I am a free subscriber, so I cann't private reply.
SOIGF - Interesting strategy, could be very successful. I would like to see an engineer somewhere in management, they are all geo-scientists and heavy oil is generally an engineering intensive process/project. It seems like a bit of a hole in their project team not to have a senior engineer on board.
Their strategy of acquiring heavy oil leases that could be produced without EOR sounds good, 5-10% recovery initially, at some point in the future, hit the reservoir with heat and get another 40%.
Don't know the reserves per well, so can't estimate capital costs per barrel. Operating costs in the play are low ($5-6/bbl) and credible, unfortunately, so is the oil price. Road tar only gets $20-$35/bbl. If it goes to an upgrader, they get the price improvement, that's why Encana teamed up with Conoco, to capture both profit opportunities.
So Strata has 106k acres, 29 million shares, 4/1000 acre per share. At $0.5/share, you are paying about $500/acre for heavy oil leases. Shell, if I did the math right, paid about $2000/acre for heavy oil leases last year.
I am not sufficiently familiar with the area to comment on the relative quality of the lands to Shell, but it seems to suggest Strata is reasonably priced if not cheap.
I'm not ready to buy in, but I will continue to watch and consider buying.
Thanks for the heads up.
Cy
