Very insightful observations. There are a few more things that don't make sense here:
1. What has happened to the other Pierre wells that were drilled by AKK in the past, I can't see where they have reported on their success or otherwise on these;
2. The images of these fine young men from the Oil Rush story would suggest that at least one well has been spudded. Maybe that was not newsworthy or they are taking a cautious approach to see what the results are before making any announcements - except that this will be costing some money and any expenditure is presumably material on AKK's current balance sheet;
3. Interesting that the "nearology" reference is to Commet Ridge Energy (ASX: COI) which has not owned that adjacent Florence Oilfield since they sold it in 2012. It is true that their success was good but the results of the current owner, Incremental Oil and Gas (ASX: IOG) are less than encouraging and it would appear that they have decided not to invest any more $'s into this field;
4. "The good news is that adjacent oil fields to AKK’s land are already producing
thousands of barrels per day and preliminary indications suggest AKK may also be able to grab a slice of that oil-rich US mid-west pie." - extract from the Oil Rush article. Mmmm, even at the height of the COI's success, I am not sure that there were '000s of barrels per day coming out of the adjacent Florence Field (see table below from COGCC public database) and IOG's public information would suggest that this is not the case now. The reference to this volume of production may be quite historic.
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Good luck to AKK in their pursuits but there could be better investments out there if you are a longer term investor and believe in the oil rebound story.