I am not sure if the gov't would allow Chinese takeover of TLM...but certainly a takeover of qec is way more likely. Certainly TLM knows something to budget $150+ million to this project or why invest that much...why not invest just a few million for a few wells and be done with it. I think they have a strong belief of something good down there and factor in with the forest results, might have made them even more sure of themselves.
In regards to a takeover.....if the results come back as they expected, then they might try and take qec over as quick as possible to avoid having to pay a huge premium because the stock price after huge results would send this stock soaring....so who knows, they might do it before....but that might make it obvious that they hit something big. Either way, qec management wouldn't sell themselves short in a case like that.
Rocco