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Is there such a thing as a 'bad' tier 1 oil company? I'm still none the wiser really as to exactly what the definition of tier 1 is, but surely at the very least they must have barrels full of cash and a good record of success in exploration/production to become a tier 1, otherwise they'd have gone out of business long ago or no longer be 'tier 1'.

The terms of the deal could be far more important than who it's with. A good deal gives us something positive in return for a stake in our acreage, such as funding and a plan to prove up some or all of the acreage. A bad deal would be nothing in return for a stake in our acreage and leave us needing to fund raise on the market to drill another well.

Thanks topofoz, if thats the case then I guess what it means is that the odds for when an announcement could be made have narrowed even further. Now just 16 trading days left in June when the ASX is open.

Yes, but not a public holiday in Perth. Don't know what the norm is for that kind of situation. Would a company based in Western Australia hold back an announcement because its a public holiday where the stock exchange is located?

https://publicholidays.com.au/2019-dates/

Not sure where this figure of $1,700 has come from. Is that supposed to be Platinum, PGM basket price?

Agree that its not really something on the radar and it doesn't look like we'll be progressing it anytime soon. Costly deep mining doesn't fit in with our strategy of pursuing low cost/risk surface material.

But interesting looking back on it. The NPV of $1B is from 2012, I'm not sure just what prices were used, but recall the basket price being quoted as $1250. Looking at the 2012 charts, Pt ranged from approx $1,400 to $1,700 and Pd $550 to $700.

In 2017 a new less well publicised NPV was produced and appeared in the annual accounts, which gave the NPV as 1.4B ZAR (about £75m at current rates).

Interesting though that it was in 2017 when the Pd price really started to rise, $700 at the start of the year and about $1000 by the end of 2017. And while Pt has fallen since 2017, Pd has risen a lot more than Pt has fallen.

So it may actually be getting to the point where Tjate could start to look viable to someone.

Best approach in my view would be to sell it, otherwise we're going to see all of our Kabwe profits disappear down a deep hole (literally!)

I don't really see the relevance of any takeover rules here. We're doing a farmout deal for the conventional prospects at Icewine only (may even just be part of icewine depending on the deal) , no one has made a formal offer to buy out the whole company.

Interesting, presumably they made the decision following the alkalid results? On iPad at the moment so struggling a bit to check the maps, but are these leases to the north, I.e. Furthest away from us?

14.26 - Don't know why you think its a leaky ship D45. The last official announcement quoted DW as saying:

"Final decision on approval for the conventional farm-out is now scheduled for June 2019 and we remain optimistic of a favourable outcome for our shareholders in the very near term."

We're now in June, so no leaks needed to work out that a farmout announcement could be with us anytime very soon. People just starting to realise that, hence some increased buying and rising price.

14.42 - "two large 5.3mil sells"

Doesn't look like it to me, it looks like 1 trade of 5.3m that was immediately reversed. Buy or Sell or I don't know.

Keefy, interesting, and also hoping our time is now.

Although just a year ago I never expected to see so much excitement about getting back to 1p!

Lets hope that whatever the deal is, it'll mark the end of this kind of level and it'll put all of us back into profit.

Looking good for today, and no news today means that the odds have now narrowed on when the news will arrive. Just 18 trading days left in June.

As DW said "The remaining steps are; final decision on approval and documentation of the agreement. Both steps are scheduled to occur in June 2019."

11.08 - Exxon obviously very big in Alaska and have a lot going on. But as mentioned over the weekend they make no reference at all to Alaska in their most recent investor presentation (March). Maybe nothing in it, but just maybe they are working on revisions to their future strategy and a big new acreage position.

Best of luck to you too olddad, interesting few days/weeks ahead!

Whether or not we're dealing with a 'Tier 1' company, we haven't as far as I know actually been told who would be classed as a 'Tier 1'. I think we could quite easily make some assumptions that companies like Exxon/BP/Shell would be Tier 1, and at the other other end of the scale companies like RMP wouldn't be.

But there's a big gap between those two extremes. Would companies like Hunt be considered Tier 1? If they aren't, does it really matter? As long as we've got a fair deal with a partner that has the resources and know how to take it forward, I'm not really that bothered who it is and if they're classed as a Tier 1. Although if it is a well known major, then it'd probably give a bigger short term boost to the SP as it could generate more confidence than a relative unknown coming on board.

The interim's do suggest that costs are firmly under control. Operating costs for 6 months to Dec 2018 were £2.662m, compared with £2.636m the year before.

Hopefully the 2nd half will be much the same. They certainly aren't ramping up costs with excessive Investor Relations, general PR and media work!

I'd agree with Spinefx on this, I don't think at this stage we can be expecting an Armstrong/Oilsearch kind of deal and for our 2.2B barrels to be valued on an $X per barrel basis. If we do, then its truly fantastic. But if we don't, its not because we've got a bad deal, its just a reflection on where we are at the moment with the conventional.

We've done very little with the conventional portfolio with relatively little cost, and it has to be proved up so that it can be valued. We can't afford to do that on our own, which is why we're farming out. Armstrong had already proved up a fair amount with Repsol before the oilsearch deal.

But some factors could come into play to our advantage:
1. Some of our conventional portfolio was upgraded to discoveries last year through results of our 3D and historic wells that intersect with oil shows.
2. There is huge upside potential. Most of our portfolio (~75%) comes from just ~25% of our acreage that's covered by 3D.

Its interesting that Exxon have a lot going on in Alaska, including share of the pipeline, Point Thompson, and largest WI in Prudhoe bay where BP are carrying out new 3D and say they want another 40 years there.

And in their own words "ExxonMobil is one of the top three producers of oil and the largest holder of discovered gas resources on Alaska’s North Slope."

https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/Locations/United-States/Alaska/About-ExxonMobil-Alaska

But there's no mention at all of Alaska in their recent March investor presentation:

https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/-/media/Global/Files/investor-relations/Investor-presentation.pdf

Not one of their top growth priorities? Or is it possible they're on a news blackout regarding their future North Slope plans?

Yes probably a sale, Bid/Ask yesterday afternoon was 2.85/2.9, so trade price of 2.855 points to a sale.

A big difference in the terminology now being used stockdale. 'targeted' and 'scheduled' have very different meanings.

Previously we were told the company was targeting to close a deal in Q1. i.e. they were aiming to have it done in that timeframe. They almost got there, the preferred bidder was chosen and indicative terms were agreed.

Now we're being told the final approval and documentation is scheduled for June. i.e. there is now be an agreed plan for when the final steps to close the deal are taken.

Its all very well having an aim and intending for something to happen in certain length of time, but the exact time scale and work undertaken by the other party to agree and finalise the deal are not in DWs control. But it now sounds very much like they have agreed on the date for those final steps to happen.

Its always nice to see some insightful posts backed up with solid reasoning.

June starts tomorrow, marking the start of the 4 weeks when the farmout is scheduled to be signed off.

Depends just what the definition of tier 1 is. And it's also a bit difficult to compare private companies with listed companies as there's limited information. Forbes give their revenue for 2018 as $3.2b, so they'd be well down the list of oil companies by revenue alone, but that may not tell the full story.

But if they've got sufficient cash, access to funding and experience/expertise, does it really matter? A 'tier 1' would only be committing a small fraction of their resources to icewine.

https://www.forbes.com/companies/hunt-consolidated-hunt-oil/#4420edf94250

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_oil_and_gas_companies_by_revenue