There is convincing evidence that someone has been accumulating AIPN shares since a week ago last Thursday. Speculation has it that that investor has accumulated about 6 nillion shares. Further speculation has it that the investor is based in Abu Dhabi and is thoroughly familiar with the AIPN story.
Now why would some investor put about $15 million into AIPN if he didn't have some definite knowledge as to the company's potential? Many of us on this thread can speculate with 5,000 shares here and 10,000 shares there. But we are talking about someone buying 6 MILLION shares in the last 12 days!!! Is there anybody on this thread who seriously believes that that is dumb money talking? I, for one, doubt it.
Those who wish to dwell on the "pipeline" issue do not, in my opinion, understand this story. I am not concerned about when the pipelines will be ready. Why? It's simple. I don't expect AIPN to be around in the year 2003. The deals will be made long before then. Aipn will be bought out by one of the numerous major oil companies that are dying to get a large piece of the pie. Does AIPN own 70% of a large piece of the pie? Absolutely!!! Is that assertion based on the results of seismic data? Absolutely not! It is based on the perception that the Kazaks, having been insulted by the majors when they tried to partner for the development of this concession, decided to form a consortium that would ultimately give them a better deal. AIPN is the vehicle and, as I have said before, I doubt seriously that the Kazaks would have granted themselves a worthless concession.
Those of us who understand this story, understand that it doesn't have a script that is familiar to those who follow energy-related issues. This story is about a small oil company finding itself in the fortunate position of being the vehicle for the development of what might be the most valuable field in Kazakhstan. It is allied with Kazak partners with close ties to the government and those partners have chosen to tie their fortunes to AIPN's success through equity ownership of part of the company.
To not buy into this story one would have to assume that the former director of the Ministry of Oil who heads a company partnered with AIPN, the brother of the President of Kazakhstan who is reportedly the Honorary Chairman of the consortium, the guy who invested $15 million in AIPN last week, the newly hired Wooddy who was the General Manager of Chevron's Tengiz field, the Denver company that was just hired to do seismic testing, etc. constitute the "dumb money" in this venture. If anyone believes that, I've got this bridge...
Cheers...Faris
PS Taxikid, where is our friend who went to Almaty last week? Did you pick him up at the airport? Why hasn't he posted? |
