DEC-11-2012: TULLOW CONFERENCE CALL Just finished listening to the Tullow conference call held Dec-11-2012. As you may suspect - some of the questions that were asked pertained to Guyana.
So, nothing better than getting information straight from the source - see below highlights:
Michael Alsford, Citigroup: Hello, I've got a follow-up question, if I could, just on the bonus payment and how that actually works. What's the sliding scale mechanism for that, I guess the facility in the purchase price? And then just secondly just on Prince -- also on Guyana and just can you tell us why you relinquished it? Is it just simply that you couldn't renew the license? Or was there any other thing behind that that we should think about? Thanks.
Angus McCoss: Remember we were previously drilling the Jaguar-1 well and since let our interest in Georgetown expire. As you recall when we drilled that well it was a HPHT well. And you will remember that we encountered the high pressures in the well shallower than expected and that caused us to stop drilling. We have since then been able to analyse the temperature data and realize that the bottom of the [Jaguar-1] hole would have a very high temperature – which increases the gas risk if we were to drill deeper. So, we now continue to focus on oil exploration in Guyana and the wider region there.
Emily Morris, GMP: Hi, good morning, just a quick one on Guyana. Obviously, you've left where you drilled Jaguar, but you seem potentially still positive on prospectively and the rest of that region. I just wondered why you'd left that license?
Angus McCoss: The license was coming to its natural expiry date so we let our interest expire there. As you know we are an oil exploration company and we see much more value in oil (as opposed to gas). The evidence we had from the Jaguar-1 well, in particular the temperature data I was referring to, sends us in a different direction in Guyana and the wider region. So, we continue to be looking for oil exploration opportunities there.