Here is the comment:
... Donnie MacDonald, general manager in charge of Deepwater Ventures, said ChevronTexaco had in the last two years doubled its position in deepwater, and had become the number one in Nigeria.
...
He said the contract for Block 1 in the Joint Development Zone would be signed "shortly," but gave no details.
"We are trying to sign the JDZ agreement very, very soon," he said.
The news release is available at the company's Website, at http://www.chevron.com.
Vitrina, an online Sao Tome newspaper Thursday, cited statements by the country's Energy and Environment Minister, Arlindo Carvalho, as saying that it would likely be signed within "a fortnight" - two weeks. Carvalho spoke to the press after a meeting of the nation's National Petroleum Council at the presidential palace presided over by Sao Tome's oresident, Fradique de Menezes.
The statements by Carvalho contradicted the comments last month by Nigerian energy advisor Dr. Edmund Daukoru that there was no dispute between the two nations holding up the much-delayed PSC. Daukoru contended that a clause required by Sao Tome under a model "transparency" law enacted late in 2004 was being reviewed by the parties and that Christian and Muslim holidays had made the signing difficult to arrange.
But Carvalho said the demand by Nigeria for a part of the Sao Tome Exclusive Economic Zone of Sao Tome and Principe where the Hercules Blcok 246 overlaps was at the core of the dispute, and Carvalho called the isue "one of the fundamental conditions" for signing the pact with ChevronTexaco, the operator in Block 1, along with particpants ExxonMobil and Energy Equity Resources of Norway.
"If not for the difficulties created by the Nigerians," Carvalho said, the block would have been signed long ago.
The news from ChevronTexaco immediately buoyed the price of ERHC on the OTC Bulletin Board, where it had fallen half a cent after the opening to $0.485. Within a minute of the release, the price moved back uo to $0.50, a cent ahead of the opening in New York. At 10:16, the bid was $0.49 and the ask $0.51, with a brisk 224,036 shares changuing hands.
Investors had anticipated vigorous buying today ahead of the expected signing of the Block 1 pact that resulted from the Oct. 15 conclusion of Round 1 of the licensing process. The signing apparently has to precede the awards of Blocks 2 through 6 that follow the closing of the bids in Round 2 on Dec. 15. Those awards have been delayed since a Dec. 31 deadline set by Dr. Daukoru passed uneventfully. The Block 1 signing has been twice delayed, from Dec. 15 to Jan. 10, and is now expected to occur on Feb. 2.
There are some indications that World Bank officials have advised Sao Tome to delay a third round of licensing involving only Sao Tome's Exclusive Economic Zone for as long as three years to await discoveries and oil price hikes in the nine blocks the two nations share jointly.
5 comments:
Please advise the source of the statement, "There are some indications that World Bank officials have advised Sao Tome to delay a third round of licensing involving only Sao Tome's Exclusive Economic Zone for as long as three years to await discoveries and oil price hikes in the nine blocks the two nations share jointly".
Is this merely conjecture on your part?
You stated;
"Here is the comment:
... Donnie MacDonald, general manager in charge of Deepwater Ventures, said ChevronTexaco had in the last two years doubled its position in deepwater, and had become the number one in Nigeria.
...
He said the contract for Block 1 in the Joint Development Zone would be signed "shortly," but gave no details.
"We are trying to sign the JDZ agreement very, very soon," he said.
The news release is available at the company's Website, at http://www.chevron.com. "
I have not found anything on their website or in their news that states anything like this. Please list a link which goes directly to the news site. Otherwise you could be construed as making this up.
Here is the link
http://www.amtddj.inlumen.com/bin/djstory?StoryId=CqFNg0aebqLqWmdm2otq
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=ERHC&read=95296
That World Bank advising STP to delay EEZ auction was in the news few days ago. I am not gonna find the link for you. You anonymous should find it yourself.
The press release was the foundation for the Dow Jones News Service story. You will find the comments above in the Dow Jones story, if your news provider is carrying that wire service.
The World Bank advice was part of a story on the new transparency law. My conjecture is that there is some wisdom to the World Bank's suggestion and that while they won't follow it to that extreme, they are cionstrained by Niogeria from auctioning off blocks whenever they'd like, even as a sovereign nation, until we build a base there. Then they can do whatever they want with their oil.
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