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PS: Does Nige and his alter ego Glamrock still think we're the same person?
What idiots we have on this BB

"Amateur show. Anyone checking calendars ahead of planned meeting dates would take note of certain minor events such as EU Parliament elections."

Carrot, I'm glad you're not the one in charge of managing the SL project, despite all your waffle, moans, criticisms and how you could do it all a lot better.

You're just demonstrating to us that you don't understand the magnitude of the SL project.

Things like this don't just happen overnight and would have taken quite a bit of organising.
When this was planned, the UK would have already left the EU and certainly wouldn't have been participating in the EU elections.
The fact that the UK has participated in the EU elections only shows how difficult it is to predict the future when planning projects, especially large scale ones.

If I were you, I'd crawl back into your cheese, rather than make an even bigger fool of yourself.

Carrot, I thought this was supposed to be a workshop to get things done (something you complain all the time isn't happening enough), not a publicity stunt.

Now tell us simpletons what exactly you think they should be doing to please you.

I've been saying for quite some time that with Brexit, energy independence will become an absolute necessity if we're to achieve the promises made.

FI region, exploited entirely by UK-based companies, would be a very desirable situation.

I've also said that a possible silver lining with PMO and all its debt, is that should EC funding be approved, PMO will pretty much have to do as its told, at least until its debts are paid-off.

I don't believe SL is ever going to produce gas, at least not on a commercial scale.

Oily experts may say different.

I'm not sure "sloppy" is the right word. I prefer "complacent".
They're unlikely to admit their mistakes, but my view is that it was all looking a bit too easy - massive reserves of top quality oil and even with the various challenges, plus the risks posed by the Peronists, funding shouldn't have been much of an issue.
When you have "loads'a money", problems seem to get a lot smaller.

Then there was the 2014/15 oil price collapse, which really spooked everyone and with the climate change issue gaining momentum, fossil fuel's days were numbered.
The PoO collapsed carried on much longer than anyone could have imagined, so a project like SL looked less attractive by the day. However, during that time, we are told that PMO & RKH took advantage of the general panic to sign-up favourable service contracts, so they didn't just sit on their hands as the derampers/shorters would have us believe.

Things started to improve and my guess is that in 2018, as the PoO hardened, PMO pretty much had the finances lined-up, so maybe that's why TD felt confident enough to say that FID would be announced by Feb 2019. Then towards the end of 2018, the PoO collapsed again, spooking everyone again. How long would it last this time? Would OPEC+ really cut back enough to support oil prices?

I reckon that's when one (or more?) of the would-be funders got cold feet and dropped out, leaving TD with his Feb 2019 FID announcement promise to explain, which he never did, much to our annoyance.

So that left them with no alternative but for EC funding to cover the lion's share and probably having to monetise Zama-1 as well. No doubt the Ts & Cs associated with UK Export Credit are pretty tight and possibly differ to what the commercial lenders impose, so yet another wait and long faces as the respective BoDs looked rather silly, after being a bit too bullish too early.

Make no mistake, the demand for oil and gas will continue, perhaps indefinitely, but for those who'd booked that cruise, or put the deposit on that Ferarri, you're just going to have to wait again.

Godders, I certainly haven't been encouraging anyone not to see the reality of all this, part of which is that it would appear to have been a bit of a shambles, taking far too long, but some of which has been beyond their control, but then not making the most of enforced delays to prepare even more diligently for when the green light came back on.

The project is ginormous, which would probably have been less of an issue when funding was easier, but now funding's very tight indeed, with no one jumping aboard, then the project's complexities assume a much bigger challenge.

Godders, I reluctantly have to agree with Nige on this one - you can only apply for funding when you can produce authentic numbers.

However, one has to acknowledge that this is a massive project - probably more massive than anyone properly planned for, but even so, it has been a bloody long time in the planning/making.
I reckon, with all the FI region oil/gas reserves available, the likes of TD & Sam had "assumed" that shed loads of money would just pour out of the sky and their biggest problem would be how to pick it all up without dropping any of it.
Now they are really having to work to get funding - something that's perhaps caught them by surprise?
PMO has got quite a bit of experience of fund raising, but perhaps for SL, they hadn't anticipated this amount of effort?

There have been plenty of enforced delay periods, during which those involved may not have been using that time as efficiently as they should, otherwise I'd have thought that the numbers would have been ready some time ago, especially when TD publicly stated that FID will be announced by Feb 2019.

I think we're getting used to this GREAT country being a bit of a shambles, not being quite a great as some believe/claim, which is why I now have worries about the UK going it alone in an otherwise global World.

Anyway, back to PMO/RKH - Godders, I think the EC funding option has been around for some time, it's just that many hadn't clocked its significance.

Yanbu, it's interesting that on virtually every other point discussed here, the deramper/shorters immediately jump in to post every imaginable story, old/new/fake/discredited/etc. to say how PMO/RKH is a dead duck, their licences won't be renewed, the EC funding isn't going to happen, Sam and the Bod are robbing the company, etc., which puts the wind up the timid, who then flog their shares in despair, which they then move-in to scoop-up for a pittance.

But on this point, they're remaining unusually silent, because they know there is no other depressing version of the story, which they can post to make wavering shareholders feel even worse.

The key to unlocking the region, sooner than later, is EC funding, which as well as providing one hell of a big chunk of the budget to get to FID and then SL sanction, it will give other would-be funding participants the confidence to make their commitment.

A very big part of this funding is for setting-up the infrastructure in such a remote region, where virtually none currently exists.

Once SL sanction is given, that eventually leads to first oil production and at last the elusive oil revenue to fund everything, including more drilling and enabling other licence holders to join in, if they haven't been taken-out by someone else.

Realistically, exploitation of the SFB (where gas and condensate is believed to be more abundant) is pretty far off, but any prospect of commercial gas production from the FI relies on achieving the previous steps first, as well as World gas demand remaining strong enough to justify the costs involved.
At the moment, I believe BOR holds licences with the best gas prospects, but that can change.

Despite all the Climate Change stuff, I believe fossil fuels will continue to sustain human civilisation for a while yet, and gas will be an increasingly important part of that.

I think any commercial gas fields are likely to be in the SFB, which is more BOR territory

Any thoughts from anyone about the relevance of the annual FI defence bill, balanced against EC funding?

$750M/£750M/whatever is one hell of a big sum for a distant dot in the ocean, but if you're already spending something like £75M/year on its defence, then £750M doesn't look so daunting, if the successful outcome is the potential of billions of barrels of oil, plus the gas.

I'm just asking for some clarification.
If you're unable to do that, for whatever reason, it would be better that you didn't start.

You'll just have to accept that when someone makes claims that they can't/won't substantiate, then at the very best, the rest of us will take them with a very large dose of salt.

It doesn't offend me at all, but it does cast doubt on your claims.

And just for the record, these are the EXACT words YOU posted:
"There are possibly two reasons that Fid and Project Sanction of Sealion will be later than 2019, but at this moment in time everything seems o.k. and still on course for later this year! Exciting times ahead!".

The "possibly" applied to the "two reasons" - i.e. there might be one reason, two reasons, or maybe more. You went on to post: "....... will be later than 2019.......".

Nigoil, please don't distract us from the issue: I'm asking what the "two reasons" are, which you still haven't answered.

Nigoil, you were lightening-fast in answering my question about FI defence costs (thanks), but we're still waiting to hear about the "two reasons that Fid and Project Sanction of Sealion will be later than 2019" that you mentioned, which is now a couple of days old.

Thanks.
In that case, if HMG is going to consider whether to grant $750M/£750M, or whatever as EC funding, presumably this cost might influence any decision?

I believe there's an issue over who pays the defence bill, in that British forces cannot/shouldn't be mercenaries (anyone know the details?), but when there's a need, usually those involved manage to find a way round annoying little obstacles, such as rules/regulations/the law.

Shouldn't it read: "Although looking at the numbers the commercial entities must pay the Sea Lion's share of the government costs."?

Anyone have an accurate and authentic (i.e. you can provide the source) figure for the annual budget/cost of the FI, by comparison with other British overseas territories?

And what are those "two reasons that Fid and Project Sanction of Sealion will be later than 2019"?