Champagne2,

You "hit the nail on the head". I have spoken to BC for a total of two hours on the phone, and after each conversation I was shocked at how paranoid BC is about another drilling co. getting some advantage by what the partnership has gone through and accomplished in a most difficult enviornment, where no one else as yet has achieved much. He believes the primary difficulty and hence why there has been so little drilling and success in eastern TN is because it is like no other place and you have to start from scratch. Past experience will do you no good there. He said a half dozen times, "this isn't like drilling in Texas or OK", where you can take a cookie cutter approach. He has his consultants from Canada and his on site experts as he calls them and they confer on everything to plan each next step. From what I understood, it is them more than him that demands this degree of secrecy. He strives to keep them happy because he feels without out their expertise the JV has nothing. You are very observant to have surmised this without speaking to him.