Doesn't make sense to me either. They said that the execution of the buyback would be influenced by a number of factors, particularly the price of the stock and market conditions. The only reason I could see them sitting on the side here is because their "experts" are predicting a further drop in overall markets and commodities.
As far as the stock price goes, how much lower do they think they're going to drop? Not executing a buyback at this price does not give me a confident feeling. One would think with the sizable buyback, that they would start nibbling every time it dropped below 9.