"The Russians,willing to bring about a change to the better, will have to move to the MAKO themselves with a lot of money in their pockets looking for any production"

I think you are on the right track in that the Beetaloo and all the talk of raising $50 million on the Aussie market is possibly a desparate move by Bruner to try and hold on to the reins. There is no doubt that a successful financing of this size (through a new Australian operating company) would go a long ways to moving the Beetaloo forward, but the quickest way for any share appreciation will be some real success in the Mako - given how much farther the work has progressed in the Mako versus the Beetaloo. Renova, with their Russian oil and gas operations and Burlingame as a financially committed player could move the Mako forward together with a bit of luck.

It is interesting in that the rig you mention from the Sakhalin project, off the east coast of Russia, is an Exxon developed deep drilling rig if memory serves me correct. I don't know what kind of control Exxon may still have over that technology, but given the Russian history of the Sakhalin project I would expect that they own more than 50% of that rig and the corresponding technology by now.

Regards Paul