I am Head Scratching also on as to why champagne2...

There are some real Oil Industry savvy people on here & I confess I'm not up on all the ins & outs either.

Hope I don't offend anyone here with mentioning some basic stuff as follows, but it is only to be informative to those who don't follow the Oil & Gas upstream Business as a rule.

Last weekend, we had friends over and one of them spent a lot of years on Drilling Rigs in the Beaufort Sea, plus off California & on Land too (just don't remember where).

He was not at all surprised at the approach to Completion MEO Et Al is taking.
He has a small # of Shares in MEO & was interested in the Pics. at the WebSite, as well as the latest NR's (he doesnt watch this Stock as closely as I do).

As I understand it, the reason for the great care in Completion & Tie-In of the Wells & not "bringing them on" too soon, is to make sure they Produce at a sustainable Rate, for the longest poss. time, without losing their Natural Flow Characteristics. The "Pools" of Oil or Gas are typically not Pools at all, but many series of openings in the Rock, so I believe something akin to Capillary action takes place. Permeability & Porosity of the Rock are also critical even where Frac-ing to open up the Flow is used. i.e. Let them Produce too fast & their can be a Flow void or gap in the Rock and that Well can be permenantly Toast!

Not trying to Educate those smarter than myself, just trying to be of min. assistance.

Cheers, SB