Canadian Imperial Venture V.CQV.H

RE: oK-oK-oK

[Barrhead]

Runar1910: You had asked whether they might have gotten a deal on the rig due to apparent slowdown, or lack of activity of that particular rig? IMO yes they would have probably got a deal to entice them. Now I am wondering whether they ever would have went ahead with the drilling if they would not have had a good deal. It probably also slowed the idea of the rig refurbishment plant in the Stephenville area, although I do question where they were going to bring the rigs in from to be refurbished to make a buck or two anyways. Especially with the number of specialty parts required and the usual required delivery time is 'yesterday', when it comes to any possible progress of drilling or assembly of a rig. I did a quick survey of new Alberta well start-ups (spuds) for a week period of Sept 16-30 for 2004-2007, and there has been a general downwards trend in activity: 2004 - 1010 2005 - 887 2006 - 393 2007 - 604 There were some weekends or like the year 2006 where the spuds dropped off to 6-10/day, while in 2004 there was an average of 72/day and 43/day in 2007. In about the 2-3 week in Oct/06 when we got upwards to 12-15" of snow, there were 1-3/day. This does point to the of aspect poor weather, that has been brought out in NR's from CIVC's that has slowed down activity, but it also slows down the number of injuries and accidents due to poor working or driving conditions. The low current price of natural gas and the uncertainty of a proposed royalty change (www.albertaroyaltyreview.ca), may have had a significant affect on rig activity. One thing that has changed as already mentioned is that the prices have plummeted for drilling and services, and that is what has helped out some companies looking at increasing their production through the drill bit. Regardzzz...................Barrhead