Obasanjo reportedly burst into a meeting between top officials of a major oil company and the head of the authority governing its Gulf of Guinea production zone yesterday and demanded a stop to "the umprofessional way in which these auctions are being conducted." That information allegedly came to Raging Bull investor swinging ---k from an attorney present at the negotiations.
The Financial Standard editorial said, in part:
It is noteworthy that Obasanjo administration "stubbornly" refused to appoint a minister of petroleum resources preferring a situation where the president is also a minister by default! Furthermore, we should note that from Phillip Asiodu to Edmund Daukoru nothing significant has changed in the quintessential modus operandi in the oil industry in its relationship with the rest of the economy. This point is being emphasised to underscore the fact that in the final analysis the decisive factor of historical change is the to be a matter of historical paradox that while some of these gentlemen parade such curriculum vitae, the net result of their stewardship and performance in office left much to be desired. This is the greatest tragedy of it all.
Professor Weneso Orogun of Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife writes today in the Financial Standard, the country's leading daily financial journal, that there is no sign of the vast sums reportedly expended on development projects in Nigeria, and that turnaround maintenance - much of it conducted at the Warrri and Port Harcourt national refineries by ERHC's parent, Chrome Energy Services, left the refineries unable to deal with the nation's 2.4 million barrel daily output of crude and other products.
The oil"curse" lies precisely in the inability of our leaders so far to utilize our oil revenue for all-round socioeconomic development of the country irrespective of ethnic differences. Related to this, is the gross mismanagement of the four oil refineries including the budget for Turn Around Maintenance (Tam). These billions of naira were committed to the Tam instead of investing in new refineries. Till today, nobody has been able to tell us precisely how these refineries came to their decrepit state, how much fund was looted from the coffers of the NNPC and what punishment was meted out to the culprits.
The entire article is available at http://www.financialstandardnews.com/news.asp?url_news=667.
The criticism came as activists in Port Harcourt are reportedly mobilizing to mount a call for the President's suspension from office following a complicated series of political events that culminated in the removal of Chris Ngige, the Governor of Anambra State, Chrome Chairman Sir Eemeka Offor's home state.
In the latest development, the Vanguard of Nigeria reported that Ngige offered his political godfather, Chief Chris Uba, Na. 4 billion to "settle the crisis."
ERHC chairman Offor, whose Chrome Energy owns about 36 percent of ERHC's stock, was known as the political "godfather" of Anambra's last governor, but broke with him and then reconciled towards the end of his rule to oppose Ngige. Offor has since reduced his role in politics but was a strong financial supporter of Obasanjo's last presidential campaign.
Complicating Obasanjo's tenure of Nigeria's president, Chief Audi Ogbeh, the head of Obasanjo's People's Democratic Party (PDP), was recently forced to resign, reportedly by Obasanjo, as the two men clashed.
The former PDP national chairman now says he was removed after bribes were paid on Dec. 15 and Jan. 2 and 3 to the officials who engineered his removal at last week's party conference.
Update, 3:20am 1/15/05: Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo moved late Friday to appoint a Petroleum Minister, a post he has been occupying in addition to that of the presidency, according to This Day, a leading Nigerian daily newspaper. Obasanjo is expected to announce his nomination of a former journalist and current presidential special assistant, Chief Onyema Ugochukwu.
7 comments:
Joe, this is 3-day-weekend. Will anything happen?
I have heard that in fact it has; the news is that we have won 2 and 4. I will wait for confirmation by more sources before I post it, though.
By the way, I didn't say awards always come on 3-day weekends - I said the news that moves the stock way up always come on 3-day weekends. You might tell them that on RB.
Both of those "pump" ads ran widely almost a year ago, and people who read them and took their advice did not do welll the stock reached a high of .96 and fell to .30 when the bad news about that bidding round emerged. I recommend that investors wait until the morning of Jan. 17 (when markets are closed) to determine if ExxonMobil has made known its preferential choices in Blocks 2 through 6. If so, make the approriate decision for the market opening on Tuesday, Jan. 18.
Rancho says: I have to agree with Joe that the beginning of this week will serve as a harbinger of what's going to happen. If you haven't made your decision on where to be by now, it should be clear very soon.
Hey, Rancho, don't fail to look at the post before this one for the very last update. Some mission-critical info there...
Joe,
Could you state what you believe the implications would be depending on what Exxon's decides?
Simply put, if XOM decides to farm out its rights to Devon, we'll get operatorship of whatever block they farm to us in. How about if they farm to Devon and Noble -- all the better.
Frankly, I now have tips from two sources that we've won Blocks 2 and 4. That's worth $1. Now we have to think about the timing, not just guess about it. For me, that's the bottom line.
As a preliminary framework, it appears that we will see a couple of big events prior to awards that will boost our price, and that surge will be amplified dramatically by awards. It looks like a very goof time to be in ERHC,
Someone on RB noted that I'm a swing trader; that's true, but I've only sold on two swings, the .43 cent one and the .96 cent one. I sure don't do it every day, or every month. But I do it once a year or so.
Talking about ERHC sales here! :)
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