Firstly let me say that all the posturing on the board and antics on wild accusations and mass ramping and deramping is purely speculative and should be taken with a pinch of salt.

I have spoken to XEL investor relations department and asked some generic questions, some of which were answered and some where not as they were commercially sensitive and/or price sensitive in orientation.

Q what is the alternative testing procedure alluded to in the rns of this morning?

Cannot answer due to commercially sensitive nature but rest assured the test will take place, all the ducks are lined up and we are just waiting for a window of opportunity to conduct the test and perform it correctly.

Q Has the betty knutsen been stood down?
Cannot answer that as commercially sensitive. Nothing has changed since the November RNS regarding planned activity, we’re just running behind due to weather conditions.

Q Havila fortune made a stop at the rig, what was offloaded?
Cannot answer that question as its commercially sensitive in nature but deliveries of materials are made to the rig regularly especially items too large or heavy to fly in.

Q Will the export line be repaired or replaced?
A bit of both, current hose repaired and a new hose will be shipped.

Q whats the Christmas working schedule?
The same as every other day of the year, it’s the same on the rig from Monday to Sunday 365 days per year, they may well stop for Christmas dinner but other than that its business as usual.

Q how many people are on the rig? Are they all XEL employees
About 50, some 25 or so are XEL employees the rest are specialists and consultants helping. The schlumberger guys are on the rig with diamond drilling staff, they work to working time directive before being replaced with another person of equal skill, they are flown in when time is up on a 1 for 1 basis. If weather is bad the staff continue to work until window opens to transfer.

Q when do you expect to complete tests?
This again was commercially sensitive but a small delay due to the weather will not make a great deal of difference if your invested in the company.

We discussed a few personal pleasantries and a few off the record remarks that I will not post but needless to say that there are a lot of people within the company whose lives will change when the flow test is completed (by whichever method they choose) and full production is achieved. The conversation was both pleasant, informative and very positive. I am very confident in the success of the company, I am fortunate to have been in early so still in healthy profit but I almost £10k down on the highest paper profit I had at £3.35 as opposed to the £2.26 close today. I am not worried one iota and that’s not because I’m stupid or because I have contacts in the industry but its because I’ve got off my backside and done my research and asked the right people the right questions.

I’m not posting this for any other reason than to let people know that there is no big mystery and the greed in trying to squeeze every last penny out of stock is not always necessary. I have traded xel on the way up and down to accumulate as many shares as I can but now I am sat still as its too close to call and be caught out. If anyone successfully trades this at the moment well done and I was adamant we would get great news on Friday…..but I’ve been saying that for 10 days now and been wrong! But Christmas does not exist on the rig and work will continue. We’ll have our results before new year of that I’m convinced,possibly before Christmas if all goes to plan.

Good luck to you all regardless of your strategy.

===========================================

So basically, stuff happens when you work in the North Sea and stuff will continue to happen while we're drilling there.

But it won't stop XEL from drilling, or flow testing or progressing. Not the waves, not the wind, not Christmas and not some crappy made-in-China hose.

So don't worry, be happy!

We'll be back to $5.00 by January and hopefully a little sooner.

Cheers,

PW