Stuart started with dirt, and then got other people (COE, BPT) to farm in to it to pay for drilling.
COE started with cash, and then picked dirt to farm into.
Typically, they paid for one or two wells to win 25-30% of a permit, or part of a permit.
What COE are now doing is looking for bigger projects, usually offshore, that they can pay $500 000 or so into (usually cash to pay for 3D seismic) to buy about 20% of the permit.
They then aim to have 20% of a hundred-million barrel target, rather than 70% of a three million barrel target.
COE have done the first of these deals, in Morocco.
I'm expecting more, especially with all those 'promote' licences going to cash-poor subjuniors in Mike Scott's old nursery of the North Sea.
Unlike Hardman in the old days, they can actually afford their 20% of drilling the first offshore well ... OK, so they can only afford it once, but they can afford it.
Ian Whitchurch
STU Price at posting:
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