A year ago (or more) IOC was trying to do a selldown of Elk/Antelope in order to monetize its assets.  It appeared to have many interested parties to make such a deal.

On January 24, 2013 (my birthday, so I remember it well) it was announced that "final bids" had to be submitted by February 28.  The board was to meet shortly thereafter to pick the winner.  The impression was clearly given that the winning deal would be announced within a few weeks, sometime in March or at the latest April.  This was not a stated fact by IOC regarding the timing, but if you don't believe my statement about "impression," go back and read just about any posts on this board from February - April.  The poll here on when you thought a deal would be announced was differentiated by each week, not by months or anything longer.  about 90% expected an announcement before the end of April.  As I said on a different thread, people here are not idiots.  These predictions were based on what management was telling us, one way or another.

On May 24, 2013 (my wedding anniversary) IOC announced it was in "exclusive" negotiations with Exxon.  Though not exactly what we wanted to hear here, and certainly not the reaction we wanted from the pps, this was definitely progress.  We were told that all the key points had been agreed upon.  As time went on, all indications from the company have been that things are going very well in these negotiations, but these things take time.  Many knowledgeable and well-connected members of this board have made various predictions or given hunches that a deal was imminent throughout much of the last few months.

Now in mid-August, 2013 we are told the exclusive period has ended, though IOC is still talking with Exxon.  Officially we have not been told that the "a" deal is anywhere near done.  (I define "done" as ready to be announced, nothing else.)

IOC is trying to do a selldown of Elk/Antelope in order to monetize its assets.  It appears to have many interested parties to make such a deal.

Who is to say that nothing substantial will happen in the next few months, and then it will be announced that final bids must be in by February 28, 2014?

You can spin and believe whatever you want, and maybe things really are great and we'll get a deal announcement "soon," but I ask again, is this really so differrent than a year ago?

'Movieguy' pid='27501' datel Wrote:Tree, Interoil's situation compared with a year ago is: 1. Just about the same resources, still not able to be categorized as reserves. 2. Possibilities of a selldown partnering deal. Perhaps good possibilities for an imminent deal, but we really don't know. 3. A new CEO who since his appointment can see that the pps is lower than before his appointment. You can predict a deal announcement is coming within days or some other time soon, but you, I and many others on this board have been predicting that for a long time. We don't know and anything can happen, so . . . just like a year ago.

A selective list of similarities MG. Not complete.

My thoughts - XOM has exclusivity for 4.6T negotiation.  They looked into PRL15 and the IOC data room, liked what they saw.  The first deal will always be the cheapest.  I think XOM has tried to expand the scope of the SPA into a larger stake than 4.6T and they were keeping the above 4.6T bid at the low $Mcf of the 4.6T bid.    We've seen blow-back from Duma citing a 'monopoly' and Kavo sensing he may lose a Gulf LNG project as some evidence of that.  Hession is doing what men do, and that is lead.  He may have told XOM that if they want above 4.6T they will have to bid against the field and he pulled the exclusivity.  It's up to XOM to not get out bid here and they will end up with as much of IOC as they want.  We are 1 trading day from 'talks fail to produce a deal' headlines.  It is no surprise that the pps is on the ropes.