The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
Albie,
If I may so impertinent to say so, you're mentioning points which I've been banging on about for months ! But no problem, and they remain worth repeating.
On the one hand, we have people like BP and Shell proclaiming Hurricane's acreage to be worthless and some sort of pipedream, but on the other, we see them leasing all surrounding acreage.
We see Lincoln producing under test at around 8000 bopd, yet OGA is saying it must be abandoned, even though the equipment to tie it back to the FPSO has already been purchased.
We see all the acreage up to and including Halifax being relinquished without any reason for that being given whatsoever.
We also see (maybe most importantly) on the one hand the BoD saying that the company will become insolvent due to low production, but at the same time saying that production could continue (thereby avoiding insolvency) providing that their 'refinancincing' scheme is approved, essentially cutting shareholders out of the picture.
It's all a very, very wrong state of affairs. I'm not a lawyer, but to me it all sounds close to criminal fraud. There are just too many contradictions, turnarounds, and inconsitencies.
Technically, either 'Fractured Basement Reservoir' West of Shetland works, and can produce in commercial quantities, or it doesn't. And it is proved that it does work, otherwise how come the Aoka Mizu is filling its tanks at about 10,500 barrels of oil, right now ?
Plus that boat won't be going anywhere else, ultimately, other than the scrapyard or some really cheap kind of storage-harbour. Bluewater might have re-advertised her, but whoever takes up such a new charter, it'll be in the same place as she is, producing from the same field.
It all stinks of a calculated conspiracy.
senseman,
"peeps pass the buck expecting others to do the grunt work"
Yeah. 'cos that's what 'the others' (making lots of money) are paid to do, and making (not insiderable) amounts of money from.
Put up or get out. Time to show your mettle.
What I liked was towards the end, when CA's QC brought the timings to the judge's attention, saying that if the restructuring were to be sanctioned, CA and maybe a 'consortium' of shareholders would appeal against such a ruling, which could possibly compromise both the AGM and EGM dates, but thus put the company in default of company law.
That was very smart and shrewd'
The judge is obviously a very smart man, now very much up to speed with the whole thing which is some ways quite a 'test case'. So he'll want time to deliberate over the whole affair.
One thing which has surprised me throughout is that nobody has asked for the entire composition of the 'ad-hoc committee' to be revealed, nor the legality of the BoD making decisions in consultation with such a 'committee' without reverting to shareholders saying that such discussions were in progress.
But I guess that covering every inch of ground now trampled over is almost impossible.
I suspect there is probably a very heated telephone call in progress between Dr Trice's lawyer and the editor right now ! :-))
That is downright impossible, and absurdly shoddy journalism. For million, I suspect read thousand.
Cebo,
"not sure this is correct, the terms of the license will dictate when the have to drill and both BP and Shell can and do sit on licences for years before drilling them or handing them back."
Obviously, I do not know the exact licence terms. But 'normally' it should be within two years. But with 'covid' that may have changed.
Earlier today I wrote this:
"I'm not even going to bother reading the company's latest 'report'. "
But nevertheless, like a fearless cat, decided to take a peek at it.
Amazed. Though just gave up after the first few pages. The hubris of this BoD is just staggering. The money and time putting together such a document must in itself have been huge. These people are not 'oilpeople' at all, instead take themselves for Shakespeare. But somehow, seem to expect the people who've paid to come in and finance the theatre to believe the show is 'real'.
From the little I read, I was shocked. But (continuing the theatre analogy) the message balatant and obvious.
In the background, there is some sort of consortium who wish to take the whole thing over at the cheapest possible price. Completely bulldozing over those who set it up to start with.
Why, a couple of years ago, did Shell and BP during the last licencing round, buy up the leases surrounding Lancaster, if it's so worthless? It might also be a question to ask OGA is why neither of those companies have not yet drilled on those blocks, when normally they should have done so.
Oh yeah. 'Covid'. Go tell it to the Marines.
Talk about grasping at straws. I'm not even going to bother reading the company's latest 'report'. Too little, too late. You boys and girls are going to be chucked out of the door for your cretinous attempts to sell the company at ten cents on the dollar to your old buddies and thinking that nobody would notice.
Wow! At last, Questioms being raised about the whys regarding the Lincoln P&A, OGA's involvment, and so on. That judge is a sharp cookie and onto the case.
British,
"There is no urgency for restructuring except the Bod and Bondholders painting all doom and gloom. This is an important factor in the whole scheme of things. If the judge delays the restructuring by 6 months and suggests he wants to see data after 6 months, this can change the entire picture."
In principle, I agree with what you say. But in practice, things are more difficult. I very much doubt that the honorable judge will be looking closely at any technical data coming from Lancaster, nor the pros and cons of the Lincoln P&A, nor anything like that. Not his mandate, and also he has no doubt plenty of other fish to fry. Instead (I think) he will be looking at the legality and justification for this 'restructuring', its timing, and also that the company has spent (wasted) 17 million in setting it up while claiming they're broke (if that figure is true), and the total lack of discussion with shareholders. Up until now, when we're getting bombarded with stupid trivia via RNS about an ESP going offline for five days, and stuff like that.
What I DO hope the judge will appreciate (in the hope he's dealt with other 'O&G' cases) is that actual technical data can be manipulated like crazy by the company itself. In either direction. Remember that bit in the RNS about 'restricted' production from well 6 of 11,000 bopd now the ESP is running again? Hey, they can 'restrict' it down to 6000. Just takes a push of a button and the adjustment of a few valves, and some phone-calls with BP to discuss how often tanker offload frequency seems to be 'right'. And drinks in the pub afterwards.
And there's absolutely nothing we can do about such shenennigans.
Locheelad,
"Wonder what odds you would get on Trice putting in an appearance at the hearing but more to the point whose side would he be speaking on behalf of. My money would be on CA."
Further thought...
Why would Dr Trice, assuming he has held his complete shareholding, speak 'on behalf ' of anyone else (particularly CA), rather than himself as a significant private shareholder, with probably more technical knowledge of the assets than anyone else?
Locheelad,
"Wonder what odds you would get on Trice putting in an appearance at the hearing "
About a million-to-one against.
Care to take a wager? My one quid versus your million ?
hasiba,
"I hope the court at least will be adjourned the hearing until after the EGM Voting on 5/7/2021.."
I see no rhyme nor reason why that should happen.
I that His Honorable Judge may listen to reasons for further hearings to be possibly postponed until a later date, until further evidence is presented AS TO HOW THAT MAY BE JUSTIFED, and why.
However a court cannot be summarily 'adjourned' just like that, otherwise.
Reasons and explanations have to be submitted to the court for 'postponing things'. Sure, following such submississions, the judge may rule upon them, pretty much instantaneously, presenting his reasoning why. But the hearing is already on the schedule and thus has to take place, no matter how brief it may be.
Shekar,
"I think it is good RNS as it addresses the steps taken to reduce greenhouse emissions."
It does nothing of the sort. All it does is give the company OGA approval to 'pull' on the well a bit harder, creating a localised 'gas-cap', which (maybe, possibly) might help drive yet more oil towards the wellbore, short-term. The odd thing is that it's in complete contradiction to this madcap idea of drilling a water-injection well.
Please don't let this dubious BoD pull the wool over your eyes with so-called 'technical talk'. Their motives are now patently tranparent. They want to sell the company at ten cents on the dollar to their erstwhile buddies, and no doubt get a big back-hander for doing so.
senseman,
"The ERCE CPR is fiction. "
Exactly.
It's true that field performance has not worked to expectations previously proposed by the company and supported by RPS in earlier CPR's, but that's the way it goes. Can't win 'em all. But for any CPR to provide any credibility, the company should have taken any 'revised data' back to the same people, for their advised and maybe modified opinions. Not to someone completely new.
If Hurricane had provided a new, maybe 'downgraded' CPR from RPS, I'd probably have had to grit my teeth and accept it. But this one, I don't, especially as it seems to squirm around assorted tech issues without actually explaining why.
The OGA is, I think, complicit in this scam, and requires investigation as well. The requirement for P&A of Lincoln seems ridiculous to me, especially as the equipment to do so has already been purchased, and also the talk about a 20psi drop in pressure 'noticed' by gauges left in the Lincoln well being attributed to drawdown from Lancaster is absurd, also. Either the Bynhyld Fault exists, or it doesn't. Plus (although the two fields may share a common aquifer-drive is plausible, though they're at different depths), suggesting a 'linear' differential pressure is laughable.
The BoD just want to sell the whole lot to BP / Shell / Harbour, cut out the shareholders, and no doubt go home with a nice big bonus in their pockets.
"I expected costs to top out at circa $10 million. A $17 million figure is astonishing.
It is worse than astonishing. It is shocking, and a blatant waste of shareholders' investment money (against their wishes or at least without any advice) to try and finance what seems to be a fraudulent ongoing criminal act here.
Hurricane was once a good company. It now seems to have been been taken over by a bunch of crooks.
All current messages are interesting. And I admire all efforts by significant PI shareholders to 'move' things.
I was an 'LTH', then reduced, but nevertheless am 'back in'. for a while now. For the simple reason that I wouldn't feel it honest as 'a shareholder' to write here were I not one.
I know it's someting I've written about here before, but it's a thing I strongly suspect. That 'stronger powers' are simply though their recent moves trying to 'backshelf' Hurricane and whatever assets the current chose to retain, for a future takeover at rock-bottom price, through BoD connivance or (dare one say it?) outright conspiracy to fraud?
The latest CPR carries no technical legs , and the 'Annual Report' is so full of holes it should sink like a brick.
Maestros (et al)
Pure rumour.
Dr Trice, founder of the company, had belief in his company and his theories, which continue to hold, given ongoing production via the FPSO and offloads being done and sold to market on a regular basis via BP.
I have no idea about Dr Trice's financial status, but suspect he is not an unwealthy man. So it would seem to me illogical that he would have sold his own shares in the company he formed, for a pittance, unless having been in some way coerceced or forced to do so as terms of his so-called 'resignation' as CEO. Should that have been the case, it should be investigated by the relevent authorities.
Adrianuk,
"According to simply.wall. If Trice had shares, he would probably vote against the corrupt scheme."
So maybe he will.