RE: share consolidation I think there was talk about that at the shareholders meeting in September. Skyhi0 is a long term shareholder, so he should know about this. With 121 million shares (plus 10 million warrants and options), 2-for-1 reverse split wouldn't be a bad thing. I believe they have $1,650,000 left with the Thai governement, to be used on blocks L14-50 and L3-50. So far I think $350,000 has been released for the recently done 2D seismic on L14-50, but that was covered by Rockstone in exchange for 20% interest, plus they possibly got additional $50,000 from Rockstone in exchange for giving up another 2% interest (we will need a news release for this one to know!). So, now we have either 80% or 78% interest in L50-14, which doesn't have to be drilled until 2014. If Rockstone elects to have another 35% interest in this block, it will cover the drilling cost up to $1.5 million. They have also diluted the float by about 1.3% with the settlement with former CEO and spent some cash on his legal costs. Finally, we have had some insider purchases by Darren Alvy Steffes who purchased 625,000 shares at 4 and 4.5 cents in December. There were maybe about another 200,000 shares bought by insiders in early January at 4.5 and 5 cents.
Now... block L9-48, the committment is to drill 2 wells in 2013, but before that, for 2012 they were to do a 2D 100km survey, which was not done. Maybe they have historical data, but still this was supposed to be completed in 2012. According to Feb/2012 presentation on the website, 2D seismic would cost around $510,000 and drilling 2 wells would cost $2 million. None of this can be covered by the bond held by the Thai government because that is to be used on the other 2 blocks through year 2014.
So, if the presentation and the commitments are correct, the company needs to raise money soon. The news updates have been poor and besides inactivity is the chief reason why the share price has been depressed to these levels. I will be watching how the management manages the situation now. They need to put out a news release updating shareholders on the plan and timeline for 2013. What happened with the seismic on L9-48 that was supposed to be done in 2012? Will it be done and when? When will they drill the wells at L9-48? Which drill will they be contracting and when? What's the update on Rockstone with regards to their option on the property L14-50? They need to put out a comprehensive news release showing that they are becoming more active. If they do this, some interest will return to the stock and we should see it move up before they do the financing. If they dilute the hell out of this by doing financing at 5 cents, that will be a bad sign. The first round of financing was done at 15 cents, now the stock is 3 times lower, so they should at least finance it at 10 cents if not higher. If they consolidate 2-for-1, then the financing should be done at least at 20 cents.
Waiting to see whether the management can show that they are able to manage the float in a responsible manner