excerpt
“But he claims you assured him the hole is good. The market is telling
him something else.”
“It is a good hole, Eteo. Why do you doubt it?”
Eteo had to pause for a moment to find smoother words than the
first ones that came to mind.
“Look, Richard. If they really had a good hole, they wouldn’t
make a cash call now. They would release the news that their hole
was good. Simple as that. Asking for more money so fast, I have to
tell you, Richard, it’s not a good sign. I don’t like it, and neither does
Bernard.”
“Don’t be so pessimistic, Eteo. We have a good hole, you’ll see.”
“I hope so Richard, I hope so. But looking at the market, if it
thought the hole was good, there would have been lots of buying orders
from the drillers themselves, you know that. We would have seen
them by now. I’m afraid your guy has got nothing and just wants to
milk the partners for as long as he can.”
Eteo paused and took a deep breath. Richard was silent too. Finally,
all he could say was, “It will be a good hole, you’ll see.”
“You know,” Eteo warned, “Bernard could be a bad partner if he
found out that anything was kept from him.”
“Why? What did he say to you?” Richard asked, sounding
alarmed now.
“I’m just advising, Richard, that Bernard could be a very negative
factor in the market if he felt cheated. He could try to undermine you
just for the principle of it. I know him.”
“Come on, Eteo. There aren’t any principles in this market, and
you know it. If my market picks up, he’ll make money on it too. Why
would he undermine me.”
“Then the question arises, how will you move your market with
a bad drill hole?”
“Don’t say that, Eteo. I have a good drill hole. You’ll see when the
news is out.”
“I hope so for your sake, Richard”
“Are you trying to warn me about something more specific, Eteo?
Is there something you’re not telling me?”
Manolis Aligizakis 