OK Faris, I've got this piece in hand. First I'll throw my own gasoline onto the speculative fire. Don't be surprised if the drilling partner is Occidental. One Dr. Ray Irani is the CEO and Lebanese. He has gone in on other speculative plays with CCC, which is a Lebanese construction outfit. Pure conjecture on my part and I have no knowledge, just a hunch.
On to the article itself the last paragraph spells it out. Underline speculative, said Bossey I think that you concede that has been my position.
On to other parts, basically it government or former government officials that worked in the Ministry of Oil. If you have ever dealt with officials in third world countries, such as Yemen, you'll understand that I choose to take it with a grain of salt. Yemen, last night I heard three Yemeni's are suing NASA over ownership of Mars...that's off topic and still got me laughing..
Further details are provided on the agreement. They are require to shoot 3000Km of siesmic at approx $15 mil cost. Now it's a bit unclear, but I'm not sure if they do this first and select their 10% of the lease or they can drill wells first. That should be asked Monday, BTW. I think you can see the implication of that.
If they have to choose the 10% without drilling, well do you choose correctly. I'd make a point to ask about that.
Another thing that isn't clear, which is the fifth paragraph. He (Dzhanseitov) claims that there are 15 wells, but the Russians left for another area. "Nobody knew there was oil there, but I knew". Well, there is a first. So we had 15 wells drilled???? What did they find. AT least they should have some core samples and other samples, so that gives them a leg up. Another question to ask.
Another point is the depth, which the article indicates 8000 to 12000'. I have seen that 8000' seems to be popular in K-Stan. That can take a while to drill, around a month or so. Depends of the amount of rock and it;'s make up. Real hard rock takes longer. Ask if you can what they anticipate the average daily penetration rate will be. Ex: At 100' per day and TD (Total Depth) of 12000' that around 120 days. |
