I'll start with a post which covers what everyone wants to hear and that is about drilling results in the JDZ. There were only about 25 people in the room. About 7 or 8 were from STP and about 7 or 8 were from PGS. That means there were only 10 people or so from oil companies. No press or anything from what I could tell. I really didn't know who was who at first and the STPers weren't mingling before the road show so I decided to wait and hear the presentation before I asked questions knowing we had one break, a question and answer period and lunch to follow. There were name tags but they didn't tell the name of the company or who they were with. That seemed a little odd to me but maybe it was for purposes of confidentiality. It didn't take too long to figure out who was who once people started to talk.
The opening address was by Prime Minister Branco and his only reference to the JDZ was that there were "hydrocarbon discoveries in the JDZ." I'll go over more of what he said about other things in another post.
The floor was then turned over to Mr. Prazeres. He did have one slide on the JDZ update but all he and the slide really said other than 5 wells were drilled was that there were "good reservoir sands charged with oil and natural gas" and that they were waiting for results.
The formal presentations produced no real fruit so it was time to try a little one on one during the breaks. I went over and introduced myself to Mr. Prazeras since I figured the PM might not know too many details. I told him I was a private investor who invested in several W African oil companies and that I was very interested in what had been discovered in the JDZ and when it would be announced. He told me that they found a lot of gas in Block 2 and oil in Blocks 3 and 4. I then asked when an official announcement would be made and whether an extension was given on making the decision to go to Phase 2. I really don't think he knew when but he did say several companies had asked for an extension. I never really got from him how long the extension was. There was a bit of a language barrier so I didn't want to press him too hard because I really wasn't too sure if he understood my questions.
I also sat with and talked to 2 lawyers from STP at lunch but really got nothing more from them. Bottom line is I didn't learn squat about what was going on in the JDZ. I was a little disappointed at that but I think I did learn something else. I honestly believe these guys don't know what is there. It wasn't like they were trying to hide anything, I just don't think they know. I'm sure they got the direct drilling results but in a complex field like this that is just the tip of the iceberg. I'm also now thinking the same may be true of ERHE. They have already said they aren't involved in the modeling so you have to wonder if they know anything besides direct results of the drilling either. My guess is they don't. I think I came away believing that more than ever. Whether SEO knows or not, I can't say. Whether he does or does not really doesn't matter because he ain't talking.
One other thing came up in my convesation with Prazeres. He said he thought Peter Ntephe would be there, but he wasn't. Since they opened the licensing round in London, I don't really know why PN would come to Houston to hear the same thing again.
All in all pretty uneventful on gaining info on the JDZ but there were some other interesting things about the EEZ presentation. I'll try to post some more about that later. One other thing, they did seem impressed about how much I knew about was going on in the JDZ, at Akpo and the Chevron/Total negotiations. I had some really interesting conversations and it was definitely worth the trip. The PGS notepad holder and pen along with breakfast kolaches and lunch made it worth it even if what I found out wasn't.
AI
