Thoughts on the OSH Deal, FWIW

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Indo, thanks for your thoughts. My thinking is similar to yours. On the "why now?" question I believe it's been made clear by Total that IOC isn't a good fit in any project. Total is shopping this deal to LNG buyers and banks. My guess is that consistently IOC is the weak link and increases the risk of the project. Oil Search is seen as solid and the PNG preferred company. IOC is in the way.

First, let me also thank Indo for an interesting line of thoughts.

Second, if you are right here Palm (and I think you very well could be, although I have no independent indications of this), doesn't it give InterOil a modicum of leverage? And if so, did they use it? The latter question is probably impossible to answer without first or second hand knowledge of the negotiating process, but the existence of a modicum of leverage doesn't strike me as unreasonable.

Let's not forget that nobody forced Total into the 2012 deal or forced OilSearch to buy Civelli out.