RE: Schlumberger13 Sep 2020 10:26
With regards to Beverly Smith and the new BOD contrarian view.
I think it’s very difficult to judge someone’s characteristics and competence from the short presentation/Q&A session yesterday and little else that is in the public domain about her. Having said that, I will concur with a Slift that I don’t believe that she is CEO or senior leadership material. She seemed very nervous during the 0900 presentation; you could hear her voice quivering initially but she did become more confident as that session went on and was better during the afternoon session. She seemed very uncomfortable delivering the new contrarian message that Hurricane’s real value (its reserves and resources) are, by the new teams (Beverley and the new hires etc) own analysis and conclusions, being downgraded to 10% of all other preceding analysis and conclusions made by previous teams (Trice and co) analysis and conclusions. Her new team has been working tirelessly (long days and weekend’s) to fast track the new analysis and she is now ‘comfortable’ with their conclusions. She stated that the sandstone play had already been included in the new estimates and that oil was already been captured from this arena.
I also concur with adoubleuk in that her initial reason for joining the HUR BOD was to offer an alternative viewpoint and voice to the established team of Trice and co. Probably because deep down ‘stakeholders’ were extremely suspicious that Trice and co were concealing HUR real position. No doubt they clashed almost immediately when Beverly and the new hires started to question the existing entrenched HUR philosophy. This confrontation did not last long because within circa 6 months, Trice was out and Bev was in. Roll on another 6 months and the new HUR position has now been communicated.
She did state that it is notoriously difficult to analyse and interpret the data and that was the reason why previous ‘competent’ analysis had interpreted the data so drastically different. She was trying not to stab Trice and co. in the back and besmirch the previous and existing regime (I think Bev is an academic rather than business orientated) when she made this statement. I’m guessing behind closed doors and during her initial interactions with Trice and co that she must have been flabbergasted at their level of either incompetence or fraudulent (academics would say not rigorous) analysis.
In conclusion, I think there is no reason to question Beverly and the new hires analysis. You wouldn’t make such a dramatically contrarian conclusion if you were not confident that you were 90% correct. A principle Trice and co should have implemented. I think HUR is now predominantly an exploration company that has some value in its limited opportunities for further exploration in its WOS asset base. Secondary to that they have an existing, challenging, production operation that is finite (6 - 24 Mths) but could support OPEX, CAPEX, capital raising and debt consolidation.
Sign In
Follow the stocks
