Lusa Has Latest On Sao Tome Oil Probe

A probe into awards in the Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe Joint Development Zone is going to be addressed by the government soon, Sao Tome's prime minister told the Portuguese news agency Lusa today.

The report has faded from view but has also managed to delay signing of Production Sharing Contracts between winners of the 2004 Licensing Round and the bilateral treaty organization known as the Joint Development Authority.

In Washington, Elias Johnson, an economist with the Energy Information Administration who does the agency's Nigeria brief, said he did not anticipate further delays as a result of the Sao Tome probe. "I've heard people laughing about it around here," he said.

Here is the Lusa story, posted this afternoon on the I-Hub message board by Homeport:

Sao Tome: Gov't reaction to oil award probe "very soon", says PM

Sao Tome, Dec. 28 (Lusa) - The prime minister of Sao Tome and Principe said Wednesday that her government will make public its reaction "very soon" to an official probe into alleged wrongdoing in the award of licenses to operate offshore oil blocks.

Maria do Carmo Silveira, speaking after a meeting with a parliamentary oil commission said: "The government still doesn't have a definitive position on the matter. We are carefully studying the question and will very shortly make public our position".

The cross-party commission of lawmakers has been analyzing a report from the Attorney General's office on possible corruption in the licensing round for the five blocks in the Joint Development Zone shared with Nigeria.

The commission of MPs requested the official report, which uncovered strong evidence of "serious faults" in the May 31 awarding of the JDZ blocks and took two months to prepare.

Details of the probe have yet to be officially disclosed, but media have reported that the document fingers the US-registered but Nigerian controlled ERHC oil firm as having possibly made irregular payments or provided other benefits to officials in Sao Tome before the awards were made.

ERHC was awarded control of two of the five blocks, in partnership with another company, and gained significant shares in the other three JDZ blocks.

Production sharing contracts for these blocks were scheduled to have been signed this month by Sao Tome, Nigeria and the international energy firms involved.

RCN/CJB.