Monday, December 19, 2005

In New Article - Or Clever Forgery - ERHC's Lawyer Slams STP

An article from the staid Guardian of Nigeria - we searched the Nigerian daily late last night but didn't see it - has appeared on the Raging Bull and I-Hub message boards this morning, but unlike all the other articles in the paper it was double-spaced. It cannot be found in the site's front-page index this afternoon, either, and the site at The Guardian has otherwise not changed.

The poster who provided it, mrrhodes, is unknown on the I-Hub board under their current alias; the name Mr. Rhodes is most readily associated with the colonial diamond giant Cecil Rhodes, who created the Rhodes Scholarships at Oxford University but is intensely disliked in Africa for his paternalistic treatment of Africans.
Thus, there is a strong possibility the article is a forgery that was created by pasting a forged text with some genuine material and posting it on the paper's server surreptitiously. The article is not listed in the paper's index and its appearance on the site suggests it was the work of a computer hacker; it was also unsigned, unlike all other pieces on the Business page. Finally, the behavior of the stock this morning was unusual; the Ask kept rising despite a falling Bid, and also moved up on sales instead of purchases, an unusual occurrence.

The article erroneously states that ERHC Energy is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. It is an Over-The-Counter Bulletin Board stock (OTC BB symbol: ERHE).

The piece carries additional comments attributed to ERHC Energy's new Managing Director Ali Memon and ERHC's attorney on the continuing dispute between Nigeria and Sao Tome over ERHC's rights in the Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe Joint Development Zone, where the company won operatorship of two blocks and equity in three more last May 31. Some seem more harsh than wise.

The "weekend" referred to in the story may be last weekend, when Memon and ERHC Energy's lawyer, Steve Ahaneku, did speak to Reuters.

There is some concern abroad that the lawyer, more accustomed as he is to the freewheeling political environment, sounds too harsh to American ears - tuned as they are to the gentle tones of our political debate.
Some of Aheneku's comments are similar to those attributed by Reuters to Nigerian oil minister Dr. Edmund Daukoru in a Reuters story last Tuesday, so it appears the Nigerian government and ERHC Energy are on the same page. However, the characterization of the comments in the first paragraph is the newspaper's own.

Here is the article, which reads like it may come come from the Independent newspaper:

ERHC alerts Nigeria over Sao Tome's threat to JDZ Treaty

ERHC Energy has alerted the Federal Government that the Republic of Sao Tome and Principe has been all out to undermine the Treaty governing the Joint Development Zone (JDA) that is being administered by that country and Nigeria.

The ERHC alert followed the declaration at the weekend from the office of the Attorney General of Sao Tome and Principe that it found "serious flaws" in the way
that five oil blocks in the JDZ of the Gulf of Guinea were awarded last May to oil companies.

ERCH Energy, a quoted company on the New York Stock Exchange in which a Nigerian indigenous oil company Chrome has major equity interest, said that the criticism against the 2004 JDZ Licensing Round, was part of the underground campaign targeted at Nigeria.

A report published by the Sao Tome Attorney General's Office said that several of the companies chosen to explore the JDZ lacked the technical know-how and the
financial muscle necessary to carry out the work, and that the procedures used to select the companies which received concessions contained serious flaws and did
not satisfy the minimum standards required for the award of such licenses.

The country had been picking grouse against ERCH over the preferential rights granted the company in the awards of the blocks.

However, reacting to the allegations, the Legal Consultant to ERHC Energy, Mr. Steve Ahaneku, said the purported investigation by the Sao Tome Attorney General has been orchestrated to create grounds for terminating the valid contract with ERHC, and that of Sao Tome with Nigeria under the Treaty.

Ahaneku noted that the matter of interests in the JDZ awards, is the subject of a Treaty between the two, adding that the Office of the Attorney General of Sao Tome could not act unilaterally with respect to such matters.

"The report by the Attorney General of Sao Tome and Principe is a direct attack on the Nigerian government. The Nigerian government should take exception to the claim that the second bid round was a failure, as the Sao Tome government participated fully in all actions leading to the award," said the ERHC. "The current Nigerian government led by its fiercely anti-corruption President Olusegun Obasanjo, has shown
its commitment to transparency and probity in the awards of public contracts including oil concessions," the company added.

Five oil blocks were awarded in the second round of bidding in the JDZ conducted in November 2004. The awards followed approval granted by both President Obasanjo and Fradique de Menezes of Sao Tome and Principe on May 31, 2005, based on the recommendation of the Joint Ministerial Council (JMC) made up representatives of
the two countries.

The awards, which attracted signature bonuses totaling $283 million, saw the ERHC Energy granted preferential rights in all the blocks based on the company's
agreement with Sao Tome as compensation for exploratory works carried out earlier.

In Bloc-2 where it emerged operator along with US companies -Devon and Pioneer, ERHC was awarded 65 percent stake, 25 percent in Bloc-3 along with Devon and 60 percent equity and operatorship of Bloc-4 as well as 15 percent each of Bloc's 5 and 6.

However, it is this rights that the Sao Tomean Attorney General, Adelino Pereira launched investigation upon, securing the services of one Dobie Langenkamp, a professor of energy law at the University of Tulsa in the United States.

In picking holes in the investigation however, the ERCH said Nigeria's Attorney General was not aware of it, in a matter that was supposed into concern the two
countries. The company described the involvement of the US Department of Justice in the matter as a move to scandalize the process.

Also speaking to journalists at the weekend, the Managing Director of ERHC Energy, Mr. Ali Memon said the agreement the company has with the Sao Tome government was to compensate for the huge sums of money the ERHC spent on behalf of the Sao Tome
government to get companies to carry out seismic studies and also to conduct delimitation of the country's boundaries.

Said Memon: "This interest is not completely free. Like in Block 2, ERCH has 30 percent interest. All that means is that they reserved 30 percent for ERHC,
but when exploration works take place, ERHC has to pay its own share of the expenses. Nigerian government will not pay for it, Sao Tme is not going to pay for
it. ERHC is to pay for it. "That is a point that is not really understood."

"All the value that ERCH has is on the signature bonus. It is just the compensation that the company got in return for spending so much on the work we did. We have agreements with the Sao Tome government granting us the rights. We did not lie to anybody. Our rights are recognized by the JDA, and the JMC, it is transparent," he added.

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