RE: A boat load of ..... I too only caught the last part of the AGM and came to many of the same conclusions as you Misfit. But I really had to laugh when I read your synopsis; especially the line about "Sully and his crew are now PRE's b--tches" that literally made me fall off my chair laughing and what makes it even better is that I firmly believe in the dictum that 'there is truth in humour.'
I always dislike these question and answer sessions because for one reason or another they always seem to have some excuse as to why we can't hear the pointed questions clearly. It is just another ruse in my opinion to dampen down any obvious displays of shareholder discontent, and make the whole exercise convivial yet supposedly transplarent, even when there is clearly an effort to have some blood letting transpire on the cutting room floor. The other technique of course is to plant a number of friendlies in the audience so that the Proctor and Gamble strategy plays out in terms of losing criticism in the shuffle. (Entering a market and only getting at shot at 1/38th of the entire laundry soap market isn't a very good biz strategy) In this case if if you have 95 friendlies and five people asking critical questions; what sort of chance do you have of bringing serious issues to the fore. Not that good at only 5%. We did nonetheless manage to get some decent pointed questions through but I would have liked to see them really have their azzes roasted over the fire. Of course there are many other strategies available to strangle honest discussion and dissent as well but these two outlined above are a couple of the most obvious.
I am hoping that PRE and the new blood on board will be prescient enough to realize that releasing a JV partner or partners for ED would be far and away the most responsible thing to do if they do indeed have interest from parties as they have indicated they do. It should be done before the results of Jaguar are known as well. Furthermore, the fact that they have said they are preparing a package for a "major" leads me to believe there is still a chance that one of the monster companies like Shell or Exxon or (heaven forbid Rover!) Anadarko is still lurking around trying to get a good sniff of this play and whether they should get involved and it certainly isn't about odors emanating from Sully and his b--tches that we are talking about here.
Keep up the good analysis Misfit, and keep me laughing, its often better than the comedy channel, even if you didn't intend it that way. it also takes away some of the pain when looking at this awfully sad SP.
This is all in my sole opinion and with out prejudice as well.