Homeport's Sao Tome Contacts Say JMC Set To Meet Monday

In what threatens to make me a very happy birthday boy, the Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe Joint Ministerial Council is set to meet on february 6th and 7th, a contact of reliable poster Homeport on Sao Tome has told him.

Homeport, believed to be a journalist based in Lisbon, also says that a story on the meeting is expected to emerge from the Portuguese Lusa news agency later this afternoon.

Great things often happy to me around birthday time, but finalized Production Sharing Contracts for all the blocks awarded on May 31, 2005 would be immensely memorable - and probably too much to ask for.

Combining the various threads of information we've been able to muster, however, it does look to us as though a deal for at least some of the blocks - and maybe all of them - has been reached between President Fradique de Menezes of Sao Tome and Nigerian President Oluseguun Obasanjo in the past 24 hours.

If so, we should probably expect dramatic gains tomorrow as word of the agreement leaks out. If they do not materialize, some of the conclusions I've drawn here may well be wrong, although the governments of the two countries, when they want to, have shown themselves to be very skilled at keeping secrets.

Here is Homeport's note, in familiar journalese:

STP News: Island journalistic contact infos next Monday-Tuesday being touted as most likely dates for JMC meet. Lusa agency may have stri on this later today.