What A Birthday!

Well, my birthday surprise turned out to be a humdinger!

Consider this: if the news about Sinopec had moved ahead of the news from Pioneer, we might have gained 17 cents from the previous close of $0.465 instead of the shocking low of $0.321.

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

Someone on I-Hub suggested that I might have sold my shares at $0.505, but the truth is my wife and daughter took me out to breakfast at the fabulous Morty's Bagels in Palmetto, Fla. at around 8am this morning and we didn't get back until about 10:20am, I figure.

Instead of looking at the price right then or powering up Power E*Trade, I decided to work my way through about 125 messages on Investor's Hub, where I quickly came to the one about Pioneer's exit and almost lost my breakfast. As I prepared that to post, I started taking a look at the trading on ADVFN and got another shock.

Just keeping up with those details was plenty of hard work, but then came news from Mark St. Amour that Platts' Jacinta Moran had emailed him the latest of her excellent stories on ERHC and the JDZ, this one revealing that we had already partnered up with the seventh-largest oil company in the world, Sinopec, as new partners in Blocks 2 and 3 to replace Pioneer.

Wow! What a day! What a fighting little stock we are!

The most thrilling moment for me was when at 2:47, like my birthday, we climbed back into the green at $0.47. The irony and delight slapped me upside the head so hard I just shouted with joy. I hope my neighbors don't complain.

I've gotten more than the usual number of mail messages at amreporter@aol.com about ERHC, and my response has been that I am staying long. I think Sinopec is far more powerful partner for us than Pioneer ever could be. It has the kind of clout that are reserved for very few in this world, and so long as it's working with us, I'm happy.

Pioneer, on the other hand, was not a bad company, but its troubling relationship with the Hungarian billionaire George Soros that funded the Sao Tome probe report was problematic for me, as he appeared to be on both side of the fence like the crafty currency trader he is. We needed someone with the ability to pay what we ask for our rights and to support a vigorous drilling program, and it looks to me like Sinopec fits that description in all respects.

And you can't say this reporter didn't warn the United States again and again here that it was about to lose the best blocks in the JDZ to the Chinese.

They just don't listen well in Washington, and now must watch their hapless taxpayers pay the price at the gas pump. I have tio pay it, too, of course, but at least I have gains now and in the future from my ERHC Energy stock to offset it.

What now?

Well, my date for the signing of PSCs - sometime in April - still stands. ERHC has promised today to conclude the Joint Operating Agreements between the partners by the end of February, and this time I think that will happen.

Signings could come in March, but I think it will take that full month to finalize everything with the Nigeria-Sao Tome and Joint Development Authority and find an appropriate time and place to finally sign the contracts.

Just a note about the contributions of Mark St. Amour to today's exciting action. He reminds me of myself when I was a kid reporter with the Middletown, N.Y., Times-Herald Record, always looking for a scoop and often getting them.

Mark's blog is defunct, but his posts to I-Hub today were worthy of any journalist. I can only congratulate him for an outstanding job of keeping me, my readers and the I-Hub board informed.