The Growler 15 horizontal was drilled this year and they have...

The Growler 15 horizontal was drilled this year and they have said the results were outstanding, nearly 600 meters of net pay in one well.

If you don't explore you eventually run out of things to develop, those 2P reserves take decades to completely produce unless you overcapitalise on development drilling. And I'm sure if the exploration geologists (who subsequently discovered Marauder and Snatcher North and Breguet) had known for certain the northern Cooper exploration program would fail, they would not have drilled it.

It sounds to me like your crystal ball is set to hindsight mode!