Drilling In June? Maybe Not, But Soon

Big, price-driving news from the Gulf of Guinea and the Joint Development Zone - Sinopec is going fishing. The company plans to start drilling in Block 2 and Addax plans to drop anchor in Block 4 as soon as July, according to the sometimes-reliable Portuguese news agency Lusa.

While we don't axctually believe this will happen in June, and neither does Lusa, it shouldn't be long now. We do expect a doubling of the stock price from the current $0.43 durting the next month.

Here's the news report, courtesy of our old friend, Mark St. Amour:

JDZ/STP News: Oil exploration set to kickoff in offshore zone shared with Nigeria - official

Lisbon, May 21 (Lusa) - Oil exploration activity is poised to revive next month in the offshore Gulf of Guinea zone shared by Nigeria and Sao Tome and Principe after a three-year hiatus as the two countries consider the possible auctioning of new blocks beginning in 2011.

Jorge Santos, the head of the bilateral authority overseeing the Joint Development Zone (JDZ) told Lusa Wednesday, that Chinese operator Sinopec would begin exploration in Block 2 in June and that Block 4 Swiss-Canadian operator Addax would begin drilling in July.

"There's some expectation of finding something. Both in Block 2 and in Block 4, where Addax has very encouraging perspectives", Santos said in a telephone interview from Sao Tome.

"By the end of the year we'll be in a position to declare the zone commercially viable or not", he added.

The STP head of the Abuja-headquartered Joint Development Authority (JDA) also said the body was in negotiations for the carrying out of additional seismic studies in four other JDZ blocks - 7 through 10 - with a view to opening a new licensing round as early as 2011.

Sufficient seismic data, especially 3D studies, were still lacking for those blocks, Santos said, adding that it would take 18 months to two years to complete the new studies.

Blocks 7, 8, 9, and 10 would "in general be smaller" than the six JDZ blocks auctioned since 2004, with areas ranging from 750 to 1,500 square kilometers, he said.

Santos said the upcoming drilling in Blocks 2 and 4 was expected to last at least one month and would be followed by a period for analysis of results.

He downplayed the significance for the JDZ of US major Chevron's inconclusive results from exploration in Block 1 in 2006, noting that the company had drilled only one well and "possibly not at the right spot".

"There's a certain (topographical) decline between Block 1 and Block 2, allowing one to deduce that all the expectations built up around the first block could lie in the second one", he said.

Underlining that at least three exploratory wells were required to establish a field's commercial viability and a fourth well for development purposes, Santos said Chevron might well be waiting to get results from Sinopec's drilling in Block 2 "to decide what to do in future".

On yet to be drilled Block 3, he said US mid-tier operator Anadarko had adopted a "more passive stance", possibly given its major interests in the Gulf of Mexico.

Despite pressure for Anadarko to drill, Santos said the JDA could "not oblige" the company to act and that its plans remained unknown.

The JDA chief also said that the future of JDZ Blocks 5 and 6, auctioned in 2005, but still lacking production sharing contracts, remained unclear, due in part to the operators, ICCOOECA and Filtun Huzodo, respectively, facing "some difficulty in mobilizing the necessary investment".

The uncertainty surrounding those two blocks, he added without elaboration, also involved disputes over the interests of minnow ERHC, a US-registered company controlled by Nigerian powerbroker Emeka Offor, which has rights and interests in most of the JDZ blocks.

ERHC also has major rights to future blocks in Sao Tome and Principe's exclusive economic zone, which the island government has repeatedly said in the past few years it was preparing to auction.

Now, Make That 100%!

Anyone who followed my advice of a few weeks ago made 100% on whatever they invested at $0.11. I probably ought to quit while I'm ahead! The stock was up $0.06 yesterday to $0.23. As usual, it was just misplaced enthusiasm about the prospect of a drillship getting to the Gulf of Guinea laer this year.

Merry Christmas Redux!

As I predicted just before Christmas (see my "Merry Christmas!" post, below) anyone who bought a boatload of shares for $0.11 would make 20% on their money at $0.14 by March. Well, I was playing it safe - they made 20% by today, Jan. 23, when the share price reached $0.1425. On 300,000 shares, that would be about $9,000, giving a quarter-cent to the market makers..

Congratulations if you listened!

P.S. I'm sorry I didn't mention that the Adan Abraham is in Capetown. It has been there for a while, Jim Ledbetter indicated. It has two or three other jobs before it could get to us.

Ledbetter's Laments

We've had a long conversation with Jim Ledbetter, the company's recently separated Chief Technical Officer. He is doubtful, I gather, that the Adan Abraham will ever be our drillship, but notes that several others are possibilities. Nonetheless, he isn't hoping for any drilling activity until the last quarter of 2009.

He was critical of decisions to throw away corporate money on lawsuits that solved nothing, went nowhere and only achieved a reduction in our assets. He felt strongly that current management is generally incompetent.

I hope to add more about his observations soon.

Merry Christmas!

Just a short note to all of our readers to extend the best wishes of ERHC On The Move and Joe Shea to you for a happy, healthy, prosperous and safe New Year.

I have of course been following the sad path of ERHE as it has moved from $0.60 all the way back down to $0.11, where it seems - at least for now - to have finally found a bottom.

Is there hope for those of us with ERHE stock to make some money in 2009? It all depends on two things: whether we have any oil, and whether the price of oil continues to fall to historic lows in a Deprerssion-era scenario, or whether, as it has been accustomed to doing, rises as world economies back away from the precipice and begin to improve.

I think anyone can earn 20% or more on this stock in a few months. That would presumne you buy it now at $0.11, and hope that the Adan Abraham finally sails to the Gulf of Guineau for us.

I think it will also make money if Sao Tome & Principe decides to accept the lone, albeit free, explorer that is truly interested in its reserves - and has been since about 1996 - or successfully forecloses on our rights in the Sao Tome Exclusive Economic Zone by winning at arbitration.

The problem is, how much demand can there be for an oil company that has no oil to sell? And the answer to this question is what limits the upside of ERHE for the time being.

I suspect that we will see $0.14 before March 30, and that will be our forecast 20% gain. Selling it at that point may net you a few bucks if you have several hundred thousand shares - if you had 300,000 and got them at $0.11 for $33,000, and sold them for $0.14 or $42,000, it's good short-term money. But there may be much better buys out there, like Citigroup, Intel and others that might do far better (or far worse) at their current fire-sale prices.

Many investors have taken ERHE fgor a long, sweet ride, sucking in latecomers as the price collapsed, spitting them out as it rose. That tradition will undoubtedly coninue.

The hidden hand of Justice, i.e., the ongoing Justice Dept. Federal Grand Jury investigation of various bribery charges against ERHE, is always there to take back whatever better circumstances in the Gulf of Guinea may give.

While it surely appears that this investigation has been nixed, quite obviously the Department under Bush remains sufficiently dishonest to continue to do the bidding of Big Oil and withhold closure on the probe, knowing full well that doing so creates pressure on ERHE's principal, Sir Emeka Offor, to sell his holdings cheaply. The investigation, of course, has gone and is going absolutely nowhere, as we have told you from the beginning of it.

We are not impressed or overly concerned about corporate personnel changes. It doesn't appear that the personnel do anything, anyway, given that everything related to us remains in Limbo as well.

So my recommendation? Buy several hundred thousand shares, cash out by the end of March or even January, if you get your 20% - and wait for the next retreat.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Nigeria's Strong, President Says

In ceremonies to mark the coutry's 48th anniversary of independence from Britain, Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua said the African continent's largest producer of oil and gas remains "on a strong footing" and would continue to see double-digit growth with modest inflation, Bloomberg News reported.

Stability is perhaps Nigeria's most precious commodity on a continent wracked by brutal and bloody civil wars, vast famines and the worst of the AIDS epidemic. So far, the new president has managed to rein in the growing MEND guerilla movement that threatened just a month ago to stop all oil shipments from refineries in Bayelsa and Rivers states and had earnestly gone about doing so. Now they say they will honor a unilateral cease-fire.

The remarkable turnaround is rare for Nigeria, where feuding states and a bloody civil war nearly two decades ago left many fragile relationships for the federal government to repair. That proved difficult in the administrations of two presidents that followed, the first the victim of a coup by the second, who surprised many when he completed his permitted terms and voluntarily relinquished power. The previous administration was unable to mend the rift with the MEND guerillas.

Here is the story:

Nigeria's Yar'Adua Says That Economy Is Strong, Growing at 6.9%

By Paul Okolo

Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Nigeria's economy is "on a strong footing" and growing at an average 6.9 percent, owing to the government's sound policies, President Umaru Yar'Adua said.

The inflation rate in Africa's most populous country is below 10 percent and the naira currency is strengthening against major world currencies, Yar'Adua said in an e-mailed statement from his office in Abuja today to mark the country's 48th independence anniversary.

"This is a consequence of our policies aimed at maintaining relative stability and predictability" in the economy, the president said in the statement.

The west African country of more than 140 million people is in its ninth year of unbroken civil rule, the longest period since independence from Britain in 1960. Until 1999, the country was controlled for nearly three decades by corrupt military dictatorships.

Yar'Adua, 57, took office in May 2007 after winning a presidential ballot held a month earlier which local and foreign observers said was ``flawed'' by electoral malpractice and violence.

The president, who's been criticized for being too slow in acting to address the nation's problems, said his government would ``rapidly'' rebuild the country's poor infrastructure in a bid to transform it into one of the world's largest economies in 2020. Part of the plan includes allowing investors to build and operate some important roads and the rail system, he said.

Nigeria has Africa's biggest hydrocarbon reserves, with more than 30 billion barrels of crude and 187 trillion cubic feet of gas. The country, which Bloomberg data shows was the continent's top oil exporter in July and August, is the fifth-biggest source of U.S. oil imports.

Doubts About ERHC Rights Raised In Nigeria

Saying several officials had been quoted in the Nigerian press as saying ERHC Energy had lost some of its rights "by its own accord" in the Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe Joint Development Zone, the company's spokesm,an, Dan Keeney, issued a press release asking for clarification of the comments concerning Blocks 5 and 6 of the JDZ.

The two blocks had not been very high on anyone's list for prospectivity until oil officials whose names have been forgotten made their comments to media at a meeting of the Joint Ministerial Council, possibly in July, according to a regular and reliable poster on the Investor's Hub EWRHC Energy board:

During JMC meet in Sao Tome (July?), Midtieroil, STP media quoted named STP officials as saying the JDA would not reconsider ERHC for blocks 5/6 as the company had given up its rights to them of its own accord. They were quoted as thanking Nigeria for supporting STP's stance on subject. Never saw anything on the matter from NG side.

Here is the ERHC Energy Sept. 8 release on the topic, which openly risks raising the issue at a higher level:

ERHC Energy Inc. Seeks Clarification From Joint Ministerial Councilof the Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe Joint Development Zone

Sep 8, 2008 16:04:15 (ET)


HOUSTON, TX, Sep 08, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- ERHC Energy Inc. (ERHE, Trade ), a publicly traded American company with oil and gas assets in the highly prospective Gulf of Guinea off the coast of central West Africa, is seeking the reaffirmation of government officials regarding the Company's rights in Joint Development Zone (JDZ) Blocks 5 and 6. In May 2005, the Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe Joint Development Authority (JDA) confirmed ERHC Energy's 15 percent interest in the Blocks.

ERHC is committed to exploiting its rights and meeting its contractual obligations in the JDZ. The Company wants to eliminate uncertainty stemming from recent press reports in which members of the JMC were quoted. The reports raised questions about the status of ERHC rights in JDZ Blocks 5 and 6.

Letters sent by ERHC Energy Chief Operating Officer Peter Ntephe to the Joint Ministerial Council (JMC) of the Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe JDZ and to the JDA, which manages the JDZ, assert the company's intent and commitment to exploit its rights in JDZ Blocks 5 and 6.

"We have the utmost respect and regard for the JMC and JDA, and we hope that media reports questioning our rights in JDZ Blocks 5 and 6 are erroneous, in which case we respectfully apologize for raising the issue," said Mr. Ntephe.

The letters also declare that if ERHC's rights in JDZ Blocks 5 and 6 are tampered with or compromised, the Company will take all necessary legal steps to protect its corporate interest.

ERHC Energy has interests in six of the nine Blocks in the offshore JDZ between Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome & Principe. The Company has additional interests in the territorial waters of Democratic Republic of Sao Tome & Principe known as the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

3rd Q Results Are In; Webcast Available

As ERHC Energy falls once again, the company has released its 3rd Quarter financial results. The company spent almost $3.4 million and increased its net loss as interest income fell.

A company Webcast remains available until Sept. 12, and a replay of the conference call is available for listeners today.

Here is the press release:

ERHC Energy Inc. Reports Third Quarter 2008 Financial Results

Aug 12, 2008 06:00:26 (ET)

HOUSTON, TX, Aug 12, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- ERHC Energy Inc. (ERHE, Trade ), a publicly traded American company with oil and gas assets in the highly prospective Gulf of Guinea off the coast of central West Africa, today reported financial results for the third quarter ended June 30, 2008.

As of June 30, 2008, ERHC reported cash assets totaling approximately $32.4 million, compared to approximately $35.7 million one year ago.

During the three months ended June 30, 2008, ERHC's interest income totaled $225,070. ERHC's net loss totaled $604,173, compared with a net loss of $587,219 for the three months ended June 30, 2007. General and administrative expenses during the third quarter totaled $820,462, which was a down nearly 24 percent from the third quarter of 2007.

"The Company has been prudent in its spending and has consistently been able to reduce its quarterly expenses during the past two years," said Chief Operating Officer and Acting Chief Executive Officer Peter Ntephe.

ERHC will hold a conference call at 8 a.m. Central Time today, August 12, 2008 to discuss third quarter financial results and Company operations. To participate, please dial 877-890-0968 (domestic) or 706-902-1710 (international) five to ten minutes before the call begins and reference the pass code 57619351. A simultaneous live Webcast of the call will be available over the Internet and will be accessible by going to www.livemeeting.com/cc/erhcenergy/join and entering the Meeting ID: 7QC7M4 and Entry Code: 8JR#pbw.

A replay of the call will be available at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time through August 19, 2008 by dialing 800-642-1687 (domestic) or 706-645-9291 (international) and providing the following replay code: 57619351. In addition, the Webcast will be available for replay until September 12, 2008 by going to www.livemeeting.com/cc/erhcenergy/join and entering the Meeting ID: 7QC7M4 and Entry Code: 8JR#pbw.

Sinopec To Halt Oil Exports

Sinopec, ERHC Energy's partner in the Nigeria-Sao Tome Joint Development Zone Blocks 2 and 3, has decided it will not export oil outside of China begginning in the third quarter, it announced yesterday. It is China's third-largest oil company, and the sixth-largest in the world.

The China Daily News said today that the decision was made this week as the world's most populous nation faced multiple challenges from a 7.9 earthquake on May 12 that may have killed 88,000 people, leaving 5 million people homeless.

"China's largest oil company, PetroChina, also said it would increase its refined oil production to ensure supply for reconstruction and the summer harvest," the newspaper reported. Petrochina is providing 20 percent of its refinery output to the hardest-hit cities in the quake-ravaged region.

Sinopec has made quake relief its first priority, the article said. Investors are left with some uncertainty how seriously - if at all - the decision will impact the exploration of Blocks 2 and 3.

Here is the article:

Sinopec to halt oil products exports, raise output
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-30 08:43


China's largest refiner Sinopec said it would increase its oil processing and halt oil products exports in the third quarter to ensure domestic supply.

"Sinopec will raise production, halt exports and adjust product structure to ensure domestic supply, especially for the reconstruction after the earthquake, the summer harvest and the Olympic Games," said Sinopec President Wang Tianpu.

Disaster relief is a top priority for Sinopec, according to the company. It will work in tandem with the government to keep the prices of oil products in quake-hit regions stable.

The company had made emergency deliveries of gasoline and diesel to earthquake-hit regions. It also ordered several of its refineries to raise output in response to the disaster.

China's largest oil company PetroChina also said it would increase its refined oil production to ensure supply for reconstruction and the summer harvest.

PetroChina has allocated 100,000 tons of refined oil in emergency supplies to Sichuan after the earthquake. By May 27, oil storage in Sichuan reached 252,000 tons, ensuring 16 days of supplies, the company said in a statement.

PetroChina will increase its oil supply to Sichuan, Chongqing, Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia by 20 percent for the summer harvest, the statement said.

Facing high crude prices in the international market, the government's control on domestic refined oil prices has caused big losses for the country's oil refiners. In the first quarter, Sinopec saw its net profit plunge 65.78 percent to 6.7 billion yuan.

This, happened even after the company got 12.3 billion yuan in government subsidies in March, of which 7.4 billion yuan was counted as first-quarter income.

PetroChina said its first-quarter profit fell 31.5 percent as refining losses and windfall taxes cut its earnings from record crude prices. Net income dropped to 28.9 billion yuan from 42.1 billion yuan a year earlier.

China exported 4.84 million tons of refined oil products in the first four months of this year, a decrease of 7.8 percent from a year earlier. In April, exports of refined oil products stood at 1.23 million tons, according to Customs figures.

From January to April, the country imported 12.68 million tons of refined oil products, up 9.2 percent, show Customs figures.

An Enterprising Move On The Corporate Development End

ERHC Energy has acquired a well-qualified VP for Corporate Development who will search for new ways to extend the company's holding, assets base and profits in coming years. It's a positive step in the current trading environment, but ERHE shares responded anemically after the appointment was made on April 30.

Here is the press release:

ERHC Energy Inc. Appoints Vice President Corporate Development

Apr 30, 2008 16:00:40 (ET)


HOUSTON, TX, Apr 30, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- ERHC Energy Inc. (ERHE, Trade ), a Houston-based company with valuable oil and gas assets in the Gulf of Guinea, today announced appointment of David Bovell to the position of Vice President Corporate Development. Mr. Bovell begins his duties with ERHC Energy immediately.

Mr. Bovell brings more than 25 years experience in corporate finance to ERHC Energy. He most recently served as managing director of Green Corporate Finance Ltd. and as director of Equity Partners for Emerging Markets. He was previously Finance Director for Antonov plc, where he initiated the company's listing on the Alternative Investments Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange.

In the newly created position of Vice President Corporate Development, Mr. Bovell will oversee planning and implementation of strategies for corporate growth. Responsibilities will include the identification of appropriate opportunities for corporate mergers and acquisitions by ERHC. Mr. Bovell will also pursue future corporate finance options, including stock-exchange listings.

"We are pleased to have David join us and anticipate he will be pivotal in designing and implementing a focused growth strategy for ERHC Energy," said Peter Ntephe, acting Chief Executive Officer for ERHC. "We sought a person who could accelerate our examination of various strategic opportunities to enhance shareholder value, including expanding the Company's assets through acquisitions and exploring various stock exchange listing alternatives."

Mr. Bovell's expertise is corporate finance for small and medium cap companies, with an emphasis in strategy formulation, business planning, fund raising, stock exchange listings initial public offerings and mergers and acquisitions.

Another Day, Another $0.06

Shares of ERHC Energy dropped sharply again on Wednesday after the uninspiring shareholders' meeting. ERHE was down 5 cents, or 13 percent, for the second straight day.

The chart-readers say resistance at $0.39 may keep us at the current level, but I'm hoping - sorry to say it - we will see a return to the $0.20 era, where I'd like to replenish my hoard of shares.

How likely is that? Less so every day we get closer to identifying a drillship and setting to work. It's only because we thought we had one on the way to the Gulf of Guineau already that we rose to $0.60.

One event that might get me those cheap shares is an indictment, but as I have warned before, if one comes down, the sudden collapse of the share price is likely to be followed by an almost-as-sudden rebound the same day and over two or three following days. People who can play both ways that day may do extremely well for themselves, but it is difficult if not impossible to find short shares at some brokerages (like E*Trade) for this stock.

I saw several posters were calling others to account for their rosy and false (or at least very flawed) predictions about the outcome of the shareholders meeting. I think that's a healthy turn of events. But I fear some of those calling the kettle black were calling it white themselves just a few weeks ago.

One note on the session: Michael Madigan's remarks to a questioner about statutory limits on the federal crimes alleged against management did not do a lot to clarify the issue. He said he thought the statutory limit had already been exceeded, but offered no backup for that position. If there is a statutory limit, however, the DOJ has a laundry list of various crimes at a wide variety of times they might employ to bring the charges without fear of statutory limits.

His most compelling comment, however, was the one we've been stating for more than a year: there is no evidence available to the Justice Dept. to bring an indictment in the first place.

Annual Meeting: Good News, Bad News, And A 13% Price Drop

As I anticipated in an earlier post here, there was no good news coming out of the ERHC Energy annual shareholders meeting except that our Acting CEO Nicolae Luca is leaving and that company Secretary Peter Ntephe, with us since 2001, will take his place in the same transient capacity.

There was some unnerving news, though: it seem our drillship, the Aban Abraham, is still in drydock and not expected to arrive in the Gulkf of Guineau anytimes soon. The company is still looking for a "ship of opportunity," as VP Jim Leadbetter put it, which is a nice way of saying we are in a life-or-death struggle with other drillers to get a ship together that can deliver some of that $120-a-barrel oil that lies in the Block 4 prospect.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria Howard Jeter reiterated the remarks of several speakers when he said that finding a permanent CEO is management'sfirst priority, and added that once this is accomplished the board may expand by two or three members.

Attorney Michael Madigan. who is representing us in the SEC/DOJ investigation of the company's dealing with foreign leaders, stated pretty unequivocally that while the government can't be hurried, there is no evidence against the company tgo prosecute it at trial. Madigan seemed confident that no indictment would ever occur, but I did not hear him say that, if he did, as I didn't get into the live broadcast until 5:15PM ET.

And, of course, I have been telling readers the samer thing for about a year. It seems like they could have done the same, really.

The lack of news may have been reflected in the lack of support ERHE received on the OTC Bulletin Board, where trading was only a little above average at 745,889, but traders took the share price down 13.21%, or 7 cents.

It might be wise for investors to go back through ther posts on the message boards elsewhere and search out those posters who implied or predicted good news coming from the annual meeting. Those are the folks whose advice you need to avoid.

Why Cancer Cures Are A Dime A Dozen

Did anyone see the Leslie Stahl piece Sunday nioght after the Master's about a man's homemade garage-workshop cure for cancer? John Kanzius proved that heating tumors tagged with liquid metals like gold nanoparticles can utterly destroy cancer in rats in a heartbeat.

But don't get excited. It's another real cure that will go nowhere.

I recently tried to get the St. Pete Times to write about the long, if not infinite. delay between discovery of a promising cure and human trials. They seem unwilling to touch it. I watched this business about gold nanoparticles and I say to myself, any cure anyone finds better be expensive as hell or the cancer Establishment will shut it down in a heartbeat.

"60 Minutes" is so vacuous sometimes, particularly with respect to the surrounding issues, that I wonder if they are just stupid over there, or what? Four years "to start" human trials - while millions upon millions who would gladly try it die. Human papilloma virus (HPV) was also effective in killing tumors when injected into glial blastomas - but trials are 10 years away. Up in Montreal, the Children's Hospital found a way to cure diabetes overnight by injecting capsicum into the Islets of Langerhans in the pancreas and found that insulin started flowing normally within 24 hours. But human studies need $5 million to get started. A British study showed that a person was completely cured within minutes of Alzheimer's after a drug for spinal repair (I forget the name) was injected into the spine. It was taken up to the brain and instantly dissolved the plaque that causes Alzheimer's, and the human patient began functioning normally right away.

You can go on and on, and what it boils down to is that hospitals, doctors, medical schools and insurance companies can't afford cures.

The economic losses due to a simple diabetes cure would be on the order of $18 billion alone. Curing cancer simply and cheaply would cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

That's why there are no cures - and it's why patients have no real advocates in Congress or anywhere. Only dedicated physicians who work largely alone and unfunded are making progress, it seems.

Who is the brave and daring dead man who'll take the medical industry on? When will "60 Minutes" get a clue?

Good News

There's a message barely spoken in the statement of a high-ranking Justice Dept. official associated with the Rep. William Jefferson bribery case and the decision by the US Supreme Court Friday not to hear an appeal by the DOJ of a denial by an appellate court of the Department's right to raid Jefferson's congressional offices.

The word is "potential," as in the DOJ feels the Supreme Court made it difficult or impossible to pursue other potential bribery and corruption cases that may have had an association with Jefferson, Africa, and - we suggest - Nigeria in particular.

In other words, ladies and gentleman, case closed. At least that's the way it looked, and it appears that's the way investors took it when they pushed the price of ERHE as much as 4 cents higher on Friday, and left it up $0.03 at the end of the day.

I want to write more about this, but tax day is upon us and I'm awfully short of time. I'll try to get back to it promptly, but for now, that's my read: The DOJ has found in the Jefferson case a way to rid themselves of the embarrassment of the ERHE situation.

Hoo boy!

Big Moves

Up again, down again, up again - the daily leaps and stumbles of ERHE are hard to predict and perhaps harder still to understand.

One certainty is that the penny-stock newsletters have been successively weighing in ever since we started our move up from around $0.25. Today's tipster, which rated a blurb on my E*Trade news engine, helped push the stock from $0.42 to $0.48 today (it's down at $0.45 as I post at 2:10PM ET Friday).

As long as the stock keeps performing like that, it's a certainty that the tipsters will keep pumping - that is, until they start dumping, which is less common now that the SEC has published the Threshhold list of short stocks.

Do the moves have any specific, substantial news behind them? 'Fraid not.

But there is always one piece of news that ought to be driving this stock higher every day, guided by caution since the jury is still out, literally, on the FBI and SEC bribery allegations - and that is that within four or five months or seven or eight months, Addax, Sinopec and the drillship Aban Abraham are going to start exploring on Block 4, and that's all she wrote.

There is a virtual certainty the Gulf of Guinea concession where we hold a 26 percent interest is brimming with black gold.

I was struck by the fact that posters didn't know who Mary Kay Dimke is. She's the U.S. Attorney to whom the FBI/SEC investigation of alleged foreign bribery is assigned, and who is making her case as we speak in front of Federal Grand Jury in Houston. The fact that she stopped by to check some information from 2006 was more than interesting to me; I felt as though the time of decision on whether to hand down indictments is near.

Of course, if you do sell your stock and I buy it, you can blame me, yourself or her; as I've said for the past few weeks, anyone selling now is just inviting themselves to get aced out of very large gains.

Hang on, as always. If the indictments do come down, those, too, will pass. ERHC Energy is going to be a winner, I believe, no matter what.

From The 'Nuff Said Dept.

ERHC On The Move
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ERHE Set To Open At $0.59

ERHE is set to open $0.07 higher than it closed on Friday, an unprecedented kind of leap for this stock and and yet another indication it is headed for the stratosphere.

Three purchases of 7,500 shares went off at $0.54 and then $0.59 in the early extended hours trading.

Now, a total of 20,000 shares have traded at this price.

Comments. Anyone?

With time, wounds heal. The rotten spam produced by the former moderator of the Investor's Hub message board is behind me now, and I have reopened the board here to comments for the first time in a couple of years. Just click on the "Comments" link at the bottom of the post to begin the registration process.

I can't say I haven't learned a few things. To comment, you must register and become a member of the blog, just as you would at Investor's Hub. In addition, we have an addition level of screening; posts must be approved by me before they are can be read by others.

I will not approve spammed comments, libelous stuff, undue criticism or bad language. You are welcome to criticize or praise ERHC Energy, its officers, directors and shareholders, and I just ask that you do so in a tone of constructive fairness. A failure to be fair won't get your post canned, though; it will just persuade me and other readers the poster is not a reliable voice.

It just occurred to me that I haven't checked the mailbox where those posts go, so I'd better do so now.

Meanwhile, there are many of you I look forward to hearing from, and I hope you'll soon be writing to us. This past week, on three days we had more than 500 readers, and I wouldn't be surprised if that number didn't increasae with the share price!

See you soon: Enjoy!

Who Reads This Blog, Anyway?

One answer to that question is "Folks in Houston, folks at the beach, and folks in Canada," at least based on a cursory glance at the origins of our last 100 visitors.

Here's the list: Can you pick out your hometown?

1
United States Buffalo, New York
2
United States
3
United States
4
United States Bradenton, Florida
5
United States Tulsa, Oklahoma
6
United States Cape Coral, Florida
7
United States Pensacola, Florida
8
United States Newhall, California
9
United States Los Angeles, California
10
Canada Ottawa, Ontario
11
United States Victoria, Texas
12
United States Cordova, Tennessee
13
United States Abbeville, Louisiana
14
United States Sherman Oaks, California
15
United States Absecon, New Jersey
16
Canada Brampton, Ontario
17
United States Atlanta, Georgia
18
United States Houston, Texas
19
United States Anchorage, Alaska
20
United States Las Vegas, Nevada
21
Canada Ottawa, Ontario
22
Canada Vancouver, British Columbia
23
United States Houston, Texas
24
United States Port Allen, Louisiana
25
United States Carson City, Nevada
26
United States Overland Park, Kansas
27
United States Opelousas, Louisiana
28
United States
29
United States Austell, Georgia
30
United States Fernandina Beach, Florida
31
United States Huntington Beach, California
32
United States Boynton Beach, Florida
33
Canada
34
United States Houston, Texas
35
United States Flower Mound, Texas
36
United States Cheyenne, Wyoming
37
United States Caledonia, Michigan
38
United States Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
39
United States New York
40
United States Little Rock, Arkansas
41
United States Colorado Springs, Colorado
42
United States Tampa, Florida
43
United States Houston, Texas
44
United States Flemington, New Jersey
45
United States New Orleans, Louisiana
46
United States Wilton, Connecticut
47
United States Los Angeles, California
48
United States Huntsville, Texas
49
United States La Mirada, California
50
United States Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
51
United States Houston, Texas
52
United States New York
53
United States Las Vegas, Nevada
54
United States Burnsville, Minnesota
55
New Zealand Levin
56
United States
57
United States Portland, Oregon
58
United States
59
United States Moss Point, Mississippi
60
United States Los Angeles, California
61
Germany Barsinghausen, Niedersachsen
62
Canada Montreal, Quebec
63
United States West New York, New Jersey
64
United States Wayne, Pennsylvania
65
United States Johnson City, New York
66
United States Redondo Beach, California
67
United States Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
68
United States Lafayette, Louisiana
69
Nigeria Kano
70
United States San Francisco, California
71
United States University Park, Pennsylvania
72
United States Arlington, Texas
73
United States Shawnee, Kansas
74
United States Los Angeles, California
75
United States Leona, Texas
76
Germany Barsinghausen, Niedersachsen
77
United States Galveston, Texas
78
United States Winter Park, Florida
79
United States Houston, Texas
80
United States Plano, Texas
81
United States Chicago, Illinois
82
United States
83
United States Houston, Texas
84
United States West Palm Beach, Florida
85
United States Brentwood, New York
86
United States Boca Raton, Florida
87
United States Boca Raton, Florida
88
United States Bloomington, Indiana
89
United States Hacienda Heights, California
90
United States Boca Raton, Florida
91
United States Springdale, Arkansas
92
United States Riverside, Rhode Island
93
United States Kirkland, Washington
94
United States Galveston, Texas
95
United States Metropolis, Illinois
96
United States Great Bend, Kansas
97
United States Washington, District of Columbia
98
United States Quincy, Massachusetts
99
United States Bradenton, Florida
100
United States La Habra, California

What A Wonderful Week It Was

Well, we're up 100 percent in the past week, surpassing the expectations of even the most ardent and vocal longs. Why did it happen, and what does it mean?

First, it means that Sir Emeka Offor can exercise his option to buy 1,000,000 shares at $0.25 he`was granted last year and make $270,000 doing so at Friday's closing price. That ought to put him a good mood next week. Then there's 5,250,000 shares that were issued to Feltang International for its help in securing the Sinopec tie-up after we'd lost several of our earlier drilling partners. That's $2,730,000 for them, whoever they are. And SEO's net worth, based on 303,000,000 shares, rose $82,000,000.

Beyond that, hundreds of shareholders suddenly found themselves once again in the black. That would have been $22,000 and change - not a bad haul for one week - had I stayed in, but I sold all but 100 shares at my wife's urging at $0.29. I've been talking to her about that.

But to me, the most important accomplishment of this wonderful week for investors was the cushion we've given ourselves against any indictments that may come down from the Federal Grand Jury in Houston that is looking into bribery claims proffered by the Attorney General of Sao Tome & Principe, the love child of R. Dobie Langenkamp and George Soros, the billionaire formerly allied with our onetime partner, Pioneer Natural Resources, and God knows who else.

If the indictments come down now, they would surely drive the price down, too - but maybe just to $0.25 or so, and that fall would probably be followed by a very quick rebound. I don't see how even a conviction could do lasting harm, unless they allowed a character clause in the JDZ agreement (and there is one) to be exercised, so that our concession rights return to the JDZ for resale.

But as there is evidently (!) no evidence for a conviction, and probably not even for an indictment. or even the protracted investigation that began a year ago Tuesday with the raid on our Houston offices, I expect the SEC to seek a fine in the $300,000 range that would not require an admission of guilt. I think ERHC, even if innocent of the charges, wouild probably accept that to make it all go away before drilling.

My hunch is that if the indictments come down at all, it will be soon. I'm not sure what the term of the jury is, but if it is the standard year, they will happen soon if at all. We need to call the U.S. District Clerk of the Court next week and see what's shaking with that.

In fact, it's possible that our attorneys have learned on the QT that indictments are unlikely and signaled the company. The company couldn't say that in a press release until it's officially cleared or indicted, and I'm not sure how word would spread to other shareholders who want to see the price rise. It could, though, I suppose.

But let's do some guessing. I can't see the steady march from $0.22 to to $0.52 occurring as it has without a powerful driver. I did give it a good write-up in The American Reporter, and some very, very wealthy and powerful people do read our paper around the world, not only from Europe but places like Iran, Syria, China and Russia, where people likely to know about the paper are also likely to be well-heeled.

On top of that, I have made some pretty strong points in recent weeks that riled a lot of investors who misread it, as when I said it was time to sell your shares - if you want to get screwed in a hurry out of a much better price. That seemed to have the effect of locking down the share price around $0.22 for a week or so, so it didn't fall back to $0.18 or $0.19 as it had repeatedly done for months and months earlier. This bloh currently averages 410 readers per day, according to Site Meter.

Then came balance_builder's report on the whiteboard that seemed to show the outlines of a future deal. Both the p.r. man who writes for ERHC Energy, Dan Keeney, and the company in the CEO's Update tried to knock the rumor cold, but the excitement was then exacerbated by an Addax presentation that seems to show a vast amount of oil waiting for us in Block 4. The whiteboard was an iomportant catalyst, as was the seismic from Addax of the Kina formation under Block 4 of the Nigeria-Sao Tome & Pirncipe Joint Development Zone..

Finally, the company repeated its guidance that there would likely be drilling in the fourth quarter of 2008, which - especially from the viewpoint of people who have held the stock for five years or more - is not very long to wait.

Well, that's the big picture. Drilling is a few months ahead, the seismics look terrific, the indictments haven't come and now the penny traders are pouring in over the transom. Can we go to $1.00?

Maybe.