RE:Well is that it? Great day to coverI suspect the next big news we hear is that VLE + Equinor announce another round of experiments. Maybe 2-3 new wells in 2020/21, possibly 2 Vertical, 1 HZ. Wouldn't be surprised if they try > 5000m to see what lies beneath. Probably experiment with different sands/ceramics to see if they can reduce the declines.
The news isn't good enough to move forward with anything more aggressive than that.
Equinor and/or VLE may sell an interest to help them derisk their own financial commitments along the way. I wouldn't be surprised if they did this to bring in some more expertise.
Personally, I hope that VLE mgt throws $10M or so at their shallow program. Generate a bit of profit to fund the next 2-5 years.
And yes, I expect this to remain mostly science mode for 2-5 years. I think they'll figure out a way to make this profitable, but it's going to cost a fair bit of money to get there.