From Justice's post on April 27th:

“The Bentley well is spudding early July, with initial flow rates expected to be reported in mid September. On a well that independent consultants give a 90% chance of success, I hope the stock would be trading $3-$5 at that time."

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With the spud date now confirmed and using the same time line as above, it means the flow rates probably won't be reported until late November/early December. The one thing that could crush a projected stock price in the $5 range would be a double dip recession in the U.S. that would send the markets plummeting again.

Unfortunately, more and more indicators are showing this to be likely.

However, in the long term (2011 forward) good flow results should send the price up much higher than $5 since the IEA just stated that oil demand will continue to increase next year. Remember, China is selling approximately 17 million new cars a year and they ain't running on solar power.

Oil will be back up to $100/barrel by some time in 2011 and a company like XEL should benefit greatly from it. Don't get too caught up in the short tem, but the medium term is looking great.

Cheers,

PW