Monday, October 10, 2005

Link To Exxon, Anadarko Seen In Sao Tome Probe Of Oil Deals

Who is Judy Pensabene?

She is the recently-appointed University of Tulsa, Okla., Law School "Distinguished Visiting Professor" who is Chief Counsel of the Senate Energy Committee, and the person whom many suspect is behind a recent Sao Tome-based probe into awards of oil concessions in the Nigeria-Sao Tome Joint Development Zone.

Her husband, attorney Gregory M. Pensabene, is Vice President for Government Relations and a major stockholder in Anadarko Petroleum, the firm that with ExxonMobil fought tiny ERHC Energy and mid-tier player Noble Energy for operatorship of Block 4 of the Joint Development Zone - and lost. Anadarko won a minority interest in the block without ExxonMobil.

Pensabene, who has represented a number of oil and gas companies in private practice, had an apparent conflict of interest when the law school's National Energy Law & Policy Institute (NELPI) - formerly the Institute for Energy Law - sent executive director Robert D. "Dobie" Langenkamp to Sao Tome to "assist" the investigation by the country's attorney general into the awards. Langenkamp's expenses are being paid by the Open Society Institute funded by George Soros, who has purchased 4 percent of the equities of Pioneer Natural Resources, ERHC's partner in Blocks 2 and 3. Pioneer was reportedly the unsuccessful suitor that offered a $2 a share buyout to the ERHC board in July, according to UpstreamOnline. ExxonMobil was offered control of ERHC in 2000 for $6 a share, according to earlier news reports, but declined to accept the offer. In recent years, Langenkamp has argued in speeches and journal articles that the U.S. is entitled to take Iraq's oil to pay the cost of the U.S. occupation there.

ExxonMobil's presumed "foot-dragging" was a principal cause of five-months of delays in the award of the JDZ blocks on May 31 of this year. The company won a portion of Block 1 with operator Chevron in the 2003 bidding round, while all other bids for eight remaining blocks were disqualified. In 2004, the Joint Development Authority offered Blocks 2 through 6 in what became known as the 2005 Round. ERHC Energy, both with partners and alone, won portions of all the blocks due to rights it earned by advising Sao Tome and Principe for several years, and which were upheld by an arbitration panel of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris in 2003.

Langenkamp, the son of lifelong Gulf Oil (now Chevron) executive who was the author of petroleum reference books that are still in print, is widely known throughout the industry as a former Carter and Clinton administration energy official.

NELPI's Energy Law Journal Editorial Board with Judy Pensabene, TU Law alumna and Chief Counsel, U.S. Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee.
Photo: National Energy-Environment Law and Policy Institute

Pensabene was named to the visiting professor post at her alma mater shortly before the law school institute sent Langenkamp to Sao Tome to "assist" the country's probe of the awards. The U.S. Senate press release announcing her appointment took note of NELPI, strongly suggesting that Pensabene may be guiding Langenkamp's investigation on behalf of the politically powerful energy firms she works with in the Senate.

The man leading the six-week probe, Sao Tome and Principe attorney general Arlindo Pereira, told reporters this week as he started the probe that there "is insufficient evidence" of corruption, and both the nation's president and Joint Development Authority president Carlos Gomes have indicated in later news reports that the probe will have no impact on past awards.

According to the Vanguard, a Nigerian daily:

Sao Tome’s state prosecutor Adelino Pereira said there was so far insufficient proof of corruption in assigning the blocks, a process which was delayed for months amid a dispute between President Fradique de Menezes and opposition groups.


Yet Langenkamp, who seemed to be taking control of the probe from local officials, told Vanguard there was a need for further investigation and that Nigeria's president should aid it:

Dobie Langenkamp, head of the National Energy Environment Law and Policy Institute at the University of Tulsa, said in a statement that further investigation was necessary.

He asked Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to cooperate in the probe. [See http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/world/
w324092005.html
]

Six different lawyers for ExxonMobil sit on the NELPI board, including its Chief Attorney, Harlan Martens. Houston-based ExxonMobil and Oklahoma-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. were fierce competitors for Block 4 of the JDZ, which ultimately went to ERHC Energy of Houston and Noble Energy of Oklahoma City.br>
During the period in which the Nigerioa-Sao Tome Joint Ministerial Council was evaluating the various bids for Block 5, the World Bank reportedly decided that the Noble/ERHC offer was best overall bid because of its promise of an accelerated drilling program that would cost the venture some $40 million; Anadarko's commitment would have cost the company only $10 million, news reports say.

Anadarko has four of its lawyers, including General Counsel Charlene Ripley, on the NELPI board (see http://www.swlegal.org/iel/advisoryboardmembers.html).

Neither Noble nor ERHC are represented on the 110-member board, which includes lawyers for both Pioneer and Devon Energy, our partner and former partner in Blocks 2 and 3, respectively.

In addition, Langenkamp in 2004 was a member of the Advisory Committee of the Institute for Energy Law, whose Executive Committee was chaired by Theodore Frois, ExxonMobil's General Counsel for Upstream Companies and included ExxonMobil assistant chief attorney as chairman of the IEL Oil & Gas Committee. Tim T. West, Devon Energy's General Counsel for international operations, is also an IEL Executive Committeee member. Devon was the ERHC Energy/Pioneer Natural Resources partner that dropped out of Block 3 after the consortium's bid failed to win an operatorship there.

Most compelling, however, is the fact that Pensabene's husband, Gregory M. Pensabene, is the chairman of Anadarko's PAC, owns 25,000 of its shares - which now sell for $96 - and Anadarko's Vice President for Governmental Relations. Also a Tulsa Law graduate, Gregory Pensabene works out of Anadarko's Washington, D.C., office and lives in nearby Alexandria. The Alexandria-based Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation thanks "Greg and Judy Pensabene" for their donations. A Senate Energy staffer confirmed the two were husband and wife but would not elaborate. (See http://www.preventcancer.org/about/events/raffle.cfm.)

At stake is a huge reservoir of oil eagerly sought beneath the Gulf of Guinea's calm blue seas. One interested executive, Said Arrata, is president and CEO of Centurion Energy, which captured a 7.5 percent minority portion of Block 4 in the 2005 bidding.

"We have mapped six prospects on this block, with a combined reserve range of 2.5 to 3.5 billion barrels and two of those prospects contain half of those reserves,” said Arrata. “This is why the big boys are after it," Arrata told OilBarrel.com, an industry Website (see http://www.oilbarrel.com/home.html in late September.

In a statement that accompanied U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici's announcement of her 2003 promotion to Chief Counsel for the Energy Committee, a Domenici press release noted that "Prior to moving to Washington, D.C., Judy practiced law in Tulsa, Oklahoma, representing independent oil and gas producers, primarily in appellate litigation. She holds a law degree from the University of Tulsa, home of the National Energy Law & Policy Institute."

According to the LUSA news agency of Portugal, "The investigation is being assisted by Dobie Langenkamp of the National Energy-Environment Law Institute and should be concluded in six weeks," Sao Tome Atty. Gen. Adelino Pereira told reporters.

Dobie Langenkamp is the father of Heather Langenkamp, Freddie Kreuger's nemesis in several of the "Nightmare On Elm Street" movies, and was Supreme Copurt Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy's roomate at Harvard Law.

According to biographical statements, "Before joining the [Energy] Committee, [Pensabene] was engaged in the private practice of law, primarily in litigation for corporate oil and gas clients, and served as a legal and political consultant in Washington, D.C., to various firms in the energy industry since 1978."

Pensabene is a 1975 graduate of Tulsa Law whose last post was chief counsel for the Constellation Energy Group in Washington between 1995 and 2002. In 1992, she was the chief negotiator for the Senate Energy Committee on the energy law enacted that year.

The Senate Commerce Committee has heard extensive testimony under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act involving ExxonMobil, Chevron, Devon, Pioneer, Noble, Marathon Oil and others in a probe of corruption in the award of oil leases in neighboring Equatorial Guinea, and indictments may yet come from that case.

At a minimum, Pensabene should be required to disclose a complete list of all of her present and former clients and their litigation concerns prior to involving the Tulsa Law School's NELPI institute in a politically-driven probe of companies that may now be their competitors.


Lawyers Respond To Our Probe Reports


ERHC On The Move has received a note from lawyers associated with the International Senior Lawyer Project, a hitherto unknown group, regarding the probe of Sao Tome's acceptance of awards in the Joint Development Zone jointly administered with Nigeria. The lawyers say we have the facts all wrong.

Dear Mr. Shea:

It has come to my attention that you have posted allegations on your blog "ERHC On the Move" regarding the recent initiation in Sao Tome and Principe of an investigation into the second bid round conducted by the Joint Development Authority of Sao Tome and Principe and Nigeria. Assisting in this investigation are two volunteers of the International Senior Lawyers Project. I regret that your blog makes allegations that are completely false, and I would like to bring your attention to the correct facts. Please see the statement that the International Senior Lawyers Project is releasing today attached hereto. [See below.]

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or would like further information.

Sincerely,

Jean C. Berman, Esq.
Executive Director
International Senior Lawyers Project
31 W. 52nd Street, 3rd Fl.
New York, N.Y. 10019-6131
Tel: 1-212-880-5836
Fax: 1-212-878-8375
www.islp.org


ERHC On The Move is just now beginning the process of learning who this new group is, and what role they may play in the probe by Atty. Gen. Arlhindo Pereira of Sao Tome and Principe.

Here is the press release issued by the ISLP (pronounced I Slip):

STATEMENT BY THE INTERNATIONAL SENIOR LAWYERS PROJECT CONCERNING THE INVESTIGATION BY THE ATTTORNEY GENERAL OF
SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE
October 6, 2005


It has been brought to our attention that the “ERHC On the Move” web-blog of Monday, October 3, 2005, made a number of false statements regarding the investigation of the second bid round conducted by the Joint Development Authority of Sao Tome and Principe and Nigeria. The Attorney General of Sao Tome and Principe is pursuing this investigation in response to concerns expressed by the National Assembly and the citizens of Sao Tome and Principe.

In connection with the investigation, the Attorney General requested assistance from the International Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP). ISLP is a U.S.-based international non-profit organization that provides pro bono legal assistance to various international governmental and non-governmental groups. ISLP has a roster of experienced lawyers to call upon to provide this voluntary assistance. The activities of ISLP are explained more fully on our web site, www.islp.org.

In response to the Attorney General’s request, ISLP provided two volunteers to assist with the investigation: R. Dobie Langenkamp, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy and currently a law professor at the University of Tulsa, and Becky Jacobs, a law professor at the University of Tennessee with oil industry experience. Both volunteers are providing their services without charge on an individual basis. The University of Tennessee, the University of Tulsa, and the National Energy Law and Policy Institute at the University of Tulsa are not involved in the investigation, nor are any entities affiliated with these institutions.

The blog asserts that Ms. Judy Pensabene, Chief Counsel to the United States Senate Energy Committee, is connected to the investigation. This is completely false. She has had no connection whatsoever with the initiation or ongoing conduct of this investigation and to our knowledge was not even aware of its existence until these false statements appeared on the “ERHC On the Move” web-blog. Nor has she any connection with the International Senior Lawyers Project, nor, except for one guest lecture, the National Energy Law and Policy Institute. The Attorney General initiated this investigation because of serious concerns expressed by the National Assembly of Sao Tome and Principe in May of this year regarding the conduct of the second bid round. We understand that his office took this action without consultation with any person outside of Sao Tome and Principe.

As far as we are aware, no representative of the “ERHC On the Move” web-blog attempted to contact ISLP or the Attorney General before posting these false statements. It is regrettable that these allegations appeared without any attempt to determine their veracity.


After examining their site for the first time today, I noted that nowhere on the site (except in this press release, which I could not find there), I found no mention whatever of the Sao Tome and Principe probe or their role in it. In contrast, however, the Nigerian newspapers have mentioned the National Energy-Environment Law and Policy Institute several times in connection with the probe.


Information available as recently as today, however, continues to show R. Dobie Langenkamp as the Executive Director of NELPI (aka the Energy Law Institute), and at least 10 representatives of Anadarko and ExxonMobil on its board, and the main photo on the NELPI Website homepage (www.nelpi.org) shows Judy Pensabene with students who publish NELPI's Energy Law Journal.

So far, only the Vanguard and the Daily Trust have mentioned the Pereira investigation, and both newspapers referenced Langenkamp in connection with the National Energy-Environment Law Institute, and neither paper mentioned the ISLP.

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