I am somewhat "dumb"founded why XOM walked away in Feb this year from Europe's potentially biggest gas play located in Hungary . It appeared with the recently announced XTO deal that it was very unlikely. Perhaps the fact tha XOM was not closing the XTO deal until at least June 30/10 created a much better hand for XOM to"walk" away from the original deal's deadline of March 31/10 for the phase 2 commitment payments. Also, XOM very well knew the added financial strain this decision would imposse on FO. These tough XOM poker players had "heated" discussions and the cost of this game escalated. FO's hand was that XOM needs to announce the continuation to phase two or we will seek other partners and XOM hand was we are walking away (even though we are aquiring XTO). Very interesting??????????

Oh sh*t, I just woke up from daydreaming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BTW, I found these articles, one from Jan 8/10 and the other March 16/10.

regards,

painted1

Exxon’s Failure Rate, Hungarian Flop, Led to XTO Deal (Update2)

January 08, 2010, 4:51 PM EST

“Exxon is buying XTO for the people so they can take their knowledge and skill base and put it to work in Hungary as well as Germany and other places,” said Brian Youngberg, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co. “For the large, integrated oil companies, unconventional plays were kind of forgotten for a long time, but now it’s one of the few growth areas.”

Unconventional deposits include tight sands, or sandstone so dense that traditional drilling won’t unleash the gas, and shale, a type of rock with pores so small that fracturing is required to allow fuel to flow. Exxon’s Hungarian prospect involves tight sands like those at the Freestone Trend in Texas, which accounts for 28 percent of XTO’s output."

Exxon Mobil deal for XTO clears hurdle

Exxon Mobil bit for XTO Energy passes regulatory hurdle; deal on track to close by July 31

March 16/10