Good point MTO - but having worked in the industry myself for the better part of my career with the large publically traded oil Companies, I can think back to several instances where dry holes were not reported in the manner you suggest, and I can also recall at least one instance where a blowout resulting in loss of an offshore production platform was not reported either (but it was reported to the appropriate government authorities in SE Asia per established regulatory reporting requirements established by the host government [that was a gas well that burped up quantities of natural gas for a while until the formation bridged and sealed itself off later, but fortunately this did not result in any injuries or adverse environmental impacts - simply a property loss resulting in loss of capital that was deemed non-material per US SEC rules). But in each case I am referring to the point was that such instances were deemed to be non-material events for the organization; it doesn't mean they failed to learn anything from them, nor was there any attempt to sidestep proper corrective actions. They were not intended to deceive anyone - the events simply were not material enough to report and thus not worth mentioning. Of course it's important to put this all in the proper context. The large publically traded oil companies have massive capital budgets to invest in their exploration programs and they often spread the risk by sharing it with other companies (such as through farm ins) and it is expected that not every well drilled will result in a discovery (you've alluded to this many times when describing the odds of finding oil) - in the exploration game it's risk capital pure and simple. They put shareholders capital at risk every time they drill a well and are typically very selective on where and how they drill as they make every attempt to pick the best prospects in order to assure success. Now having said all this, I don't think that way you expressed your point is entirely incorrect, while your challenge was to name an instance where an oil company did not report such an event, I get the sense that the real point you were trying to drive home was that in this particular case regardless of the outcome - dry hole or commercial oil find - either end result WOULD be material to this Company and thus reportable. It's all a matter of looking at things in the proper context. Let's face it, while this IS a publically traded oil company it is certainly NOT one of the majors with the capital budgets in the multiple billions of dollars, so at the end of the day their is no escaping the need to report either outcome as either one would be significant.
