Literal translations of everything you hear about the JDZ, ERHC or anything else in this world should be avoided. People say things all the time. Very few are accurate or come true. And if ERHC does not prove that, nothing will. No one is held accountable anymore for what they say or what they do so people say and do whatever they want. Ntephe and Keeney are prime examples of that.
I myself, find it strange that a new PSC would be signed for block 5 at the same time ERHC is warning us that SNP could decide to pull out of 2, 3 or 4? Does anyone else think this is strange timing?
Thanks for your note. Mr. Ntephe asked that I respond and emphasize the following points:
1. The wells did not find oil; it is that simple. We can dig up all the pre-drill talk we like and estimates and all but the reality, post-drill, is that we haven't found oil.
2. No one, not even Jeff Schrull, can tell whether there's oil before drilling.
3. Mr. Schrull was clearly talking about 'chances' etc. According to the information in the link you sent (which we can’t verify), he even notes that the exploration team considered the likelihood of finding oil in Kina was 35 to 40 percent. Even in the very boisterous, "talk-it-up" environment of whatever forum that was, could not talk about 100 percent chance of finding oil.
4. If you choose not to believe ERHC and its expert technical team, you may wish to do your own independent research on the statistics for well failure in frontier deepwater provinces, whatever the pre-drill seismic shows.
5. It is a disappointment to everyone involved but Jeff did run that drilling program and left only after the drilling was completed so the idea that someone else might have dropped the ball is wrong.