Gordon Stein, CFO of CleanTech Lithium, explains why CTL acquired the 23 Laguna Verde licenses. Watch the video here.
I suspect the initial dip may have just been sell orders put in over the weekend in hope of a quick profit.
schlemeil,
"I can't recall where I read this but Hurricane is known as one of the 'most reliable producers' (in terms of quantity, time and quality) in the North Sea."
I'm sorry if this seems prissy and pedantic.
The Lancester field is not in the North Sea. It's West of Shetland. Also, many (if not most) remaining N.Sea 'producers' are doing so by pipeline, so it's a rather apples / oranges comparison.
Now, I'm totally lost. The story has got alltime crazy, Think I'll join an online poker-game instead.
schlemiel,
"Linkedin does confirm PC left HUR early August to immediately join Jadestone "
Sorry, mate, but a 'Linkedin profile' confirms nothing, and is proof of nothing. 'Linkedin' is just as sort of Facebook hiding behind a kind of 'professional' mask. And just as dangerous.
Btw,
Mr Corbett is not listed as part of the 'team' on the Jadestone Energy website.
Reflection,
If that's so, it's good news. Judging by PMs with other people here he was a person not to be trusted, simply toeing a line being constructed by some people whose sole idea was to derail the train and make off with the contents of the baggage-car, and the heck with the fate of the passengers.
I guess it's too much to hope for that the man is hanging his head in shame for having become a spokesperson for a bunch of shysters, but he might consider it. Being connected to a group who had their 17-million case (at shareholders' expense) summarily and rapidly thrown out of court by a High Court judge isn't something I'd like on my CV.
I wonder where the other 'resigned directors' have gone ?
haggis,
"If investor trust is be restored in the company then Phil Corbett must go."
I suspect he's currently 'on holiday', but his removal, along with that of a number of staff aligned with the crooked 'past BoD' may not be a long time coming. The only reason that people like he, along with Marris and Chaffe, have been kept on, is to properly inspect the books and discover the true ins-and-outs of their wicked conspiracy.
Cebo,
"There is no doubt in my opinion that Robert Trice got a lot of things wrong (more during the drilling than anything else)"
I have to (unfortunately) agree with you there. But geologists are geologists, and drillers are drillers. The 7z sidetrack was drilled in a very shoddy way, whereas 6 was brilliant. QED. Dr Trice (despite his far-too-frequent) presence on the rig, completely lost the plot on that. And also, I believe (typical geologist) put far too much trust in Schlumberger's interpretations of wireline logs (wireline logs are the darlings of geologists) allowed far too much time and money to be taken up by them with the 'pilot hole' (especially MDT which was almost guaranteed not to get a good result), and got carried away on a false 'confirmation bias' track.
All easy to say with 20 / 20 hindsight.
But the point is, Lancaster 6 is still an absolute stonker of a well. Drill another like that, don't let Petrofac / Schlumberger / Transocean get sloppy, and we're back properly in business. And forget this water injection well nonsense.
mapp,
"Bartlebottom, take it easy and both of you bear and bull have a nice weekend."
I filtered 'bartlebottom' ages ago. He might even be Malcy,
fandg2,
"Lots of things don't get sanctioned by shareholders as 'we' expect the bod to have our best interests at heart. But, you're right about the 17 million as that didn't have our best interests at heart by any stretch of any imagination."
Yes, exactly. I agree that not every 'board decision' has to go through shareholder reviewal, but this thing was scandalous. 17 million gone.
"It will be also be 'interesting' if Hur come up short in paying the bonds by any figure less that that 17 mil."
I think that's doubtful, because just water under the bridge, now. Because there are more interesting things to look at. Like who, exactly, is / was this 'ad-hoc group' ? A person turned up at the court hearing claiming to 'represent' them. Name known. But an anaonymous 'ad-hoc group' , without naming themselves could be anybody. Or just one single, large, bondholder, wishing to take over the company for peanuts and driving out the shareholders?
And 17 million of company money to put the scam together? Looking at his utterly pitiful perfomance during the hearings, I doubt that the company's QC earns more than half a million a year. I wouldn't hire him to defend a case if my cat had been run over.
Where, and to whom, has that money gone?
I hope that the two new directors will be looking closely at this, though when the others resigned, the paper-shredders must have been working fulltime.
fandg2
"FWIW I don't think they were trying to get anything past the judge. Think they got caught between a rock (the bond holders) and a hard place (no spare money to do anything) but were 'using' the courts to pat the ball back to the bondholders. PoO and CA EGM caught the BOD out so they needed to walk in the end."
Maybe. But the whole exercise cost 17 million. None of which was sanctioned by shareholders.
Albie,
A good synopsis.
What still amazes me is that the 'conspirators' actually believed they could run such a scam past a high court judge and expect to obtain a favourable ruling.
DC,
" Any thoughts on the possibility of the new chairman issuing a revised appraisal within the next month or two?"
I feel that unlikely. Most announcements are made under the aegis of the CEO, with maybe the Chairman adding a comment. And like it or not, we still have Maris as CEO and Chaffe as CFO. Though this may be a cunning strategy built up by CA and others, to leave those two twirling in the breeze for a bit, before 'fessing up to what they've been up to, and before being summarily sacked.
A lot of things have yet to be explained. Not just Dr Trice's so-called 'resignation' (which personally I do not believe was such) but now more interestingly, the 'mass resignation' of assorted ex-board members, no doubt to cover their own tracks in what was an obvious scam.
Whomval,
"Another day down, we are already at 25% of the maximum that we marked a few weeks ago. "
Who's 'we', Tonto ?
Mirasol,
You've just gone shot yourself in the foot.
"You forget there is nor production history over that period with water breakthrough. Plug that data into a reservoir model and a lot of the oil thought to be there is actually water"
Piffle and utter nonsense. Nobody has 'mistaken water for oil' or vice-versa. Despite much debate on the subject, it would be utterly foolish of me to deny that 'watercut' is posing a bit of a problem, though not necessarily one that can't be overcome. Though I would suggest that a 'water-injector well' as proposed by the ex-BoD would exacerbate that problem, not help it. As Mr Maris ought to know from his past FB experiences in the Far East.
OK, maybe the OWC aquifer-drive is shallower than previously thought. But the oil is still there. The tricky thing is now maybe modify previous plans as to how best to extract it. Because wind-farms or no wind-farms, oil will still be needed, as a marketable commodity.
littlened,
"Why have Kerogen kept their large holding throughout the huge share price decline and reconstruction debacle ?"
No easy answer to that, but one may be 'why not?'. Kerogen are not smalltime daytraders. When they did their 'big sell', they essentially recouped their initial investment. And also, until the 'resignation' of their representatives on the BoD, they were (still are?) privvy to information that we don't know, and quite probably others like CA don't know, either.
Also, there may be a slight element of 'saving face' involved. Kerogen made their initial investment citing assorted 'honourable' reasons for doing so. Admitting to having possibly made a mistake is not the 'Chinese way'.
It's all very well CA 'taking the reins' as seems to be the case at the moment, but Kerogen remains a very significant shareholder company, with far more financial (and maybe political) clout behind them than CA could ever hope for.
Personally I like the way things have turned out of late. Doesn't mean I trust the key financial players any more than I used to, though.
picsmaister,
"I am certainly no expert but I guess it could have been a win - win for them if they are a large bondholder. "
Kerogen have denied holding bonds. However, that's not to say they may be, but via proxies.
“How is it possible that an independent assessment carried out in 2017 is able to produce in place volumes for Halifax amounting to 5,143 MMstb (best estimate), up to 9,043 MMstb as a High case, when only a few years later, without any more wells having been drilled on the discovery, its volumes essentially disappear from the radar?”
That's easy to answer. The 'bad bears' BoD announced via RNS their intention to relinquish all the 'northern territories' (including Halifax) licence. That's a staggering 35km-long block, all the way up the Rona Ridge. Halifax has been P&A'd, so it's very possible that such an underhand move has already been done. At which point it reverts to the State (or their lackeys in OGA, so may be re-offered for lease in the next licencing round. And I'm willing to bet my shirt that there will be a bidder.
Essentially, the company just wiped Halifax off their books, for no good reason. I don't know how much that lease was costing, but for sure, orders of magnitude less than the 17 million paid in legal fees in an attempt to get rid of the shareholders.
FatSam82,
"No idea on timing, and a week or two is possibly too optimistic even for a much improved HUR BoD "
Quite agree. There may have been significant changes in the BoD, but that notwithstanding, and for some eldritch reason, Maris remains CEO, and Chaffe CFO. I suspect CA's two new appointed directors (one of whom 'interim chairman') will be going back over past stuff, and won't announce anything 'new' until the correct time. As for a new CPR, I doubt we'll see one for months, unless malfeasance or bias can be seen to have been done regarding the conclusions made in the last one, which is not however impossible, either. Otherwise it'll all become some sort of p**sing-contest.
DC,
"But was there corruption in the form of a deal to hand the Company to the bondholders as the expense of the shareholders?"
Personally, yes, I believe so. Which is why I think the whole thing should be investigated by the SFO, not the FCA.