The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
Keith1 - Crikey! I had just said they will be no doubt be introducing under-skin chips as a ‘virus-clean’ passport (compulsory of course) when you said it too. And do you know what? Lots of people would readily go along with it on the basis that they believe the authorities are looking after us. How did we come to this in a free, democratic country? Rant over as IK would say!
Keith1 - v funny! Must keep our sense of humour in these trying times. However, I am of the view that this lock-down is a completely disproportionate response to a perceived problem.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xjnFzpmzaA
(or watch ukcolumn.org at 1:00 p.m. - they have been monitoring this and it is bewildering).
Parpaing - the PM job is yours as far as I am concerned!
Interestking - Agreed. My trust in the bbc (and indeed all the main stream media both here and in the states) is at an all-time low. Correction: non-existent. Anyone with a brain must question everything the MSM spouts out.
Starchild - Agreed. You are correct that we could have been up the proverbial creek without much of a paddle had we started drilling in May. So, although very frustrating for us shareholders (and I can only imagine what it must be like for Simon Potter having overcome so many obstacles to be stopped at this point) it was the right thing to do. We all just have to hope that this situation sorts itself out in time for October final planning to start.
Keith1 - Agreed. I think we are on the same page as far as the statistics are concerned. The problem is that - even if you are intelligent enough to question the 'facts' we are fed, and to ignore the MSM's sensationalist take on them, we are all subject to crowd psychology and the fact that most people just go along with it all.
Hopefully we on this board will all make a lot of dosh on BPC and can all then chip in together to buy a small island where only intelligent people are allowed to live!
The overriding factor affecting our BPC investment (let alone our daily lives) at the moment is COVID-19, and until the world’s response to that is adjusted we cannot go forward.
I suspect - as do others on this board, I know - that we are being told only half-truths about the virus, as this YouTube piece indicates (forgive it is quite long but well worth watching).
Where this leaves us is anyone’s guess. Here’s keeping fingers crossed for a good and speedy outcome to everything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KmyHP5szGY
Keith1 - I agree it is wise to be sceptical about the info emanating from the MSM. Like lots of intelligent people I gave up on the BBC years ago, and Sky/C4 became totally untrustworthy during Brexit. Now I use Breitbart Europe as my only daily news source, from which this is an interesting piece today: https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/04/01/uk-government-lockdown-policy-may-be-based-on-dodgy-modelling/
Heck, why not? Must keep a sense of humour in these trying times!
Novice - ha ha: and no offence taken! You mean my moniker refers to a secret place full of mystery and allure. Well I can live with that!! (Actually I was aware of it already and am happy to take it as a joke).
Starchild, ?Interestking, Tiburn and all regulars - thanks as always for your well considered and researched thoughts: very interesting points. The BG are indeed the biggest stakeholders in this venture and will be wanting this project to get off the ground (or more accurately in the ground) soonest and with the most beneficial return.
Keith1 - (O/T) thanks for mentioning George Carlin. I have just watched his ‘Planet v People’ on YouTube: absolutely brilliant. Humour and common sense - so often lacking in this modern life. I am now a follower!
Starchild - you are brilliant! Excellent post. You missed an additional aspect which could affect our odds: the Mob coming in to the casino.... (perhaps our imponderable is our drill being sited in the Bermuda Triangle).
Spiritefan - everyone on here knew you what you said about £20K was tongue-in-cheek: I guess people are a bit raw at the moment and so cannot detect humour.
P_I - thanks for reply.
Interestking - your assessment of the current economic situation of the BG is spot on: witness this piece from yesterday’s Tribune - NB the comments by James Smith who, aside from being an ex-minister if state, happens now to be our own non-exec deputy chairman:
Http://www.tribune242.com/news/2020/mar/23/turnquest-recovery-be-slow-and-anaemic/?news
Interestking - thanks for your rant: actually I do not regard it in any way as a rant! Rather, I think your comments were simply a well-thought-through, intelligent overview of our situation. I must admit I had thought about a BG helping hand if things with the funding went pear-shaped: not that I think they will because - as you say - these guys want (and expect) to make serious cash. There is no stakeholder in all of this who is more need of a successful - and preferably quick - drill than the BG and so I think anything that needs to be done to chivvy things along will be done - and soonest. I am still not dismissing the May drill date (as daft as some might think), and I would love to know from you, or PageofCups, or any of our other posters here who have contacts in the drilling world how the GoM rigs are coping at the moment (practically speaking): are they going for double shifts rather than the 2-on-2-off, etc, etc, are they testing the pilots of supply vessels every time they deliver? Are they getting things easily through the various worldwide supply chains? Surely off-shore rigs/ships must be among the best situated in this isolation-based world we now live in?
PageofCups - TVM: I agree that the rig market and costings would/could work in our favour. I wondered, however, how the practicalities and logistics of those rigs and drills which are continuing are going. Are they managing to crew-up and service OK? Or have they instigated the, frankly, disproportionate reaction to the virus that we have here, whereby central London is in lockdown? I still keep hoping for a May drill, though it’s looking increasingly likely to be October.
I hope you don’t disappear Interestking: you are one of the mainstays of common sense on this board and without whom we would be left with only negative posters who don’t bother to back-up their stance with reasoning.
Separately, do any of the posters on here with industry contacts have any intel on how the GoM rigs are coping at the mo? Could be a good indicator re our May date.
(As usual, cannot paste full link. On Vox Mkts).
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To the posters who suspect we may get a delay to drilling (or even postponement), I would say that, whilst it is always good to veer towards the negative side of any proposition, I think you are wrong.
If Sir Edmund Hillary when in 1953 at 8700 metres of the 8800-metre Mount Everest had received a call telling him to come back down because the base camp leader had a cough, do you think he would have said 'Ah well, I'll just have to try again next year'? No.
The obstacles BPC has had to overcome over the past many years cannot be underestimated, but overcome them they have - resulting in the recent Environmental Authorisation. I believe that the only reason BPC would stop its drilling plans now is if it got Government diktat to do so. The Bahamas Government are the biggest stakeholders here so that to my mind is unlikely.
What undoubtedly will be the case is that the majors we are chatting to will use this as yet another reason to try and squeeze the pips out of us. If that is the case then, if I were SP/EU at the table, I would say FO, we are pressing on alone, you will now find a sign on our door 'Gone Drilling', come back in a month or two and - we can find a slot in our diaries to fit you in - we can pick up on discussions then.
Corona virus - this is an interesting/alternative take on the situation:
https://summit.news/2020/03/10/mit-scientist-claims-coronavirus-is-a-deep-state-fraud/
P.S. Thanks, Interestking, for your excellent other post: I love the 'contingency twins' description!
Jimtheknow - excellent summary, as always, and excellent endorsement from Interestking. TVM. I think we are all on the same page.
As a (very) long-term holder who, sadly because of other commitments, cannot keep a constant watch on this board, may I just say a very big “thanks” to all the regulars who not only keep abreast of all developments as they happen, but also give well-thought-through postings, with much for the others among us to ponder. I refer, of course, to Jim-the-Know, InterestKing, Tiburn, Private_Investor, Molokai, Keith1 and, of course, the ever positive, Bonum. There are many others whose names I cannot remember and so please forgive, but this board shows what a chat board ought to be: a forum for good debate. I have been a paid member of ADVFN for 18 years and that board has descended into farce. I am only sorry that I cannot contribute more to this one.
With regard to yesterday’s shenanigans, I can only repeat what I said in my post first thing yesterday morning i.e. that my own view is that everything is still on, as I see nothing in the RNS that signals we are not going ahead as planned in Q2. I like to think we are in the final throes of working out some sort of joint venture and that we will get further ‘proper’ news shortly. I long for the time when our drillship in on site and our only worry then remains that we are within the boundary of the Bermuda Triangle………………
All conjecture, of course, and WTFDIK. Best to all LTHs.