03-10-2013, 02:29 AM
I could be wrong, but regarding number 5...it's a very good question and could be a delay item. So...I believe that the negotiations over last several months have already structured the equity ownership that each company type could submit a binding bid for. This way, IOC could select a combination of partners. It would seem that XOM for example could submit a bid for 20% and for 30%. And a potential non-operated partner could bid for 10%. This would allow IOC to either pick 1 partner for 30% or 2 partners for 30%. I'd like to think all the time that has passed was ensuring binding bids were in a form such that IOC would not have to revert with structural equity changes to the bidders.