I've been getting my head round the land sale. This is the area of land that was allowed to revert to the Crown during the re-opening if sidetrack #2 a couple of years ago now. (Time flies!) The fact that PDI has put in a successful bid for it, shows that the company was positive about the Port au Port prospect when bids were called. Even more hopefully, this optimism has been encouraged by what they are finding as they drill the present well.

CIVC has not been amongst the bidders, but I have argued before that this would not have been a very sensible move on their part, given their present finance.

What is interesting is that the other parcel, to the south of Cape St George, attracted no bidders, indicating that oil companies, junior or otherwise, are not falling over themselves to get into Western Newfoundland. I don't think we should read too much into this. This was never the best of the parcels up for grabs. I was also reading an article the other day which suggested that the majors were making quite enough money from their producing wells while oil prices were high, and were not even extending exploration in their own licence areas. The argument was they had no interest in extending the number of proven reserves, thereby risking lowering the very prices that were making them so much money.

Times have changed now.

For CIVC I think all this just adds further weight to what we all know - to make their interests attractive to potential investors or buyers the company needs some hard proven facts about the prospects in the area. One could be proving the potential of the Green Point Shales and that the oil they contain is economically recoverable. Another would be a large find by PDI on Garden Hill, which would make the Aguathuna in area 1070 more attractive.

It looks as though the long wait for news has been nothing to do with the Land Bids, which as far as CIVC is concerned, are a side issue. As a poster on IV has pointed out, the lack of news on the GPS could have more to do with the ponderous way Canadian labs work. And for news of the Aguathuna prospect, we are waiting on PDI and the results of sidetrack #3 on Garden Hill.

Regards
Dunnock