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Petrel does not even have enough cash to make the bids for its two blocks thus highly likely no bid has been made.
According to Iraq's Ministy of Oil's PCLD $100K is required prior to a bid being made for each block and $5,000,000 for each block a bid is submitted for. Thats $200K for both Block 6 and Merjan prior to making the bid and $10M to submit the bid for both blocks.
As at 30th June Petrel had 51K EURs and has since raised circa £108K from warrant exercises. That's about £150K in cash if all overhead expenses are excluded.
It's not possible for these bids to have been submitted. This is all a load of hype over nothing. Rise on hot air. Baseless speculation.
Monetary criteria for bids can be seen here:
https://iraq-pcld.com/initial-tender-protocol/
Further to my pevious post - from the website:
Each company in a consortium must pay the Participation Fee. The Participation Fee for the Fifth (+) Round Offering is US$100,000 and for the Sixth Round Offering is US$100,000. A company may obtain the data packages and participate in both rounds by paying a Participation Fee of $150,000.
"...It should be noted that this Participation Fee is not a “purchase” of the data package, but a fee which allows participation throughout the process (including access to the underlying technical data, draft contracts, etc., and participation in any workshop/webinar that may be organized)..."
"...If a bidder is bidding for more than 1 Contract Area, a separate bid bond must be provided for each bid. Such bid bond(s) must be presented before the date for the submission of bids. A bid bond will be in the amount of five million United States Dollars (US$5,000,000)..."
Seems posters are getting 'PROPOSALS' and 'BIDS' mixed up.
Pet confirmed, as follows, in its HY results in September that it had submitted a PROPOSAL:
"Petrel has fine-tuned its Iraqi proposals, following feedback. We have contractors and suppliers identified but seek improved fiscal terms to attract partners. An updated Merjan oil field development proposal has been submitted to the Ministry with a view to finalising a licence agreement."
A formal BID for a block is an entirely different thing. Petrel has not confirmed or announced anywhere that it has submitted a formal BID as part of the 5th and 6th licensing rounds which are due to be awarded in the upcoming weeks. The BID window itself opened in late October (see IOM website, link in last post) with the submission of BID bonds required by April 18th 2024 and the DEADLINE for the payment of these fees April 25th 2024. Per my previous posts, PET does not have the cash - see last report) to even pay the participation fee let alone the BID BOND.
There is nothing to suggest PET have submitted a BID for either Merjan or Block 6 as part of the upcoming round.
To add; given bid window opened in late October and Pet was stating in July/September it had submitted a proposal itself shows the two are different things. It seems that the Bid window was opened on fiscal terms the Iraqis wanted to issue the licenses. Petrel states; "Petrel has fine-tuned its Iraqi proposals, following feedback. We have contractors and suppliers identified but seek improved fiscal terms to attract partners."
Petrel has mentioned this point regarding the fiscal terms of the licenses in other RNS's also - the offer the Iraqis are making for the blocks are on fiscal terms that PET has not been able to in the past make work with their partners hence the revises PROPOSALS it submitted in Jul-Sep. Seems these were not amenable to the Iraqis either which is why we have had nothing further back from PET in terms of making official BIDs for those projects. Pet made the proposals for amendments to fiscal terms in Q3'23, they were not acceptable to the Iraqis and the Iraqis went ahead and opened bid window on their own terms in Q4 which PET has not then participated in because they are unworkable for PET given it needs to attract partners and give them a nice slice of the pie for their participation.
I DID SAY PROPOSAL. now hop along.
Pauly im calling you out too. Have you bought in now??
Exactly, no BID has been made, only a proposal was put to the authorities back in July time and given nothing has been heard since on the topic would suggest it has come to nothing
merely a speculative rise, would expect it to fall back over the next couple of days as the hot money traders leave before the weekend. bear in mind theres also circa 14.3 million warrants here that are in the money from c
Funny headline there David, same as the one you posted on the BMV board yesterday.
The very definition of hot money
This is a strong buy-and-hold now anticipation of approval update which is due any time now. That's why I added up for my new holding. Hope you understand.DYOR.
In reply to Jallis
You maintain no bid..
what about the post by kdix yesterday?
He wrote: Yes, Petrel have definitely submitted a bid for the Merjan licence. This was confirmed at last years AGM. DH also confirmed that ours was the only bid back then.
It was the IOM that ASKED Petrel to make the submissions for Merjan AND previous Mezazoic/Paleozoic studies (aka geographical euphemism for Block 6). We dont have any confirmation for a definite bid on Block 6 (now called 'Anz' in the LR6 round) but I do know that Itochu are available as a funder, were given first dibs on it if offerred and their worldwide head of gas used to be an intern at Petrel in Dublin. Draw your own conclusions and likelihoods from that :).
Hi Andrbea - my read on this is kdix has mixed up proposal with the word bid and this may well be due to lack of preciseness used by DH himself at the AGM. The AGM was held in July, shortly after, in September the inerims were released. The wording in the interims was explicitly 'PROPOSAL', had a formal BID as part of the IOM 5th and 6th licensing rounds been submitted this RNS would have not used the word PROPOSAL but the word BID.
Add to this that window for BIDs only opened in late October and further the points about the bonds required to be submitted as part of any bid - bonds which PET does not have the financial resources to be able to put up.
Given that PET cannot do this alone and would only be able to participate as a consortium - it is also therefore possible that another party to the consortium, such as Ithochu, is fronting the bid, both in terms of submission, and payment of the fee.
Indeed beetroot.
There's no way that Petrel hasn't been planning for the funding requirements of a future licencing round.
Indeed they've been preparing for this for years.
Back in the Sept 2021 interims, there was an innocuous highlighted point stating:
"Shareholder base broadened, to prepare for expansion".
I asked DH what this meant. His reply:
" We have been meeting and presenting to institutional and semi-state shareholders willing to back longer-term, capital intensive projects in the Middle East and elsewhere".
(A semi-state company in the Republic of Ireland is effectively a state owned entity)
Later, in June 2023, this 'Future'Â looking statement was in the AR:
"Petrel is confident that necessary funding will be available for sound Iraqi and Ghanaian projects".
I asked DH: "
Qn: Is Itochu still a potential sugar daddy in respect of future funding?
DH reply: "Yes".
(This was the third time in 3 years he's confirmed Itochu are still available)
Kdix - but this is all speculative - so far the only things that are confirmed are;
PET put forward a PROPOSAL not a BID back in Q3'23
PET fronted that PROPOSAL not any partner such as Itochu (else it would have stated this in the RNS)
PET do not have the financing to put forward a BID
Did say there was no bid from PET. Hope nobody fell for the ramping. This will likely open down on Monday.
"Middle Euphrates fields in central Iraq received one bid from China’s ZPEC. It offered 11.67 per cent share of net profit, which was higher than the 9.35 per cent share the oil ministry was willing to pay. Afterward, the company accepted the 9.35 per cent share offered by the ministry.
It is a cluster of three fields – Kifl, West Kifl and Merjan – shared by the provinces of Najaf and Karbala. The fields hold both oil and gas reserves."
https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/energy/2024/05/11/iraq-opens-gas-and-oil-reserves-for-development-as-it-seeks-to-boost-revenues/
What happened to the good news David?
Shameless rampers. There was no bid for Merjan now they're pushing the 'bid for al anz' line.
If anyone is fool enough to fall for them in the light of all available data that shows its extreme low likelihood then they really should not be trading
Is their an update somewhere? I find that no one seems to really know anything until we get an update. Of course I'm skeptical here given the track record, but sometimes you just never know. Seems to be very volatile on small turnover , over the last few weeks, indicating some uncertainty or possibility over something changing for PET soon.
Rampers take a risk buying and then promoting with hot air hope.