Discussion with Dale .....
I had a chat with Dale a few days ago about SNV. General discussions were as follows:
1) Drilling
- As we know, the preferred driller has asked a number of questions about the provincial permits & approvals that Sonoro has obtained. The preferred driller does a lot of work for the majors in Iraq and they are trying to avoid falling out of favor with the federal government.
- In order to avoid having all eggs in one basket, Sonoro has been discussing the drilling contract with another drilling contractor in order to have a back up plan.
2) Permits & Approvals
- The land use permit for the civil works (i.e. roads, etc.) apparently has not been issued.
3) Farm In
- Sonoro was working through an agreement with a third party for a farm in deal, but, unfortunately it did not result in an agreement.
- Sonoro is now working with an intermediary to solicit bids for a farm in agreement. Their estimate is 3 months (staring now-ish) to go through the process, get bids, and negotiate an agreement with the preferred proponent.
4) Post Drilling
- Assuming a farm in deal is done, and the exploration wells find oil, then the wells will be used to produce oil for revenue. Having said that, the produced oil will be sold at a big discount because it is heavy and because it will be trucked.
- The topping facility needs to be in place and operational in 12 months according to the development permit with the province. It takes about 12 months from purchase to installation & commissioning. So, they need to buy it now - but there is no money at the moment.
- With respect to the topping facility, Dale tells me that the province is on side with Sonoro and that an extension to the timeline can be obtained without any problems.
Well, that is all i have for now. I really find the cone of silence around Sonoro quite frustrating. They could be putting out news releases to at least tell us what is going on.
Anyways, sounds like this is still a risky adventure.
