Risk vs Reward! End of day, Frontera needs to very carefully weigh the risk vs. reward of drilling Kawa-1 alone. Exxon JV in Guyana and Total-Apache in Suriname have shown that up front multi-billions are needed to drill exploration and appraisal wells before any final investment decisions (FID) are made. Once FID are made, billions more are needed to drill development injector/producer wells before any money is made. Offshore is total different beast from onshore.
The current $90MM being proposed for the two-well campaign is a literal drop in the bucket big picture. Everyone knows this. Saying all this, if Frontera would rather drill alone with the hopes of making a massive splash (say 300 million barrels recoverable from a 1 billion barrel discovery in Kawa-1), they might have a easier time of attracting a big-pocket JV partner who would be willing to join along on financial terms more favorable to Frontera. Then again, so many companies globally have actual discovered resources but no way of producing their oil-gas because they lack the necessary funds/potential JV partners are unwilling to pay the desired demands being requested.
Guess my point is... don't get too greedy. Super easy to fantisize about what ifs... as Exxon has shown in 2021, dry/less desireable outcomes are also very possible in Guana. I could outline countless geological/engineering scenarios where Kawa-1 could come back less than optimal. I personally would much rather have guaranteed financial backing for these wells instead of being greedy and hoping to hit the proverbial grand slam. That is just me though. See what happens in the next 2 months.