I'm reasonably sure iona is saying from OBL's point of view the...

I'm reasonably sure iona is saying from OBL's point of view the REY agreement might not give them a lot of certainty in that currently it's highly conditional so that might be pushing OBL to ask for more to cover whatever risks they feel are there.

Personally I think it would be silly if REY hadn't let them know whether they were going to cover BOPL's current obligations or not. You'd think that would be one of the first things you'd talk about in any negotiation.

Both sides are obviously asking too much of the other atm. It's hard to know whether to take what OBL has said so far at face value as we only know one take on REY's sticking points.

If I were OBL (and I knew the strength of all the claims and arguments and was confident) I'd be pushing for say.. their existing 50% to 66% of Derby, all monies owed and either some level of exploration free carried or a cash payment. That might be partial free carry for the seismic. The percentage of Derby would go up or down depending on the cost of the free carry or cash payment. That would leave them mostly covered until next year activity wise with plenty of time for a farm out with probably not too much more dilution depending on costs.

If I were REY I wouldn't be rejecting farming out to a third party (like OBL says they are) but I don't know the particulars there and exactly what that means. I would have thought REY would be ok farming out a lot of the drilling costs. I know they have a lot more financial strength with a lot of chinese money but they haven't really shown anything close to THAT kind of muscle yet. They farmed into the KEY drill but that wasn't deep Laurel drilling. Maybe it's more about not letting OBL rush out and do a farm out tomorrow (if that was even possible) and wait until they see what Buru is doing? Or having Derby Laurel to add to their existing Laurel to give them some sort of combined farm out benefit?
Or maybe even that they want to farm out their Laurel with Buru from a position of strength rather than with the comparatively very desperate OBL who sold off 25% for $1.75M to OXX who now doesn't even want it/can afford it..

Hard to know without hearing their side of it.