RE: VST drilling scheduleIs it possible this this news is a little out of date. I suspect a lot of things have happenned here since it was posted although they do make reference to the fact that the seimic is into the processing stage, which presumably means it has been posted in the last two months at least. It could also be something as simple as a typo, someone meant to hit 2010 but inserted 2011 by mistake. Or of course it could be the truth.
Seems strange however given that VST has been indicating all along that commencment of drilling would begin in the 4th quarter of 2009 or 1st quarter of 2010 dependent on the results of the seismic. The two companies IR departments need to get their respective acts together on this as one would think it has some relevance with respect to the SP.
If it is true that they are planning for 2011, the only other explanations I can think of off the top of my head are that they are slowing things down to see if the PSA's brokered with Kurdistan are finally accepted as valid by the National government or they are so busy in other parts of the world etc. that they are taking a longer time to ensure all their duck are in order before possibly going in to drill. Finally maybe they are setting the date further out so there is time for the play to percolate and perhaps they will get taken out before that. There really are quite a few possibilities here, at the end of the day I think we are stuck waiting for an explanation or simply waiting to see what happens. As usual with many of these plays it seems to be a hurry up and wait game.