North West Oil Group, Inc. (NWOL)

[runningAllDry]

2) What is the "cusip" change and how long does that take to process?
What do you mean by "cusip" change?
The cusip is just an instruments id like the isin or symbol.

3) If the free trading shares are delayed from being released, can NWOL still somehow buyback their own shares? Would that help the share price?

Obviously there are shares available - otherwise there would be no trading. MMs might trade uncovered shares (shorting in a way) - which is fine to cover the market needs shortterm.
Maly of course can buy.

4) If short positions are forced to cover, how does that work and how high could that push the share price?

This question cant be answered. Increasing demand (created by short covering) will have to face the offer side. Usually higher demand than offer results in increasing prices until demand and offer are balanced. A move in pps could force more shorts to cover and create more buying pressure. This spiral is whats called short squeeze.
Anyway, i never would consider a short squeeze. The situation is far too intransparent.
We should focus on facts - a squeeze would just be the cheery on top.
This mostly