Email from David10 Jan 2018 09:13
Thank you for your email.
With respect to the licence, the process is very advanced, albeit that as ever in the Congo the exact date for the award is always “in a couple of days”, but we are in daily contact with them and will announce to the market as soon as the process is complete.
Our preferred rig is nearing the end of its current job for one of the majors, albeit have taken time to stop operations and make amendments and upgrades to the rig during drilling (all good for us, and one of the real benefits of taking a rig that has been shaken down by a major) so it still has some weeks to go. We will contract for the rig as soon as we can - terms are agreed and we just need to know for certain that (as we have been assured) the major does not want to keep the rig. In the event that it does, we will contract with one of our back up options. As above, we will update the market as soon as we can.
Kind regards,
David Sefton