Offor's Non-Operating Airline Stays Grounded; He Transfers His ERHE Holdings To Chrome Oil Services Ltd.

Sir Emeka Offor has a lot on his platem but his airline took flight today as a Nigerian government agency told him to turn over its operating license for failing to provide service. Offor's bank, African Express or AfEx Bank, is apparently on the same flight, and an insurance company and newspaper owned by Offor are also believed to be moribund.

However, the Nigerian billionaire has far bigger fish to fry. His Chrome Energy and Chrome Oil Services Corp. have substantial contracts, and his flagship, ERHC Energy, Inc., the debt-free, Houston-based oil exploration venture with a current market capitalization of $521 million (OTC BB symbol: ERHE), is expecting huge awards from the Nigeria Sao Tome and Principe Joint Development Authority Thursday morning.

The concessions awarded to ERHC Energy may be worth tens of billions of dollars. The Chrome companies have substantial contracts with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. for the maintenance and repair of refineries and other oil-related facilities.

In an unrelated move, SEC filings today revealed that Offor has moved his personal holdings of 303 million shares from one of his oil services firms to another, according to a Form 4 filing made March 9:

On March 9, 2005, Chrome Energy, LLC assigned to Chrome Oil Services Ltd. 303,591,433 shares of the issuer's common stock and warrants to purchase 2,500,000 shares of the issuer's common stock.

No reason was given for the transfer of ownership. However, Offor had to surrender 63,000,00 shares to a Nigerian bank, First Atlantic Bank of Nigeria PLC, last November 10 after he settled the bank's lawsuit over an unpaid $53 million loan with his own shares.

However, despite the other business issues, ERHC has agreements with mid-tier Noble Energy and Pioneer Natural resources to exploit its Gulf of Guinea oil rights, and the Pioneer accord also connects it to Devon Energy, a very large second-tier multinational oil firm. The company just appointed the immediate past U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria and a former high-rankingformer NNPC executive to the ERHC board of directors.

Here is the relevant part of the story from Thursday's ThisDay Online, whose story this morning about awards today turned out to be wrong:

Chrome, Freedom, Skyline Licences Revoked
by Ndubuisi Francis and Clara Udeh
04.28.2005

ABUJA -- The hammer yesterday fell on nine domestic airlines as civil aviation regulator, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) revoked their operating licences, otherwise known as Air Operator Cerificate (AOC).

The revocation which was conveyed to the affected airlines in separate correspondences by the NCAA takes immediate effect.

The airlines affected are Chrome Air, owned by Anambra businessman, Chief Emeka Offor as well as Freedom Air and Skyline.

Others are Trans Saharan Air, which was involved in last year's hajj operations, Amaco Air, Earth Air, Savanah Airlines, Millennium Air and Nexus Aviation.

A statement issued by the NCAA yesterday and signed by Media Assistant to the Director General, Mr. Sam Adurogboye, said the action was taken because the affected airlines had failed to make effective use of their AOCs.

The statement noted that some of the airlines ceased operations three years ago, adding that the NCAA has the power to revoke the AOC of any airline if such an operator did not commence operations 60 days after its licence was issued.