If I was a Major and I was contemplating making an offer to Buy IOC, I would wait until a couple of things are publicly announced.
1. IOC announces completion of the buyback of the IPI partners interest.
2. The PNG Government announces the renewal of all of the IOC licenses- PPL 236, PPL 237 and PPL 238.
No. 1 above needs to happen before “Completion” of Deal with Total.
No. 2 above probably needs to happen before IOC farms out a percentage of the licenses to Total or others.
I would make my offer immediately after both No. 1 and No. 2 are announced and before the “Completion” event with Total takes place.
By buying IOC at this time I would own (before Gov’t takes their 22.5%) 100% of PRL 15, 100% PPL 236, 87.1 % of PPL 237 and 100% of PPL 238.

