Hi Chalice,
I agree. It is a bit strange. If Chris is reading this he may like to comment. A 2009 drilling programme in and around Tui would be most welcome.
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Takeover of AWE by NZO/PPP doesn't look likely, now or in the future.
Market cap of AWE is more than twice combined NZO/PPP - $1.479b against $613m. Wouldn't like to have to go looking to borrow best part of a billion dollars in this market, particularly not to take over another oiler, and can't see any attraction to AWE shareholders in a scrip offer from NZO/PPP.
;)
There are promising leads within the Tui permit and the joint venture has been discussing a possible drilling campaign for some time. NZOG has made references to this in our Quarterly Reports and elsewhere. The joint venture has made no formal decision to proceed. If and when a decision is taken, we will announce it immediately. AWE, as Tui Operator, chose to reveal details of its drilling campaign proposals in its annual results announcement. We prefer to wait until a rig is obtained and there is a commitment made by the joint venture to drill. The joint venture is addressing the matter with some urgency but there is no announcement to be made at this time.
I agree that it is not the norm. However i i do not think its impossible and in my mind yopu would probablyu have to pay well in excess of $AU2b possibly $AU3b to have any chance. If NZO believe that tui and permits close to tui are value for awe then they are in the best position to see if its worth having a stake in awe. Not a bad place to start parking some of their loot. PPP is another although its like a flip flop from over 12 months ago should they go ahead.
Employment contract wise i feel that any contracts that give employees access to sensitive information should include clauses that prevent top staff from being head hunted or scalped. I am referring to the risk of losing good staff like Eric Mathews.
There are good synergies to be gained.
Worth to note, although nzo is still creaming it, drilling costs are going off the scale at the moment and are possibly 400 or 500% above what they were about 4 years ago. With our depreciating dollar its going to have some impact down the line.
discl. holding as tight as a 2 year old to her teddy.
"Top Staff" are rightly entitled to the same freedoms as the rest of us to go where the money is. Eric Mathews would not have been privy to information that other NZO staff were not also privy to, so the information that he knows is not lost to NZO. AWE are most likely paying for his abilities, not for any specific information. If Eric Mathews were to divulge information to which NZO owns the intellectual property, then there would be grounds for a court case.
I read the post from the perspective that his knowledge and skills could be transferred to another company in the same industry.
We have recently had an incident involving this. The employee left our company to join a competitor, and despite the clause in the contract prohibiting this, we were advised that it was unenforceable.
I also think that if you start to add too many anti-competitive clauses into the contract, the ultimate affect will be that the top talent will simply not even be interested in joining the company at all.
All well and good Chris. Unfortunately, with a drifting share price tied to the WTI,the market is looking for more direction than Dave Salisburys' rather cynical pronouncements
As I see it NZO needs
1. The WTI to stabilize and recover.
2. A more positive announcement regarding the future direction of the Company; because while the Board -and David Salisbury-are rightly being circumspect, this is obviously being perceived as prevarication. Everyone is still being paid while nothing is happening, therefore money is spent on salaries for people, who can't , or won't, make a decision.:eek: