To: ms.smartest.person who wrote (2542 ) 5/29/2007 8:32:51 PM From: ms.smartest.person Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 3198 ₪ David Pescod's Late Edition May 29, 2007 PETROFALCON CORP. (T-PFC) $0.70 +0.01CRYSTALLEX INTL. (T-KRY) $4.65 -0.36 The chart to the left is that of Petrofalcon, an oil and gas junior that we wrote up several times a few years ago and as the chart tells you, it was having a great time...for a while. Experienced management that had previously built a significant oil and gas company were at it again and with a fairly decent master plan, things were going well… Then Hugo Chavez of Venezuela changed the rules for oil companies in the country and has been changing them with regularity ever since. What’s left for the oil and gas companies in Venezuela is less and less all the time and this chart of Petrofalcon, a former success story, displays what’s going on in that country. Meanwhile, Chavez is not just content anymore to take over oil and gas companies, but all of a sudden, utilities and other public companies are on his take-over list and now he’s even decided to shut down television stations, particularly popular ones that might actually not worship at his feet. Which gets us to Crystallex Intl. According to the Dow Jones Newswires today, “Venezuela’s mining ministry plans to turn over a new mining law to President Hugo Chavez for approval in two weeks, a minister said Monday.” “We are putting the final touches on it based on three proposals we have on hand”, Mining Minister Jose Khan told Dow Jones Newswires in a telephone interview. The article mentions that the “pro-Chavez congress unanimously gave the president special presidential powers early in the year so he can create laws for a year and a half without consulting congress.” “Under the new mining law, Khan said the figure of the mining concession will end because it has a history of giving holders a sense that they own the resources.” He also acknowledged that “the new law could follow in the footsteps of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, PdVSA, which converted oil deals into a mixed company framework.” There are those that suggest Chavez is going to be a nice guy and let Crystallex proceed in its current form and are buying the stock. We’ve had personal experiences that weren’t pleasant speculating in Venezuela, so we’ll take the other side...we are short Crystallex and it will be interesting to see what happens in two weeks.CDN. SUPERIOR ENERGY (T-SNG) $3.67 -0.22CGX ENERGY (V-OYL.U) $0.98 +0.09 Back at the COPIC conference where the oil and gas guys get together and tell their stories, there was some debate amongst who had the most leverage to some significant oil and gas plays out there. Mike Coolen of Canadian Superior Energy suggested that they had the best leverage with their plays offshore Trinidad in an area that has been very rewarding for natural gas exploration. Kerry Sully has suggested CGX Energy with their numerous hundred million barrel plus targets offshore Guyana had more leverage, but he told us later that Canadian Superior was worth a punt at the time and that’s why we’ve mentioned Canadian Superior from time to time. Finally some good news though for followers of Canadian Superior Energy, as their rig (after having spent almost six months being repaired) gets to Trinidad in less time than expected. It only took 18 days for the rig to move from Brownsville Texas to Trinidad where it is currently being supplied with pipe and other necessities for exploration before they go out for three large high-profile targets to be drilled. It always tough to get a handle on what kind of natural gas prices you are receiving in Trinidad, but Coolen points out to us that Trinidad is now the fourth or fifth biggest exporter of LNG in the world and he also suggests that they should be spudding their plays within the next 10 days.CORRIENTE RESOURCES (T-CTQ) $3.50 -0.30AURELIAN RESOURCES (T-ARU) $30.21 -0.82 Speaking of countries that are creating a little bit of nervousness about speculating there, Ecuador is another one that comes to mind. Lots of rumors in the press about the country grabbing bigger chunks of ownership in mining projects had many of the mining stocks hurt last Friday, but reports out of Reuters on Monday with headlines like “Ecuador Minister downplays State Mining Role Report” created a little bit of comfort and some stocks bounced back. Today we hear that Corriente Resources with their fairly advanced Mirador project has been advised by the Minister of Mines that proposed amendments to the companies previously approved environmental impact assessment, will require further study…Whatever that means… Corriente has requested a technical report from the Government outlining the areas of concern and will respond to the report in due course, the company has suggested and today, that’s not good news for Ecuadorianbased mining stocks.If you would like to receive the Late Edition, mail Debbie at debbie_lewis@canaccord.com