Business is business9 May 2019 08:50
If you were a dishonest company which Zen is definitely not. This is just a hypothetical tale. In fact it’s fiction. If you found, as an oil company you couldn’t cut the mustard, you were just no good at producing oil. You would have already done a deal with Iran to take oil from their pipe line in Neka, across the sea and straight into your jurisdiction, into the oil pipeline through Turkey and international markets, labelled “produced in Azerbaijan”. The first thing you need is an oil company with vast under producing assets about to be redeveloped. Next you get the biggest rig you can find and prospective oil field data to match. Invite investors before drilling to view the impressive site and huge equipment. The visitors report back to the world that sure as eggs are eggs the massive Rig will produce oil if they make a strike. However the timing is not right. The first shipment of Iranian oil has been delayed so the company has to come up with and excuse and delay the drill( oh dear we forgot to order the drilling oil).
The company begin to drill(very successfully as it happens). The Iranian oil tanker docks in Azerbaijan, pipes are connected, palms are greased. The company suddenly announces Oil strike!!!! Thousands of barrels a day flow through the pipeline to Turkey. The company is a success and the share price rockets to a billion market cap. Nobody dreams of questioning such a successful company. The tale ends with all the shareholders becoming multi millionaires as the shipments increase under US oil sanctions over Iran. The market cap reaches 10billion(a miracle).