(Payback period and NPV calculations) Plato Energy is an oil and gas exploration and development company located in Farmington, New Mexico. The company drills shallow wells in hopes of finding significant oil and gas deposits. The firm is considering two different drilling opportunities that have very different production potentials. The first is in the Barnett Shale region of central Texas and the other is in the Gulf Coast. The Barnet Shale project requires a much larger initial investment but provides cash fl s successful over a much lon er period of me than the Gulf oast opportunity 'n addition, the longer life of the Barnett Shale project also resuts in additional expenditures n ear 3 o the pro ect to enhance production throughout the project's 10-year expected life. This expenditure involves pumping either water or CO2 down into the wells in order to increase the flow of oil and gas from the structure. The expected cash flows for the two projects are as follows: a. What is the payback period for each of the two projects? b. Based on the payback periods, which of the two projects appears to be the best alternative? What are the imitations of the payback period ranking? That is, what does the payback period not consider that is important in determining the value creation potential of these two projects? c. If Plato's management uses a discount rate of 18.7 percent to evaluate the prosent values of its energy investment projects, what is the NPV of the two proposed investments? d. What is your estimate of the value that will be created for Plato by the acceptance of each of these two investments? a. Given the cash flow information in the table, the payback period of the Bamett Shale project isyears. (Round to two decimal places.) Data Table Barnett Shale $(5,400,000) 2,160,000 2,160,000 (1,080,000) 2,160,000 1,860,000 1,860,000 1,860,000 800,000 650,000 120,000 S(1,300,000) 850,000 850,000 450,000 150,000 Enter your answer in the answer box andt parts Print Done