"THE Petroleum Agency South Africa (Pasa) estimates that recoverable reserves of shale gas in the Karoo are about 40-trillion cubic feet — much less than the US Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) estimate of 480-trillion cubic feet."
Let's keep this in perspective. 480 TCF is MIND BLOWING, an Earthly game changer. A lowly "40 TCF" (if that's "all it is") is still an unbelievably significant find that would take decades to extract and add significant value. Let's not be distracted by the actual potential size of the prize. 40 TCF would be considered a GLOBAL GAME CHANGER in ANY market. The chance at 480 TCF is just silly and if even just 10% accurate is a pretty sick upside. Many companies get way too excited at a few BCF (See potentially Mako Szolnok) but to even be talking in the TCF range is sick in itself. 40 TCF is a hell of a lot of gas so i'm not sure why anyone would be disappointed, other than the USGS started talking 480 TCF which would be insane. If 40 TCF is the low point of all the estimates my guess is we'll all be very rich one day. Just not sure if that is 10 or 50 years from now :) Simply, it would be nice if the SP started to represent the value that we have in our 3 major assets but unfortunately previous talk-up and let-down affects that and the fact that a lot of us believe that this could indeed be the hold-long-and-get-that-once-in-a-lifetime monster return has both endeared us all and at the same time disenfranchised some. I can't think of any other venture that seems to be at the very beginning of a very long adventure with every passing year, never seeming to be primed for progression. I think all the fundamentals are there for this to be explosive, but the question amongst us patient holders is most likely "WHICH DECADE" will we see some success LOL. For those of us that are a bit longer in the tooth let's hope the answer is THIS DECADE. Long and strong since 2005.
Cheers,
LP