis could have as much as 9.5 trillion cubic feet of gas in place which, if proven, has the potential to alter radically the plans in the region of Woodside and Chevron.
MEO is seeking a farm-in partner to drill the Artemis prospect in 2010.
Reports at the oil bash were that all the big names in the industry had either made their way to MEO's data room or would be soon.
A big-spending commitment by a major to pick up the running from MEO — as ConocoPhillips did in Karoon's Poseidon discovery — is something to look out for. MEO closed 1¢ higher on Friday at 14¢ a share.
MEO Price at posting:
40.5¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
