ConferenceI talked to Sophia and got basically the same info regarding the contractor (5 bidders, winner to be announced soon, pad is built). She also said SLM had a news release prepared to update activities but BP quashed it. It wouldn't bother her if drilling started in a month (foreshadowing?) and also says that it is possible that it will take a fourth well to prove this up. They have 4 or 5 wells already tentatively planned if they need to do them but locations aren't specific -- not too much she could say about this. Expect this stock to be higher in 6-9 months.
Permeability and porosity were both about 10. I'm not sure how to interpret this except I was led to believe by Sophia and a guy, said he was a geologist, indicated that this was the lower end and would require good reservoir pressure. They also said that this was probably the only/greatest risk to the play.
SLM also has a copper deposit in Arizona(?) which they are trying to sell.
I listened to Steven King speak about the oil & gas supply/demand thing. His outlook is that oil will head back down presenting a buying opportunity in the spring. Natural gas, however, will continue heading up until it reaches the price to import LNG (which is?). He says major investment will be required in three areas, LNG, fuel cells and I can't remember, probably pipelines and drilling.
I also listened to John Kaiser half/heartedly - still a little pissed at him about Winspear. Any ways he mentioned people should look for mining stocks that have an associated technology but that they would be hard to find. He was big on Gerle Gold, Ashton Canada if the parent didn't get bought by DeBeer's and said Diamondex was too expensive (I agree about that last one). He also thinks DeBeer's will make a bid for Diamet but will stay away from Aber because of Tiffany's deal for first pick.
There was quite a few companies there in the early stages of their projects, with a few bio-tech and tech companies to go along with the regular oil/gas and mining companies. It wasn't nearly as slanted to diamonds and platinum/palladium as it was last year.
kraftdinner