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If we had stayed partnered with Pioneer or Noble we'd not see drilling for a couple more years. They've made the JDZ top priority for exploration. Noble or Pioneer never would have.
Wrong.
I have been told they are still in discussions on the ROO mentioned by them a few weeks ago. If they are playing hardball on the price, remember that every dollar saved means more in our pockets as well (less costs to repay from production). This is annoying to us as we'd like a rig now at any price, but so be it. Gandur is no fool. He wants to build reserves and that means drill.
Addax will drill first.
I didn't say it was signed. I'm sure if it was they would announce.
Happily, and with all due respect, I know your opinions to be incorrect.
The good thing is that Addax funds exploration expenses from cash flow rather than credit and use a low oil price for their economics. So recent credit woes should have no effect on their exploration plans for the JDZ. Regardless that their credit lines are still fully available, the ROO will not hinge on such things. Probably just i-dotting and t-crossing remain.
Addax is still working on the ROO mentioned at the conferences. I dont expect them to fail.
Addax won't lose the rig. Right now, however, anything liquid is being sold to raise cash. The market in ERHC and indeed overall makes no sense, so it's useless trying to apply traditional metrics to it. Watch, wait, take notes and profit the next time the market does this.
I would not often say this but the failure of the US Congress to propose a bill that could pass the house and the resultant market meltdown is creating an opportunity on many stocks that wont be seen again. The US has to act as the clearing house and allow liquidity to resume between banks. How they do it should allow the market to work and punish those who were foolish.
All the while ERHC gets caught in the downdraft with no change (besides the oil price, which we are not really levered to anyway)in fundamentals. Dare I say a buying opp?
EEL has stated they are attempting to monetize assets. Obviously they have not received an adequate bid. So the only way to get them is through administration. I can't remember, but I think they require payment of the proportion of the sig bonus. Therefore, they really are not worth a whole lot, especially since there is no time frame for the licensing round. The way the Sao Tomeans run things, you might be buying the options and may not get to exercise them for years. European options with an undefined expiry date are not that valuable.
Merging with EEL would eat all of our cash. EEL has contingent liabilities of at least $50mm. No thanks. We should consider buying their rights in the EEZ, though. I bet EEL would be asking too much, however. Buy it out of administration (the UK term for bankruptcy) when they go there.
Note how the bid/offer spread has widened out here. On a day like today with good volume and lots of chatter it would normally be quite narrow. Often you'll have seen that the brokers bidding were the same as brokers offering...not now.
It doesn't matter. What matters is who, what the plans are and that we get to maintain our ownership.
OTCBB stcks were never subjust to the uptick rule. Basically that rule said that a short sale had to be done at a price higher than the last sale price. But if the last sale price was a price higher than the previous sale, then you can sell at that price or higher. You cant sell at a price lower.
Scwab should give you the profit if they bot you in and made money. You took the risk. The obviously let you short and couldnt make delivery and then keep the profit. Criminal.
Only if they have real long sale orders or can borrow the stock.
We are leveraged to a rig. The short sale thing is icing and will help us realize value.
There is another side to the coin, however. A person or market maker who is short is a natural buyer. Since he can no longer be short (ERHC is not borrowable), he is not a buyer at a reasonable price when someone comes in with a large long sale order. We may get more violent price moves on the downside, but I'll take my chances.
Effective immediately! Our spike is more to do with the ROO and block prospectivity comments from Addax. But this cant hurt.
SEC closes door on naked short selling. Not even market makers are exempt now. Penalties for not settling sales by T+3 and fraud charges for consistent abusers. No more playing around by clever shoirts using market makers as fronts for activity.
AIG is the worry at the moment. The amounts owing to banks and hedge funds by AIG on CDS's and the collateral they must post will banckrupt them. This will be a tsunami through the financial markets as the writedowns will be immediate and severe. There will be a calm thereafter as the pieces are picked up, blame is assigned and the system is strengthened
On the bright side for us as ERHC shareholders; our beta to the S&P is nearly zero, we are leveraged to a rig now or later, high oil prices are nice but we make loads at $30 as well.
Hold on, watch and, most of all, LEARN from this.
We have a larger market cap than Lehman's $145mm...and certainly better assets.
Including ERHC employees and management.
Absolutely right. ERHC has more resources to fight than Sao Tome.
You have no idea what you are talking about and the questions you ask prove it. You and your Brooklyn Attitude have no place on this board.
Agree on both counts. The quality of the bidder is directlly related to the quality of the block. 5 & 6 got no one of consequence to bid. We'll fight to keep them because they may tunr out to be something and it sets a bad precedent if we don't.
In these markets where junior exploration companies are being ignored by potential investors looking to reduce risk and whose shares are being sold indiscriminately by current investors covering losses and margin calls, you are not wrong.
I haven't looked at the recent laws. I was referring to the rules of the last bid round. Prior to that there were no local content rules that I was aware of.
I am not saying he's dumb, because he's not. But, he doesn't believe that owning less of a public company gives more value than owning all of a private company or that a public company provides him greater liquidity. He does not think he should have to share his successes he creates for a public company with other shareholders who did nothing to create the value.
Most of us who understand the capital markets know that the opposite is true and that a very successful public company is a partnership between the entrepreneur, investors and good management.
Yes.
With due respect to Offor's abilities in Nigeria, he does not understand the basics of the capital markets nor does he trust them. He does not trust that the market will give him more value for 43% of an asset than if he held 100% privately. That's just the way he is.
The Local Content rules aren't applicable here. They are applicable on block awards and were meant to give underfunded local companies 10% of blocks thus allowing them to become engaged in the process of exploration and development of the block.
I would like comment on this assumption on how ROO's become available and for how long.
We know that all deepwater rigs are contracted for some years to come. Therefore, an ROO becomes available when the current company who has the rig is either finished their drilling program and their time contract is not finished, or they are done one well and not ready to drill the next. Either way, the company has an incentive, especially now that rigs are in such high demand, to drill fast, free up the rig with enough time left in the contract period to sell the remaining time to someone else to lower its overall cost.
These rigs become available with little notice (a few weeks at most) and thus negotiations must be completed very quickly so the driller knows where its going and the acquiror can prepare.
The acquiror only has the rig for a period to the end of the original contract, at whcih time the rig moves on the the contracting party.
Does this make sense?
I think you're right. Being that there are a limited number of deepwater drillships in operation and that that the industry knows Addax and us are looking for one, that one of us would get a call on any rig that has a couple of months to spare. Surely Addax and ERHC would have an understanding on how to deal with such calls and each would have their call list of rig operators to call on a daily basis. I don't know for sure, but it would seem that rigs come available quickly as jobs done and others not ready. As such, they must be pounced on. I don't think any rig would be allowed to sit idle for too long.
I would think any furhter delay from the now confirmed time frames. Ledbetter did say that the ROO they would find would drill within a very short period of time after acquisition (presumably time it takes to transport to the site and supply for the drill) and then the AA would come on as scheduled to finish off and do additional drilling to confirm discoveries. He sounded certain of an ROO.
Ledbetter was so confident in acquiring a rig before the AA that he said: "We will find one." "We wont let the late arrival of the AA to delay drilling."
I am never going to disagree with a proactive approach to just about anything. There are a lot of things this company can do. Management has to have the balls to do them. Wasting time on conferecnes to get the next retail investor in is stupid. Fix the company and we'll take it from there. Investors invest in management - I'd rather invest in a mediocre project with great management than a great project with no management.
Done for the day...and for a while as I'm flying off to the west coast for some vino in Napa.
I agreed. See my post 131303. Netherland Sewell has all the data. Get it done.
I look forward to your solutions. Please dont say that we do nothing, because that's not your idea.
Regardless, here they are: 131303, 132095, 132233, 132284, 132567, 132887.
I did mess up. Appologies to all. Let me try again.
Sorry if I messed up. Hold on.
I got on my horse about Peter talking to potential investors about what to do. That statement really pissed me off.