Member Info for Maldini1

Well... the weekend bb has predictably deteriorated into usual mud slinging..... must be 9.30pm on a Sunday evening. We’ll probably get to know something tangible one way or the other during the next week so everyone will be able to judge if they particular style of guesswork has been more or less accurate than someone else’s. Here’s waiting.

Roll on some real news for Pete’s sake. We’ve been playing the same old records now for months in vinyl form, mini disk, cd and digital. It would be a blessed relief to hear something new for a change and then we can all get on with our lives. I truly wish a positive finish for all Sound investors. We’ve shared the pain and anxieties of this share for longer than I care to remember and hopefully we are now very close to our day in the sun. As for the chancers and de-rampers who inhabit the board, well I won’t be losing too much sleep if they make a loss.

Post TE10 there might well be opportunities for further exploration, be it TE11, be it Sidi, or be it any other part of Eastern Morocco for that matter. However, first and foremost I want choice. Assuming a successful outcome from TE10, I want to be in a position where I’m finally able to monetise all or some of this very long held investment, at a profit..... and then decide whether or not some of the profit goes back into a new rollercoaster journey of exploration. However, a non-commercial TE10 and unfortunately that opens up another set of difficult considerations for every investor.

Until we get confirmation that TE11 won’t be drilled it must be reasonable to assume that it remains an option. To plagiarise Pink Floyd, the EIA is another brick in the wall. Less than successful results at TE10, leaves us with options to move forward to TE11, if necessary. A successful outcome at TE10 and any prospective buyer has one less thing to think about. Not sure if the EIA area extends to the boundary with Shell/Repsol but if it does then that wouldn’t be a bad thing either.

Folks, the key words for me in the RNS leave little room for doubt i.e. “The Company has secured hydrocarbon gas to surface...without stimulation”. Sounds pretty unambiguous and positive to me. Let’s see now how much we’ve got post stimulation.

Petroleumeng, if artificial lift has no relevance to gas why would it be mentioned in the RNS? Am I correct in thinking that many oil wells require artificial lift at some point in the life of the field, but that it could also be useful in gas wells to take off any liquids present in the formation so that gas can flow better ...if indeed any liquids are present?

Jus re-read RNS’ for TE9 and TE10 for no other reason than to reassure myself after all the waiting. It worked. The news flow for TE10 is still as compelling as it was back in Dec/Jan.

And Shell is not yet on the list.... but there could soon be a quick and easy way of of doing so.

Here’s a thought for Bazza. A non binding offer is just that.... an offer for consideration by a potential buyer. It’s standard straight forward business practice to tease out what might or might not acceptable to the seller so only a mug would go straight in with a binding offer. I suspect the local Porche garage will be ready and prepared.

In a quiet moment I was just wondering how many of the shares attributed to iis in the latest presentation might have been bought by O&G companies? It would certainly be a cheap way to build up a stake at current levels...all the way up to 29.99% of the company.

Daveyboy, with every 24 hrs that passes without news I think it’s inevitable that some people begin to see conspiracies everywhere. However I sense that the thing that gets to investors is the seemingly disproportionate sharing of risk between the board and shareholders. It’s the way of business of course that shareholders are totally exposed to the success or failure of a business in a very binary way, whilst the board is protected both ways, a significant salary each year which isn’t at risk in the event of failure and significant additional riches in the event of success. But we all know this at the outset and it only becomes an issue in the end if our punt goes wrong. Here’s hoping it doesn’t. Come in number 10.

I’m very conscious that people have an absolute right to feel angst at the seemingly glacial pace of progress at SOU especially those who are currently significantly down on their investment. But repeating the same lines over and over won’t change anything other than play into the hands of those who have a vested interest in dragging the share price down. Waiting is torture at the moment, but we’ll get to know one way or the other when there’s something to say. The very best to all.

MikeGP, no argument with any of the points you’ve set out and, as you say, many are in the public domaine. But I see no conflict between our respective thoughts. My expectation (and hope) is that everything that’s happening at the moment is being done within a controlled plan with the intention of maximising value and selling, I must assume therefore that there’s a lot of discussion and positioning going on behind closed doors to which we are not privvy, designed to extract the most money out of the pockets of a prospective buyer. Options of course give you more control in any negotiation and all my fingers are crossed that TE10 is the one and that TE11 becomes someone else’s future.

Morning Ddboy, do we know where the drilling rig is at the moment? Could it be that the coiled tubing was designed to free the drilling rig in readiness for TE11 either (a) as a negotiation point in sale discussions or (b) in order to mobilise it faster to TE11 if it became absolutely necessary?

Folks, here’s a thought for all genuine holders of SOU.... if it looked unlikely that TE10 was going to deliver the goods then it would have made sense for the GSA to have been done and dusted by now based on the volumes of the TE5 Horst. However it isn’t and I suspect it isn’t because of what SOU and Schlum believe they have at TE10, which may well necessitate a revised GSA. Moreover, whose to say that SOU haven’t been doing the rounds with iis over the past few weeks and that iis are now sufficiently convinced by our prospects to start buying into the project as evidenced by recent trades. Only conjecture on my part of course but for me the building blocks do seem to be coming together nicely... even if not yet reflected in the share price.

Thanks MikeGP, I don’t know what came over me.

Folks,

Whatever we, as individuals, may think about the motives or positions of posters on this board, everyone is entitled to their opinion. However, it is sometimes helpful to rise above the noise and take stock of the commitment that a number of individual organisations have made in respect of our company lest we forget that this is not a Micky mouse enterprise.

Would ONEE have otherwise gone public on their wish to buy all the gas available from the TE5 Horst?
Would OGIF have continued to hold their sizeable stake in SOU if they believed that there would be no return on their investment?
Would the Enagas led consortium have committed to spending multiples of £ms on a pipeline and processing plant if they believed that there was little prospect of transporting commercial volumes of gas?

Make what you will of the current lack of news, but as Mark Twain once commented, facts are stubborn things.

Oneplustwo, good article.
Lets hope that it accelerates Shell’s plans to focus more on gas assets rather than oil.... and here’s hoping that we will soon be in a position to help them out.

Joe, I have a growing feeling that the GSA is now closely linked to the outcome of TE10, probably at the insistence of ONEE, hence when we get TE10 results we will probably also get a signed GSA. Let’s wait and see.

Keeptofacts,

Here’s hoping that all our aspirations are fulfilled. In addition to the definition of discovery which you provided, I have included below a snippet from the RNS of 7 January which to my mind is worth repeating as a reminder that TE10 provides room for increased optimism.

“The successful retrieval of this gas sample confirms the presence of moveable hydrocarbons in the reservoir, and importantly is the first successful MDT gas test from the TAGI sandstone in the Tendrara licence (where testing has historically been hampered by the tight nature of the sandstone).”