In case you forgot, ERHC initially had far more technically qualified partners in the JDZ every single one of whom walked away before drilling. I don't believe for a second that was just an unlucky coincidence. It was a choice ERHC made.
In fact, when Sinopec bought Addax that put a communist- Chinese government-controlled company in charge of all of ERHC's JDZ drilling. Unfortunately, Sinopec was a large company that is primarily a refiner and marketer with very limited deepwater offshore experience.
So yes, I do blame ERHC for chosing this partner and putting itself in this situation. If I am not mistaken King even posted an article where SNP admitted to being technically challenged in their JDZ efforts.
Bottom line is, using a single geological model from SNP resulted in an unprecedented 5 consecutive dry holes in the JDZ. Anyone who still believes that there is any commercial oil in the JDZ should be able to see clearly that SNP was technically incapable of finding it.
And the same goes for CEPSA. Their primary focus was not exploration either. They too are primarily a refiner and marketer. Anyone who still believes there is oil in block 11A in Kenya has to admit CEPSA was not the right partner to find it.
Bad choices have consequences. I was never a fan of either of these partners and I said so at the time. ERHC could have been lucky and found oil anyway. But they didn't.
Also, all partners have a say in where wells are drilled. ERHC probably didn't have much input because, as a company, they had zero exploration experience and did little to build internal technical experience that could contribute in a meaningful way to drilling decisions.
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