RE:RE:RE:RE:O forWS, Exxon Yellowtail development will include the drilling of 67 more wells comprising production, water injection and gas injection wells. They currently have six drilling rigs under contract - 4 from Noble, 2 from Stena.
They'll start the development drilling campaign next year they say. Also Apache will probably start development drilling so they'll need rigs as will Chevron. Maersk, no doubt, would love to lock the rig into a long term contract with someone. Exxon Liza 1 required the drilling of 15 development wells. So any development work involves long term contracts which is what Maersk would love to tie into.
The hiring of Mr. Durkee as development manager, for me, was huge news. To me, it means that they already know that they have a commercial field there. So right now they're probably working out the details and scheduling for a long term contract taking Shell's interests into account. The above is my assumption based on no evidence. Just a hunch. If true, then the sp reflects the fair value of oyl having a commercial discovery.
I think it was Oil_Run who said that light, sweet oil in ground with no development work done is valued at $5 per barrel. So if my assumption is valid then judging by the sp they've already hit 100 million barrels or so with Santonian yet to be evaluated.
Anyway that's my working thesis for what it's worth. The current sp reflects current fair value. If not true, then I haven't got a clue as to why the sp is even as high as it is to begin with.