Having been invested in IOC for over 7 years, I almost have come to expect good news to be followed by a share price drop. While I agree that it is very frustrating that the pps never seems to reflect the continuing IOC success with the drill bit, I also believe that with so many near-term catalysts coming in the next 18 months, it would not seem to be reasonable to think that a buyout would maximize IOC pps at this time. With Bobcat, IOC now has 4 significant finds: E/A, Tri, Raptor and Bobcat. Lest we forget, this is double the number of discoveries of 12 months ago, at the time of the Total deal announcment.These new discoveries have yet to be appraised fully at all and there are many, many other additional catalyts in the pipe line. ALL of the following catalysts should be achieved by July 1, 2016, with many of them being achieved by July, 2015:
Arbitration results
New year-end E/A and Triceratops appraisal figures based on new seismic
Antelope 4 results
Antelope 5 spudding and results
Possible Antelope 6 spudding and results
Final E/A appraisal results and certification
Total E/A Resource payment
Antelope Deep spudding and results
Raptor 2 spudding and results
Bobcat 2 spudding and results
Wahoo 1 reworking and results
Triceratops 3 spudding and results
Design concept selection
Front-end engineering design
Final Investement decision by Total
Additional sell-downs in several IOC holdings