I think we are in complete agreement as to the ultimate outcome. If you look back at much earlier posts, I believe RN has executed beautifully on a strategy of using JV's for early indirect control. Price negotiations will be a quite different matter. A larger critical mass avoids the possibility of a major securing one of the conjoined players and creating a logistical issue to secure leverage with NOT (as just an example , perhaps far out). However, NOT remains substantially at risk if a significant find by a peripheral player enables a toehold to be secured by a major.And, there is in reality no way that risk can be entirely eliminated. (There is a big difference between discussing risk and being negative, which this discussion is not. The discussions in the last several weeks regarding peripheral players make this a good topic to think about, the issue being leverage/control of issues at the bargaining table.)