Hydra blog...Tag Oil (TAO.V, last at $0.33)
TAO’s share price performance in 2024 has been disappointing, but I still carry the torch of optimism here. At last report, the T100 well was doing something like 400-500 bopd from the 300-metre horizontal leg in the ARF, which isn’t really that bad, is it? Recall that the ARF is a regional source rock in this part of Egypt that has never been exploited with horizontal fracture-stimulated wells. In the absence of more information, I’m simply in a wait-and-see mode here. I can tell from the lack of chat-room chatter and low trading volumes that TAO isn’t capturing the market’s imagination much these days, but that’s okay. Opening a new play can be challenging and TAO has paid its tuition on the T100 well, so I’m hopeful that the company will be more successful on its next well, hopefully drilling a full 1000-metre lateral next time. TAO has been unusually quiet, but I would expect some kind of update over the next month or so in terms of the company’s plans and/or the performance of the T100 well. I’m long enough TAO that I can’t really trade it, so I’m along for the ride wherever this one goes. This is one of my more speculative positions, but I do like an underdog and these days TAO is certainly that.