It would seem to make good sense to say no to Hess if they weren't even planning on being the operator and were working on "farming out most of the play to one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world" - especially if that company was you know who - Exxon!!

It will be interesting to see if we get a more detailed report on the seismic at a later date, as I believe it was mentioned here earlier that the 2d seismic survey was primarily set to evalutate the conventional plays for oil and gas. I am not sure, but does it require 3d seismic to get a better reading on the non-conventional plays?

I would also like to know if this "indentification of a shale play in the northern part of the permits" would indicate that the southern permits that Hess did not have an option on - showed very little by way of oil and gas in the seismic? This would be another reason to give Hess a "no" to an extension.

We might get a similar drop on the first open on the TSX like we are seeing on the AIM exchange, but that could be fairly short lived if we get more details showing the seismic was very strong. My first reaction was certainly negative, but with Hess requesting another month extension and with a major like Chevron already working with us in the Karoo and having very large projects already in place in Australia - who knows this may turn out very well indeed. Sure hope so for all Falconiers.