In the case of both NZO with Kupe and CUE with Maari a lot of...

In the case of both NZO with Kupe and CUE with Maari a lot of cash on the books should not be necessary due to the long term cash flow. Although with one major asset producing you could say that cash flow was vulnerable combined that vulnerability would be much lower.

PPP is almost an irrelevancy in the picture since blowing so much cash, and not getting exploration success at Tui.

Better for these companies to return much more cash to shareholders, then ask for it again, provided they manage the tax issues reasonably and that if and when they ask for it again they do so via a rights issue for any transformative acquisitions - justifying a CR of course imposes healthy discipline on a company's capital utilisation.