Agree, nothing wrong with shopping around. And it is possible that it may be little better than your rosy assessment. No, I am not jocking. Rather than FO going out on a fishing trip with Merril and BMO, I would venture to say that it may be othe other way around. A European O&G E&P company with a significant American presence approached Falcon with the intention to review and assess their 100% ground in Hungary. It is not in the bag. It will take months, perhaps slightly over a year to complete the assessment and make a decision, partly due to the volumes of data available, but also due to pending tests by XOM. After those tests Falcon's 100% lands will either be degraded or upgraded. The newcomer will consider that in their assessment. Falcon then needed to ensure that they get the best deal for the company, and Merril and BMO were hired to handle the interested party, as well as shop the lands around, to attract a competing offer.

At the end of the day, we still depend on positive results from XOM tests for survival. The new JV may also depend on positive XOM tests.

Reasons for a renewed interest in unconventional gas in Europe is only partly due to their dependence on Russian gas. The other reason is that that the recently signed agreement on Nabucco's pipeline has one major fault. It has little gas available for transportation. Gazprom may be down, but not out and it continues to tie up supplies. One happy outcome of the USA-Iran rapprochment would have been an eventual investment in their energy sector making Iranian gas available to Nabucco. The recent Iranian election leaving over 12 dead and the crackcdown that came with it have made the Iranian gas for Nabucco impossible. Hence the renewed interest in European unconventional gas. Hungary in only one such location. Germany and Poland also qualify.

db