AFP
29 August 2009
Arabia is close to signing a $US2 billion ($2.39 billion) deal to buy Russian arms, a Russian defence industry source says.
"Work is nearly complete on a set of contracts on the delivery of Russian arms and military technology to Saudi Arabia, with a total value of around two billion dollars," the source told Interfax news agency.
"For many of these contracts, all the technical and financial details have practically been agreed, for others work is still ongoing," he added.
Riyadh may purchase up to 150 helicopters - 30 Mi-35 attack helicopters and up to 120 Mi-17 transport helicopters - more than 150 T-90S tanks, around 250 BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles and "several dozen" air defence systems, the source said.
Contracts for the sale of the tanks and the helicopters "could be signed as soon as this year," he told Interfax.
Spokespersons for Rosoboronexport, Russia's state-owned arms export monopoly, and for the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, which oversees the arms trade, could not be reached for comment.
Saudi Arabia - a close US ally - has long bought most of its arms from the US and Western Europe, but in recent years has been in talks on buying military equipment from Russia.
Meanwhile Russia is keen to find new markets for its weapons exports, one of the few sectors of Russian manufacturing that has enjoyed international success.
In 2008 Moscow and Riyadh signed a military cooperaton treaty, and this year Saudi King Abdullah received a delegation that included a top Kremlin adviser and an official from Rosoboronexport.
29 August, 2009
US congress delegation to visit Rwanda.
The New Times
29 August 2009
By James Karuhanga
A five member delegation of the US Congress is scheduled to visit the country on Monday.
According to a Thursday communiqué from the Public Affairs Section of the American Embassy in Kigali, the delegation will include; Gregory Meeks, Hank Johnson, Melvin Watt, Jack Kingston and Sheila Jackson Lee.
“While in Rwanda, the delegation will meet with various members of the Rwandan government and visit several development projects funded by the U.S. Government,” reads part of the communiqué.
“On Tuesday morning, the delegation will visit the Kigali University Hospital (CHUK), where they will get a chance to see various projects at the hospital, including those funded by PEPFAR, CDC and other U.S. Government programmes.”
While visiting the country earlier in June, US Senator James Inhofe said the US and Rwanda are determined to strengthen cooperation in different areas of development.
Inhofe had led a three-person delegation of the US Congress on a two-day visit in the country.
29 August 2009
By James Karuhanga
A five member delegation of the US Congress is scheduled to visit the country on Monday.
According to a Thursday communiqué from the Public Affairs Section of the American Embassy in Kigali, the delegation will include; Gregory Meeks, Hank Johnson, Melvin Watt, Jack Kingston and Sheila Jackson Lee.
“While in Rwanda, the delegation will meet with various members of the Rwandan government and visit several development projects funded by the U.S. Government,” reads part of the communiqué.
“On Tuesday morning, the delegation will visit the Kigali University Hospital (CHUK), where they will get a chance to see various projects at the hospital, including those funded by PEPFAR, CDC and other U.S. Government programmes.”
While visiting the country earlier in June, US Senator James Inhofe said the US and Rwanda are determined to strengthen cooperation in different areas of development.
Inhofe had led a three-person delegation of the US Congress on a two-day visit in the country.
Ethiopian troops enter key Somali town, locals say.
Reuters
29 August 2009
By Mohamed Ahmed
Ethiopian troops in heavily armoured vehicles crossed into central Somalia on Saturday, witnesses said, taking control of Baladwayne town and advancing on Islamist insurgent positions in the area.
The strategic town is a stronghold of the militant group al Shabaab, which the United States -- Ethiopia's ally in the Horn of Africa -- accuses of being al Qaeda's proxy in the country.
Battles have been raging across central and southern Somalia in recent weeks as pro-government militias try to seize territory back from al Shabaab and another rebel group, Hizbul Islam.
Residents said gunfire broke out in Baladwayne on Saturday as Ethiopian troops arrived alongside Somali government forces.
"At about dawn, hundreds of Ethiopian troops entered the town from different directions and we heard sporadic gunshots," resident Hassan Farah told Reuters by telephone.
"After sunrise we saw soldiers patrolling the main streets."
Another local, Farah Ali, said Somali government forces had killed two suspected Islamist rebels during a sweep of the town.
"Government forces were on an operation in the west of Baladwayne, which was an al Shabaab stronghold. Many shops and hotels were looted. Several men were also arrested," Ali said.
Locals said al Shabaab's fighters had mostly withdrawn in the face of the Ethiopian advance.
"Al Shabaab militiamen pulled out of our village before dawn. We were woken by the sound of their battle wagons," another resident, Halima Hassan, told Reuters.
"Now a large number of government soldiers and Ethiopian forces are everywhere in the west of Baladwayne. They seem to be establishing a new base."
Officials in Addis Ababa routinely deny that Ethiopian soldiers are on Somali soil, although they say they are providing security advice and training for Somalia's forces.
Ethiopia invaded its Horn of Africa neighbour with tacit U.S. support at the end of 2006 to oust an Islamist movement that was running the capital Mogadishu and much of the south.
The Ethiopian military officially withdrew in January, and Somali government leaders declined to comment on reports of their return. Local residents in Baladwayne said Ethiopian forces had been camped a few kilometres (miles) away for months.
The international community wants to bolster the U.N.-backed government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, which is fighting insurgents controlling most central and southern regions.
Violence has killed more than 18,000 Somalis since the start of 2007 and driven another 1.4 million from their homes.
That has triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian emergencies. The number of people needing help has leapt 17.5 percent in a year to 3.76 million, or half the population.
(Additional reporting by Ibrahim Mohamed; Writing by Jeremy Clarke; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
29 August 2009
By Mohamed Ahmed
Ethiopian troops in heavily armoured vehicles crossed into central Somalia on Saturday, witnesses said, taking control of Baladwayne town and advancing on Islamist insurgent positions in the area.
The strategic town is a stronghold of the militant group al Shabaab, which the United States -- Ethiopia's ally in the Horn of Africa -- accuses of being al Qaeda's proxy in the country.
Battles have been raging across central and southern Somalia in recent weeks as pro-government militias try to seize territory back from al Shabaab and another rebel group, Hizbul Islam.
Residents said gunfire broke out in Baladwayne on Saturday as Ethiopian troops arrived alongside Somali government forces.
"At about dawn, hundreds of Ethiopian troops entered the town from different directions and we heard sporadic gunshots," resident Hassan Farah told Reuters by telephone.
"After sunrise we saw soldiers patrolling the main streets."
Another local, Farah Ali, said Somali government forces had killed two suspected Islamist rebels during a sweep of the town.
"Government forces were on an operation in the west of Baladwayne, which was an al Shabaab stronghold. Many shops and hotels were looted. Several men were also arrested," Ali said.
Locals said al Shabaab's fighters had mostly withdrawn in the face of the Ethiopian advance.
"Al Shabaab militiamen pulled out of our village before dawn. We were woken by the sound of their battle wagons," another resident, Halima Hassan, told Reuters.
"Now a large number of government soldiers and Ethiopian forces are everywhere in the west of Baladwayne. They seem to be establishing a new base."
Officials in Addis Ababa routinely deny that Ethiopian soldiers are on Somali soil, although they say they are providing security advice and training for Somalia's forces.
Ethiopia invaded its Horn of Africa neighbour with tacit U.S. support at the end of 2006 to oust an Islamist movement that was running the capital Mogadishu and much of the south.
The Ethiopian military officially withdrew in January, and Somali government leaders declined to comment on reports of their return. Local residents in Baladwayne said Ethiopian forces had been camped a few kilometres (miles) away for months.
The international community wants to bolster the U.N.-backed government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, which is fighting insurgents controlling most central and southern regions.
Violence has killed more than 18,000 Somalis since the start of 2007 and driven another 1.4 million from their homes.
That has triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian emergencies. The number of people needing help has leapt 17.5 percent in a year to 3.76 million, or half the population.
(Additional reporting by Ibrahim Mohamed; Writing by Jeremy Clarke; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
South American Leaders condemn US-Colombia military deal.
BBC News
28 August 2009
South American leaders have condemned US plans to increase its military presence in Colombia at an emergency summit in Argentina.
Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez said it was part of a US strategy to dominate the region. Bolivia and Ecuador also said the deal was a clear threat to regional peace.
But Colombian President Alvaro Uribe defended the plan, which will give US forces access to seven military bases.
Mr Uribe claims it was needed to combat drug-traffickers and insurgents.
"We are not talking about a political game, we are talking about a threat that has spilled blood in Colombian society," he said after holding up pictures of victims of attacks by FARC rebels.
Final declaration
Centrist leaders, including President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, have expressed reservations about the plan but are trying to ease tensions between Colombia and its neighbours.
President Lula again called for a meeting with US President Barack Obama and presidents of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) grouping of South American leaders.
An attempt by Bolivian President Evo Morales to get the other presidents to sign a declaration rejecting the US deal with Colombia was itself rejected, the AFP news agency said.
Instead, the final declaration from the Unasur summit in the Argentine mountain resort of Bariloche said the 12 presidents "reaffirm that the presence of foreign military forces must not... menace the sovereignty and integrity of a South American country and in consequence regional peace and stability," AFP added.
The imminent US-Colombia pact has raised tensions on the continent, with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez characterising it as a near declaration of war and questioning the motives behind it.
"This is part of a global strategy of domination by the United States. That's what's this is," Mr Chavez was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier sought to reassure Latin American nations about the planned 10-year accord.
"It does provide the United States access to Colombian bases but command and control, administration and security will be Colombia's responsibility," she claimed earlier this month.
She claimed Washington has no intention of significantly increasing its troop numbers in Colombia or establishing a US base there.
28 August 2009
South American leaders have condemned US plans to increase its military presence in Colombia at an emergency summit in Argentina.
Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez said it was part of a US strategy to dominate the region. Bolivia and Ecuador also said the deal was a clear threat to regional peace.
But Colombian President Alvaro Uribe defended the plan, which will give US forces access to seven military bases.
Mr Uribe claims it was needed to combat drug-traffickers and insurgents.
"We are not talking about a political game, we are talking about a threat that has spilled blood in Colombian society," he said after holding up pictures of victims of attacks by FARC rebels.
Final declaration
Centrist leaders, including President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, have expressed reservations about the plan but are trying to ease tensions between Colombia and its neighbours.
President Lula again called for a meeting with US President Barack Obama and presidents of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) grouping of South American leaders.
An attempt by Bolivian President Evo Morales to get the other presidents to sign a declaration rejecting the US deal with Colombia was itself rejected, the AFP news agency said.
Instead, the final declaration from the Unasur summit in the Argentine mountain resort of Bariloche said the 12 presidents "reaffirm that the presence of foreign military forces must not... menace the sovereignty and integrity of a South American country and in consequence regional peace and stability," AFP added.
The imminent US-Colombia pact has raised tensions on the continent, with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez characterising it as a near declaration of war and questioning the motives behind it.
"This is part of a global strategy of domination by the United States. That's what's this is," Mr Chavez was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier sought to reassure Latin American nations about the planned 10-year accord.
"It does provide the United States access to Colombian bases but command and control, administration and security will be Colombia's responsibility," she claimed earlier this month.
She claimed Washington has no intention of significantly increasing its troop numbers in Colombia or establishing a US base there.
4 Americans arrested with guns, released after intervention.
Daily Times
29 August 2009
Two retired army officials on Friday came to rescue of four Americans after they were arrested for carrying sophisticated guns.
The retired army officials exchanged harsh words with police officials who later released the Americans upon confirmation of their diplomatic status and nationality. Police sources told Daily Times that the officials manning a police picket in Sector G-9 intercepted two vehicles carrying the four Americans. From these vehicles, they said, four sophisticated guns were recovered. Upon this, the police shifted the Americans to Margalla Police Station for investigation. After some time, the retired army officials came and went into heated arguments with the police officials present in the station.
29 August 2009
Two retired army officials on Friday came to rescue of four Americans after they were arrested for carrying sophisticated guns.
The retired army officials exchanged harsh words with police officials who later released the Americans upon confirmation of their diplomatic status and nationality. Police sources told Daily Times that the officials manning a police picket in Sector G-9 intercepted two vehicles carrying the four Americans. From these vehicles, they said, four sophisticated guns were recovered. Upon this, the police shifted the Americans to Margalla Police Station for investigation. After some time, the retired army officials came and went into heated arguments with the police officials present in the station.
28 August, 2009
Pentagon mulls assistance to Darfur peacekeeping force & SPLA.
Sudan Tribune
28 August 2009
The US Department of Defense (DOD) is considering sending advisers to assist the African Union – United Nations mission on Darfur (UNAMID), according to a news report.
The US based Inside the Pentagon (ITP) newsletter quoted Vicki Huddleston, the new deputy assistant secretary of defense for Africa as saying that the Pentagon hopes to offer advisers mainly on logistical issues.
This would be similar to a decision by DOD taken to provide advisers to the U.N. mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT), Huddleston said.
In late July, president Obama special envoy to Sudan Scott Gration told US lawmakers specialized intelligence and reconnaissance capabilities will be needed as peace process in Darfur progresses that could be coordinated with United States African Command (AFRICOM).
However, such a step would likely face stiff resistance from Khartoum which had vehemently opposed any non-African units as part of UNAMID.
The US State Department is eyeing around eight individuals from AFRICOM to help with planning and command and control.
Gration’s military background may have assisted him in obtaining more cooperation from the DOD unlike his predecessor Richard Williamson.
In an interview with Reuters last March, Williamson said that he “found it difficult to get much cooperation from the Pentagon” adding that Gration “will be able to deal with that more easily” than he was able to.
UNAMID faces a long standing deficiency in aerial capability as the international community have been reluctant to provide helicopters to the mission.
Some countries are said to be unhappy with the UNAMID command and control structure while others fear hostile environment particularly in light of remarks made by Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir in the past saying he does not want any “Westerners” in Darfur.
The possible military involvement of DOD in Darfur would be incorporated in the Sudan policy review to be released by the US administration at any time now.
“I represent an agency that’s only one small part of it [Sudan policy review], but I think we all hope that maybe by September we’ll see it roll out,” Huddleston said.
The DOD official said that Washington is “looking at how we can best work with the international community, the African Union, our various partners in the EU and around the world” in promoting a resolution to the conflict in Darfur and helping displaced people.
On the issue of South Sudan, the Pentagon disclosed that the US administration is keen on assisting Sudan People Liberation Army (SPLA) "transition from a guerilla force to one that can provide adequate defense capabilities for its people and territory," DOD spokeswoman Lt. Colonel Almarah Belk told ITP.
"Professional military education and training for officers and enlisted personnel is one key aspect; an air defense capability might be relevant," she added.
Some analysts in Washington believe that boosting SPLA’s air defense capabilities will deter the North from attacking to prevent by force the secession of South Sudan.
South Sudan is reportedly building up its military arsenal, including a controversial shipment of Ukrainian tanks last year, in secrecy to prepare for such an event.
In accordance with the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, (CPA) weapons to Southern Sudan have to be approved first by the central government.
28 August 2009
The US Department of Defense (DOD) is considering sending advisers to assist the African Union – United Nations mission on Darfur (UNAMID), according to a news report.
The US based Inside the Pentagon (ITP) newsletter quoted Vicki Huddleston, the new deputy assistant secretary of defense for Africa as saying that the Pentagon hopes to offer advisers mainly on logistical issues.
This would be similar to a decision by DOD taken to provide advisers to the U.N. mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT), Huddleston said.
In late July, president Obama special envoy to Sudan Scott Gration told US lawmakers specialized intelligence and reconnaissance capabilities will be needed as peace process in Darfur progresses that could be coordinated with United States African Command (AFRICOM).
However, such a step would likely face stiff resistance from Khartoum which had vehemently opposed any non-African units as part of UNAMID.
The US State Department is eyeing around eight individuals from AFRICOM to help with planning and command and control.
Gration’s military background may have assisted him in obtaining more cooperation from the DOD unlike his predecessor Richard Williamson.
In an interview with Reuters last March, Williamson said that he “found it difficult to get much cooperation from the Pentagon” adding that Gration “will be able to deal with that more easily” than he was able to.
UNAMID faces a long standing deficiency in aerial capability as the international community have been reluctant to provide helicopters to the mission.
Some countries are said to be unhappy with the UNAMID command and control structure while others fear hostile environment particularly in light of remarks made by Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir in the past saying he does not want any “Westerners” in Darfur.
The possible military involvement of DOD in Darfur would be incorporated in the Sudan policy review to be released by the US administration at any time now.
“I represent an agency that’s only one small part of it [Sudan policy review], but I think we all hope that maybe by September we’ll see it roll out,” Huddleston said.
The DOD official said that Washington is “looking at how we can best work with the international community, the African Union, our various partners in the EU and around the world” in promoting a resolution to the conflict in Darfur and helping displaced people.
On the issue of South Sudan, the Pentagon disclosed that the US administration is keen on assisting Sudan People Liberation Army (SPLA) "transition from a guerilla force to one that can provide adequate defense capabilities for its people and territory," DOD spokeswoman Lt. Colonel Almarah Belk told ITP.
"Professional military education and training for officers and enlisted personnel is one key aspect; an air defense capability might be relevant," she added.
Some analysts in Washington believe that boosting SPLA’s air defense capabilities will deter the North from attacking to prevent by force the secession of South Sudan.
South Sudan is reportedly building up its military arsenal, including a controversial shipment of Ukrainian tanks last year, in secrecy to prepare for such an event.
In accordance with the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, (CPA) weapons to Southern Sudan have to be approved first by the central government.
27 August, 2009
Congo’s Sicomines Confirms Extent of Copper Find.
Bloomberg
27 August 2009
By Franz Wild
Sicomines, a joint venture between a group of Chinese companies and the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mining parastatal, Gécamines, has proven reserves of almost 10 million metric tons of copper and 600,000 tons of cobalt, Managing Director Min Guowei said.
The company will submit geological findings from 50,000 meters (54,680 yards) of drilling on its five deposits in Congo’s southern Katanga province to the board of directors “after a week,’’ Min said yesterday in an interview in the capital, Kinshasa.
The reserves are “a little bit less than the original figure,’’ Min said. “I am satisfied by the drilling results.’’
A further $3 billion will be invested in the development of Sicomines as part of China’s biggest investment of its kind in Africa, Min said. The $9 billion project also provides for $3 billion worth of roads, railways, hospitals and universities in Congo to be developed by state-owned China Railway Construction Corp. and Sinohydro Corp. The agreements are to allow President Joseph Kabila to live up to election promises to rebuild a country that was destroyed by two civil wars between 1996 and 2003 and decades of neglect.
Sicomines, which may start producing in 2014, is 68 percent owned by the Chinese partners and the balance by the Congolese government. Dewatering the existing pits will take a year and a half, Min added.
Min downplayed the adjustments made to the deal after the International Monetary Fund threatened to delay a $600-million loan program to Congo. “There are always improvements being made to the contract,’’ Min said. “The fundamentals of the deal weren’t changed.’’
Congo and China delayed a second $3 billion of infrastructure investments and cut Congo’s liability for the money in response to IMF concerns the central African country’s debt would become unsustainable, negating plans to scrap most of the $11 billion it owes internationally.
27 August 2009
By Franz Wild
Sicomines, a joint venture between a group of Chinese companies and the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mining parastatal, Gécamines, has proven reserves of almost 10 million metric tons of copper and 600,000 tons of cobalt, Managing Director Min Guowei said.
The company will submit geological findings from 50,000 meters (54,680 yards) of drilling on its five deposits in Congo’s southern Katanga province to the board of directors “after a week,’’ Min said yesterday in an interview in the capital, Kinshasa.
The reserves are “a little bit less than the original figure,’’ Min said. “I am satisfied by the drilling results.’’
A further $3 billion will be invested in the development of Sicomines as part of China’s biggest investment of its kind in Africa, Min said. The $9 billion project also provides for $3 billion worth of roads, railways, hospitals and universities in Congo to be developed by state-owned China Railway Construction Corp. and Sinohydro Corp. The agreements are to allow President Joseph Kabila to live up to election promises to rebuild a country that was destroyed by two civil wars between 1996 and 2003 and decades of neglect.
Sicomines, which may start producing in 2014, is 68 percent owned by the Chinese partners and the balance by the Congolese government. Dewatering the existing pits will take a year and a half, Min added.
Min downplayed the adjustments made to the deal after the International Monetary Fund threatened to delay a $600-million loan program to Congo. “There are always improvements being made to the contract,’’ Min said. “The fundamentals of the deal weren’t changed.’’
Congo and China delayed a second $3 billion of infrastructure investments and cut Congo’s liability for the money in response to IMF concerns the central African country’s debt would become unsustainable, negating plans to scrap most of the $11 billion it owes internationally.
George Forrest Rejects Liability for Forsys Break Fee.
Bloomberg
27 August 2009
By Franz Wild
Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- George Forrest International Afrique Sprl rejected liability for a break fee after a failed take-over of uranium developer Forsys Metals Corp., the company said in an emailed statement late yesterday.
27 August 2009
By Franz Wild
Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- George Forrest International Afrique Sprl rejected liability for a break fee after a failed take-over of uranium developer Forsys Metals Corp., the company said in an emailed statement late yesterday.
Mali women's rights bill blocked.
By Martin Vogl
BBC News
27 August 2009
The president of Mali has announced that he is not going to sign the country's new family law, instead returning it to parliament for review.
Muslim groups have been protesting against the law, which gives greater rights to women, ever since parliament adopted it at the start of the month.
President Amadou Toumani Toure claimed he would send the law back for the sake of national unity.
Some of the provisions that have proved controversial give more rights to women.
For example, under the new law women are no longer required to obey their husbands, instead husbands and wives owe each other loyalty and protection.
Women get greater inheritance rights, and the minimum age for girls to marry in most circumstances is raised to 18.
One of the other key points Muslims have objected to is the fact that marriage is defined as a secular institution.
Tens of thousands have turned out at protests in Bamako in recent weeks and there have been other demonstrations against the law across the country.
It is a political defeat for President Toure, who was a strong backer of the new law.
It has only been the continuing angry protests by Muslim groups that have forced him to send the law back to parliament.
In his statement on national television the president was forced to admit that the population is yet to be convinced by the new code.
"After extensive consultations with the various state institutions, with civil society, with the religious community and the legal profession, I have taken this decision to send the family code for a second reading to ensure calm and a peaceful society, and to obtain the support and understanding of our fellow citizens."
It was clear from his speech that the president also thinks there has been a lot of false information circulating about the code and the government will no doubt also try to address this in the coming weeks.
The head of Mali's High Islamic Council says he was pleased with the president's decision.
Women's groups are heartbroken - they have been trying for more than 10 years to get the law changed.
BBC News
27 August 2009
The president of Mali has announced that he is not going to sign the country's new family law, instead returning it to parliament for review.
Muslim groups have been protesting against the law, which gives greater rights to women, ever since parliament adopted it at the start of the month.
President Amadou Toumani Toure claimed he would send the law back for the sake of national unity.
Some of the provisions that have proved controversial give more rights to women.
For example, under the new law women are no longer required to obey their husbands, instead husbands and wives owe each other loyalty and protection.
Women get greater inheritance rights, and the minimum age for girls to marry in most circumstances is raised to 18.
One of the other key points Muslims have objected to is the fact that marriage is defined as a secular institution.
Tens of thousands have turned out at protests in Bamako in recent weeks and there have been other demonstrations against the law across the country.
It is a political defeat for President Toure, who was a strong backer of the new law.
It has only been the continuing angry protests by Muslim groups that have forced him to send the law back to parliament.
In his statement on national television the president was forced to admit that the population is yet to be convinced by the new code.
"After extensive consultations with the various state institutions, with civil society, with the religious community and the legal profession, I have taken this decision to send the family code for a second reading to ensure calm and a peaceful society, and to obtain the support and understanding of our fellow citizens."
It was clear from his speech that the president also thinks there has been a lot of false information circulating about the code and the government will no doubt also try to address this in the coming weeks.
The head of Mali's High Islamic Council says he was pleased with the president's decision.
Women's groups are heartbroken - they have been trying for more than 10 years to get the law changed.
Darfur no longer at war, says peacekeeping chief.
Mail & Guardian
27 August 2009
By Andrew Heavens
Sudan's Darfur region is no longer in a state of war and only has one rebel group capable of mounting limited military campaigns, the head of the area's peacekeeping force said as he ended his tour of duty.
The commander of the joint United Nations/African Union Unamid force, Martin Luther Agwai, told reporters the conflict had now descended into banditry and "very low intensity" engagements, that could still carry on to blight the remote western region for years without a peace deal.
"As of today, I would not say there is a war going on in Darfur," he said in a briefing in Khartoum late on Wednesday.
"Militarily there is not much. What you have is security issues more now. Banditry, localised issues, people trying to resolve issues over water and land at a local level. But real war as such, I think we are over that."
Agwai became the latest senior figure to appear to play down the current level of violence in Darfur, where the conflict has caught the world's attention and activists who have accused Khartoum of genocide.
Mostly Western campaigners and some diplomats were angered by comments from Unamid's political leader, Rodolphe Adada, in April that Darfur had subsided into a "low-intensity conflict," and from US Sudan envoy Scott Gration in June that he had seen the "remnants of genocide" in the region, stopping short, they said, of describing a current genocide.
Agwai said the fierce fighting of the early years of the conflict had subsided as rebel groups split into rival factions and often fought between each other.
"Because of the fragmentation of the rebel groups, I do not see any major thing that can take place.
"Apart from JEM, I do not see any other group that can launch an attack on the ground," he said referring to the Justice and Equality Movement, a rebel force that launched an unprecedented attack on Khartoum last year.
Agwai said JEM still had the capability to launch sporadic attacks, but did not have the manpower to hold territory.
"JEM has the capacity of sneaking in small groups, of attacking and after a while withdrawing.
"But fighting to secure ground and dominate it and move on and say 'this is our territory' ... that is finished." Agwai said there was still a chance full-blown fighting could break out again. "I would never say never."
JEM has clashed a number of times with the Sudanese army in recent months, in the strategic south Darfur town of Muhajiriya in January and in Umm Baru and other settlements close to north Darfur's border with Chad in May.
Agwai, who is due to leave Sudan on Thursday after two years' at the head of the peacekeeping force, has been outspoken about delays in manning and equipping Unamid.
At the end of June, just more than 60% of Unamid's planned full strength of 26 000 troops and police had been deployed in Darfur, an area roughly the size of France. The UN hopes 90% will be on the ground by the end of the year. -- Reuters
27 August 2009
By Andrew Heavens
Sudan's Darfur region is no longer in a state of war and only has one rebel group capable of mounting limited military campaigns, the head of the area's peacekeeping force said as he ended his tour of duty.
The commander of the joint United Nations/African Union Unamid force, Martin Luther Agwai, told reporters the conflict had now descended into banditry and "very low intensity" engagements, that could still carry on to blight the remote western region for years without a peace deal.
"As of today, I would not say there is a war going on in Darfur," he said in a briefing in Khartoum late on Wednesday.
"Militarily there is not much. What you have is security issues more now. Banditry, localised issues, people trying to resolve issues over water and land at a local level. But real war as such, I think we are over that."
Agwai became the latest senior figure to appear to play down the current level of violence in Darfur, where the conflict has caught the world's attention and activists who have accused Khartoum of genocide.
Mostly Western campaigners and some diplomats were angered by comments from Unamid's political leader, Rodolphe Adada, in April that Darfur had subsided into a "low-intensity conflict," and from US Sudan envoy Scott Gration in June that he had seen the "remnants of genocide" in the region, stopping short, they said, of describing a current genocide.
Agwai said the fierce fighting of the early years of the conflict had subsided as rebel groups split into rival factions and often fought between each other.
"Because of the fragmentation of the rebel groups, I do not see any major thing that can take place.
"Apart from JEM, I do not see any other group that can launch an attack on the ground," he said referring to the Justice and Equality Movement, a rebel force that launched an unprecedented attack on Khartoum last year.
Agwai said JEM still had the capability to launch sporadic attacks, but did not have the manpower to hold territory.
"JEM has the capacity of sneaking in small groups, of attacking and after a while withdrawing.
"But fighting to secure ground and dominate it and move on and say 'this is our territory' ... that is finished." Agwai said there was still a chance full-blown fighting could break out again. "I would never say never."
JEM has clashed a number of times with the Sudanese army in recent months, in the strategic south Darfur town of Muhajiriya in January and in Umm Baru and other settlements close to north Darfur's border with Chad in May.
Agwai, who is due to leave Sudan on Thursday after two years' at the head of the peacekeeping force, has been outspoken about delays in manning and equipping Unamid.
At the end of June, just more than 60% of Unamid's planned full strength of 26 000 troops and police had been deployed in Darfur, an area roughly the size of France. The UN hopes 90% will be on the ground by the end of the year. -- Reuters
Army to Displace Villages in Hoima.
The New Vision
Pascal Kwesiga and Hebry Mukasa
18 August 2009
Kampala — Over 4,000 residents in seven villages of Kyangwali sub-county in Hoima district face eviction. The land will be used to establish an army base for the protection of the oil reserves in the region.
The residents, led by their local leaders and the MP for Buhaguzi, Tomson Abwooli Kyahurwenda, have vowed to resist the eviction saying the land was inhabited by their ancestors.
The land in question measures about 15 square miles and covers the villages of Katikara 1, Katikara 2, Kituti Kasonga, Kabenena, Ngurwe and Ngoma.
Kyahurwenda has written to the defence minister, Dr Crispus Kiyonga, protesting the army's 'illegal' demarcation of the disputed land.
He said officials from the prime minister's office had demarcated the land.
Kyahurwenda said the officers led by a man only identified as Bataali, had marked the land.
"I seek your urgent intervention. Change your decision to grab the land whose owners have had it customarily since time immemorial," the letter, also copied to the Prime Minister said.
The MP explained that the people the army wants to evict helped the Government in 1967 to establish a refugee camp measuring approximately 145 square kilometres.
In 1998, due to encroachment, the land was surveyed, marked and reduced to 98 square kilometers.
"The demarcations of the 98 square kilometers are known and there is no dispute. Over 79 homesteads were here in 1967 but have multiplied to nearly 240 homesteads now. Other people from various tribes have also settled on the land," Kyahurwenda wrote.
He also said he would petition the Speaker of Parliament and might consider going to court.
He invited Kigongo to visit the affected area and address the concerns of the residents.
He said the Government must respect their entitlements just as the residents respected the boundaries of the refugee settlement.
Army spokersperson Maj. Felix Kulayigye, however, said what the army was allocated was part of Government land, adding that Kyangwali like other refugees camps of Acholi Pii, Kyaka I, Kyaka II and Nakivale sits on Government land.
"When Rwandese refugees left in 1994, many people encroached on the refugee camp land thinking that Government will never come back to reclaim it," Kulayigye argued.
The residents have also petitioned President Yoweri Museveni to halt the project and first discuss with the rightful owners.
The Kitakara LC I chairman, Mugenyi Tibamwenda, said army officers had planted mark-stones claiming they had acquired the land.
He said residents had abandoned agriculture because of fear that they would be evicted from their land soon.
Tom Muhe Bigabwenkya, a sub-county councillor warned of serious consequences for the National Resistance Movement during the 2011 general elections.
The mid-western regional Police commander, Marcellino Wanitto, has promised to take up the matter to ensure that it is resolved amicably.
Pascal Kwesiga and Hebry Mukasa
18 August 2009
Kampala — Over 4,000 residents in seven villages of Kyangwali sub-county in Hoima district face eviction. The land will be used to establish an army base for the protection of the oil reserves in the region.
The residents, led by their local leaders and the MP for Buhaguzi, Tomson Abwooli Kyahurwenda, have vowed to resist the eviction saying the land was inhabited by their ancestors.
The land in question measures about 15 square miles and covers the villages of Katikara 1, Katikara 2, Kituti Kasonga, Kabenena, Ngurwe and Ngoma.
Kyahurwenda has written to the defence minister, Dr Crispus Kiyonga, protesting the army's 'illegal' demarcation of the disputed land.
He said officials from the prime minister's office had demarcated the land.
Kyahurwenda said the officers led by a man only identified as Bataali, had marked the land.
"I seek your urgent intervention. Change your decision to grab the land whose owners have had it customarily since time immemorial," the letter, also copied to the Prime Minister said.
The MP explained that the people the army wants to evict helped the Government in 1967 to establish a refugee camp measuring approximately 145 square kilometres.
In 1998, due to encroachment, the land was surveyed, marked and reduced to 98 square kilometers.
"The demarcations of the 98 square kilometers are known and there is no dispute. Over 79 homesteads were here in 1967 but have multiplied to nearly 240 homesteads now. Other people from various tribes have also settled on the land," Kyahurwenda wrote.
He also said he would petition the Speaker of Parliament and might consider going to court.
He invited Kigongo to visit the affected area and address the concerns of the residents.
He said the Government must respect their entitlements just as the residents respected the boundaries of the refugee settlement.
Army spokersperson Maj. Felix Kulayigye, however, said what the army was allocated was part of Government land, adding that Kyangwali like other refugees camps of Acholi Pii, Kyaka I, Kyaka II and Nakivale sits on Government land.
"When Rwandese refugees left in 1994, many people encroached on the refugee camp land thinking that Government will never come back to reclaim it," Kulayigye argued.
The residents have also petitioned President Yoweri Museveni to halt the project and first discuss with the rightful owners.
The Kitakara LC I chairman, Mugenyi Tibamwenda, said army officers had planted mark-stones claiming they had acquired the land.
He said residents had abandoned agriculture because of fear that they would be evicted from their land soon.
Tom Muhe Bigabwenkya, a sub-county councillor warned of serious consequences for the National Resistance Movement during the 2011 general elections.
The mid-western regional Police commander, Marcellino Wanitto, has promised to take up the matter to ensure that it is resolved amicably.
DPRK Ambassador to Democratic Congo Appointed.
Korea News Service
26 August 2009
Ri Myong Chol was appointed as the DPRK ambassador e. p. to the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly.
26 August 2009
Ri Myong Chol was appointed as the DPRK ambassador e. p. to the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly.
Somaliland opposition demands caretaker govt, rejects mediation.
Garowe Online
26 August 2009
Opposition parties in Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland have rejected a mediation proposal brought by visiting officials from Ethiopia and the African Union, Radio Garowe reports.
Dr. Tekede Alemu, Ethiopia’s state minister for foreign affairs, and Mr. Nicolas Bwakira, the AU’s Special Envoy to Somalia, visited the Somaliland capital Hargeisa last week to mediate between the government and opposition parties.
But the leaders of the two opposition parties, Mr. Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo of Kulmiye party and Mr. Faisal Ali Warabe of UCID party, have publicly stated that they refused to sign an agreement that would allow President Dahir Riyale to remain in office after the presidential election.
President Riyale has refused to succumb to the opposition’s demands that he rescind an order banning the use of the voters’ list in the September 27 presidential election, when Riyale faces off against Silanyo and Warabe, a replay of the hotly-contested 2003 election.
The opposition leaders have demanded that the voters' list be used in the election and that a caretaker government be appointed to lead Somaliland until the next presidential election, opposition officials said.
“The delegations asked us for compromise and we refused…we saw this [compromise] as beneficial to the Riyale administration,” said Mr. Silanyo, Riyale’s closest challenger who lost the 2003 election by less than 90 votes.
Somaliland’s foreign minister, Mr. Abdullahi Mohamed Du’ale, said the government welcomed proposals from the visiting Ethiopian and AU officials. But the opposition’s refusal deepens the political stalemate that experts say has hurt Somaliland’s public image and threatens the region’s hard-own stability.
Opposition parties reluctantly agreed to two term-extensions for President Riyale, giving the incumbent leader an additional year-and-a-half in office after his five-year term expired in April 2008.
In recent weeks, hundreds of opposition supporters have staged demonstrations in Hargeisa and other towns in Somaliland, a self-declared independent republic in northwest Somalia. Somaliland has not been recognized internationally since self-declaring independence in 1991.
26 August 2009
Opposition parties in Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland have rejected a mediation proposal brought by visiting officials from Ethiopia and the African Union, Radio Garowe reports.
Dr. Tekede Alemu, Ethiopia’s state minister for foreign affairs, and Mr. Nicolas Bwakira, the AU’s Special Envoy to Somalia, visited the Somaliland capital Hargeisa last week to mediate between the government and opposition parties.
But the leaders of the two opposition parties, Mr. Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo of Kulmiye party and Mr. Faisal Ali Warabe of UCID party, have publicly stated that they refused to sign an agreement that would allow President Dahir Riyale to remain in office after the presidential election.
President Riyale has refused to succumb to the opposition’s demands that he rescind an order banning the use of the voters’ list in the September 27 presidential election, when Riyale faces off against Silanyo and Warabe, a replay of the hotly-contested 2003 election.
The opposition leaders have demanded that the voters' list be used in the election and that a caretaker government be appointed to lead Somaliland until the next presidential election, opposition officials said.
“The delegations asked us for compromise and we refused…we saw this [compromise] as beneficial to the Riyale administration,” said Mr. Silanyo, Riyale’s closest challenger who lost the 2003 election by less than 90 votes.
Somaliland’s foreign minister, Mr. Abdullahi Mohamed Du’ale, said the government welcomed proposals from the visiting Ethiopian and AU officials. But the opposition’s refusal deepens the political stalemate that experts say has hurt Somaliland’s public image and threatens the region’s hard-own stability.
Opposition parties reluctantly agreed to two term-extensions for President Riyale, giving the incumbent leader an additional year-and-a-half in office after his five-year term expired in April 2008.
In recent weeks, hundreds of opposition supporters have staged demonstrations in Hargeisa and other towns in Somaliland, a self-declared independent republic in northwest Somalia. Somaliland has not been recognized internationally since self-declaring independence in 1991.
Raytec Metals To Buy Lion Petroleum.
Financial Wire
26 August 2009
Raytec Metals Corp. (TSX Venture: RAY) said it has entered into a binding letter of intent to acquire Lion Petroleum Corp. in a share exchange deal.
Vancouver-based Lion is a privately held oil and gas exploration company with an exploration office in Nairobi, Kenya. Lion's principal assets include two exploration Blocks in Northeastern Kenya.
Lion is party to production sharing contracts with the Kenyan government relating to the blocks.
Under the terms of the LOI, Raytec and Lion have agreed to enter into a business combination in which Raytec, or a subsidiary of Raytec, will acquire all of the 23,865,000 common shares issued and outstanding in the capital of Lion, for 28,399,350 common shares in the capital of Raytec to Lion.
In conjunction with the transaction, it is proposed that Minaz Devji, the president and CEO of Lion, become a director of Raytec, and then be appointed as chairman of Raytec's board.
Vancouver-based Raytec Metals is an exploration company with a focus on the oil and gas industry in East and Central Africa. The company recently signed an agreement with Africa Oil that gives Raytec the right to earn an interest in five petroleum blocks located in the Republic of Kenya and in Puntland, Somalia.
The company also holds 14.76% interest in Encanto Potash, a junior potash exploration company, and has invested $6.5 million into a joint-venture to increase its holdings to around 29%.
Raytec holds a 20% interest in Sulphur Solutions, an emerging fertilizer company developing technology for the production of micronized sulphur fertilizer. Raytec also holds interests in a uranium joint venture project in the Athabasca Basin of Saskatchewan and an iron ore project in Ontario.
26 August 2009
Raytec Metals Corp. (TSX Venture: RAY) said it has entered into a binding letter of intent to acquire Lion Petroleum Corp. in a share exchange deal.
Vancouver-based Lion is a privately held oil and gas exploration company with an exploration office in Nairobi, Kenya. Lion's principal assets include two exploration Blocks in Northeastern Kenya.
Lion is party to production sharing contracts with the Kenyan government relating to the blocks.
Under the terms of the LOI, Raytec and Lion have agreed to enter into a business combination in which Raytec, or a subsidiary of Raytec, will acquire all of the 23,865,000 common shares issued and outstanding in the capital of Lion, for 28,399,350 common shares in the capital of Raytec to Lion.
In conjunction with the transaction, it is proposed that Minaz Devji, the president and CEO of Lion, become a director of Raytec, and then be appointed as chairman of Raytec's board.
Vancouver-based Raytec Metals is an exploration company with a focus on the oil and gas industry in East and Central Africa. The company recently signed an agreement with Africa Oil that gives Raytec the right to earn an interest in five petroleum blocks located in the Republic of Kenya and in Puntland, Somalia.
The company also holds 14.76% interest in Encanto Potash, a junior potash exploration company, and has invested $6.5 million into a joint-venture to increase its holdings to around 29%.
Raytec holds a 20% interest in Sulphur Solutions, an emerging fertilizer company developing technology for the production of micronized sulphur fertilizer. Raytec also holds interests in a uranium joint venture project in the Athabasca Basin of Saskatchewan and an iron ore project in Ontario.
Tullow needs cash to fund development of pipelines and infrastructure.
The Guardian
26 August 2009
By Terry Macalister
The world's biggest oil companies – including BP and Shell as well as state-owned operations from China – are trying to muscle their way into the world's largest new oil region: Uganda.
Tullow Oil, the relatively small British-based firm at the centre of the huge energy strikes in Lake Albert, says it plans to hand over part of the oil riches in return for financial help to build pipelines and other vital infrastructure.
Excitement over the Ngara wells increased when Tullow reported it had encountered further shows of oil and was more convinced than ever about the enormous prospects in the region.
But the company also announced an 83% slump in first-half profits to £21.4m and a 16% drop in its existing production from the North Sea and elsewhere, while needing billions of pounds to bring oil out of the ground and refine it in Uganda.
"It is not every day you find a new oil province similar in size to the central Graben region of the North Sea. Practically all the oil majors and some national oil corporations have been on our doorstep seeking to pre-empt a competitive [sales] process", said Angus McCoss, Tullow's exploration director.
Tullow plans to sell part of its 100% stake in Block 2, one of three blocks which cover the Ugandan side of Lake Albert, in the next 12 months, it said, but only through a public offer and not via a bi- lateral deal with one other company.
Among the possible partners is Eni of Italy which has already been tipped as a potential buyer of the whole Tullow company although the British firm said it was clearly not for sale.
Tullow shares fell 4% to 1052p on profit-taking following a period where euphoria around the Uganda exploration success has driven the value of the stock up by nearly a third in value since early July.
McCoss said 700m barrels of recoverable reserves had already been proved up but the latest oil shows put the company on the way to proving that there was a further 1.5bn waiting to be exploited.
Tullow said Eni, which has a 43% stake in pipeline builder Saipem, would be a suitable partner as would Chinese companies and others but insisted there was currently no favoured partner in mind.
Tullow said its Ngassa-2 well in Block 2 found signs of oil at two intervals in the reservoir being tested.
"The pressures in these intervals are higher than normal, which may indicate that they are associated with significant oil columns," it added.
Investment bank Citigroup said in a research note that the results of the latest well would pave the way for a part sale of the block as it makes clear how much it is worth.
The Ugandan government has made clear to Tullow that it would like the company to refine the oil in the area so that the relatively impoverished country could gain as much added value from the energy as possible.
The African country is also acutely aware that many developing countries have found oil riches can be curse as well as cure with charities warning it can bring corruption and wealth only for the political elite. Nigeria is often held up as an example of this.
Editor's Note: Readers interested in this story should closely follow the ongoing political crisis in Uganda that is unfolding over land ownership rights in the oil-rich Bunyoro Kingdom, especially with the upcoming elections in 2011, where this will be a major political issue.
26 August 2009
By Terry Macalister
The world's biggest oil companies – including BP and Shell as well as state-owned operations from China – are trying to muscle their way into the world's largest new oil region: Uganda.
Tullow Oil, the relatively small British-based firm at the centre of the huge energy strikes in Lake Albert, says it plans to hand over part of the oil riches in return for financial help to build pipelines and other vital infrastructure.
Excitement over the Ngara wells increased when Tullow reported it had encountered further shows of oil and was more convinced than ever about the enormous prospects in the region.
But the company also announced an 83% slump in first-half profits to £21.4m and a 16% drop in its existing production from the North Sea and elsewhere, while needing billions of pounds to bring oil out of the ground and refine it in Uganda.
"It is not every day you find a new oil province similar in size to the central Graben region of the North Sea. Practically all the oil majors and some national oil corporations have been on our doorstep seeking to pre-empt a competitive [sales] process", said Angus McCoss, Tullow's exploration director.
Tullow plans to sell part of its 100% stake in Block 2, one of three blocks which cover the Ugandan side of Lake Albert, in the next 12 months, it said, but only through a public offer and not via a bi- lateral deal with one other company.
Among the possible partners is Eni of Italy which has already been tipped as a potential buyer of the whole Tullow company although the British firm said it was clearly not for sale.
Tullow shares fell 4% to 1052p on profit-taking following a period where euphoria around the Uganda exploration success has driven the value of the stock up by nearly a third in value since early July.
McCoss said 700m barrels of recoverable reserves had already been proved up but the latest oil shows put the company on the way to proving that there was a further 1.5bn waiting to be exploited.
Tullow said Eni, which has a 43% stake in pipeline builder Saipem, would be a suitable partner as would Chinese companies and others but insisted there was currently no favoured partner in mind.
Tullow said its Ngassa-2 well in Block 2 found signs of oil at two intervals in the reservoir being tested.
"The pressures in these intervals are higher than normal, which may indicate that they are associated with significant oil columns," it added.
Investment bank Citigroup said in a research note that the results of the latest well would pave the way for a part sale of the block as it makes clear how much it is worth.
The Ugandan government has made clear to Tullow that it would like the company to refine the oil in the area so that the relatively impoverished country could gain as much added value from the energy as possible.
The African country is also acutely aware that many developing countries have found oil riches can be curse as well as cure with charities warning it can bring corruption and wealth only for the political elite. Nigeria is often held up as an example of this.
Editor's Note: Readers interested in this story should closely follow the ongoing political crisis in Uganda that is unfolding over land ownership rights in the oil-rich Bunyoro Kingdom, especially with the upcoming elections in 2011, where this will be a major political issue.
26 August, 2009
Sudan oil body endorses Ascom & discusses Total concession.
Sudan Tribune
26 August 2009
The National Petroleum Commission (NPC) in a meeting co-chaired by President Omer Hassan Al-Bashir and his first deputy Salva Kiir Mayadrit today approved the participation of Moldavian Ascom in block 5B.
The Commission also discussed the current situation of block B, after the freeze on oil exploration in Jonglei state of the controversial British oil explorer headed by ex-England cricketer Phil Edmonds, White Nile (WNK.LN).
Sudan’s oil minister, Al-Zubair Ahmed Al-Hassan, said today following the meeting that the NPC agreed to replace the Sudanese White Nile Petroleum Operating Company (WNPOC) by the Moldavian oil company Ascom in block 5B located in the Southern Muglad Basin.
The Moldavian Ascom obtained in the past a portion of block 5B, covering more than 20,000 square km, where it begun drilling in January 2008. The other part of the block had been operated by the consortium WNPOC led by Petronas.
The Indian ONGC and Sweden Lundin Petroleum decided to quit the consortium. The Indian firm decision was taken after southern Sudan government allowed the Moldovan firm to prospect in the acreage in contravention with a resolution by the National Petroleum Commission.
While the Lundin announced in February 2009 the selling of its investments in the region following its negative drilling results in southern Sudan.
The partners in Block 5B were Petronas Carigali White Nile (5B) Ltd; (39%), Lundin Petroleum (24.5%), ONGC Videsh Ltd (23.5%) and Sudapet Ltd (13%). Furthermore, the partnership had accepted the recommendation of the National Petroleum Commission to assign a 10 percent share to the National Oil Company of Southern Sudan to be allocated on a "pro rata" basis from each of the partner’s share.
The minister also said the Commission has mapped out a new oil concession called block EA. The long slim block runs through four southern states along the western flank of four other already commissioned blocks in southern Sudan.
The NPC, according to the minister, set up a joint committee of the Federal Government and the Government of the South to negotiate with two Spanish firms that stated their desire to drill in the block and to consider financial and technical abilities, as well as attracting other new offers.
With regard to the long time disputed block B between the British WNK.LN and the French Total, Al-Hassan said the meeting adopted the outcome of a commission on the evaluation of WNK assets. He further said that it was decided that Total would compensate its British past rival.
The British White Oil Company had started operating in the disputed 67,000 square km concession of block B on April 19, 2007; but the President of the semi-autonomous region Salva Kiir ordered to freeze its activities in May of the same year and the NPC decided to exclude the British firm.
At the time Sudan oil commission also decided on an adequate and fair compensation for the White Nile in return for any achievement in the fields, but it didn’t give any indication on who will pay the indemnities.
According to a new agreement between the Sudanese parties, Total has operating rights for the block with a 32.5 percent stake, as it was the case in the initial deal, Kuwaiti Kufpec Sudan Ltd 27.5 percent instead of 25% and state-owned Sudapet maintains its 10 percent, the southern Sudan government owned Nilepet 10%. The remaining 20% should be offered in a public bid.
Today’s meeting acknowledged the need for a third partner company to replace the US Marathon, said the minister.
Marathon Oil Corp.’s (MRO), which had been unable to keep its 32.5% interest in the block because Sudan is under U.S. sanctions, sold the stake to Total in March 2008.
Mubadala Development Company, a wholly owned investment vehicle of the Government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi,.was seen as strongest candidate to enter Block B, but the first Vice-President didn’t yet give his approval.
26 August 2009
The National Petroleum Commission (NPC) in a meeting co-chaired by President Omer Hassan Al-Bashir and his first deputy Salva Kiir Mayadrit today approved the participation of Moldavian Ascom in block 5B.
The Commission also discussed the current situation of block B, after the freeze on oil exploration in Jonglei state of the controversial British oil explorer headed by ex-England cricketer Phil Edmonds, White Nile (WNK.LN).
Sudan’s oil minister, Al-Zubair Ahmed Al-Hassan, said today following the meeting that the NPC agreed to replace the Sudanese White Nile Petroleum Operating Company (WNPOC) by the Moldavian oil company Ascom in block 5B located in the Southern Muglad Basin.
The Moldavian Ascom obtained in the past a portion of block 5B, covering more than 20,000 square km, where it begun drilling in January 2008. The other part of the block had been operated by the consortium WNPOC led by Petronas.
The Indian ONGC and Sweden Lundin Petroleum decided to quit the consortium. The Indian firm decision was taken after southern Sudan government allowed the Moldovan firm to prospect in the acreage in contravention with a resolution by the National Petroleum Commission.
While the Lundin announced in February 2009 the selling of its investments in the region following its negative drilling results in southern Sudan.
The partners in Block 5B were Petronas Carigali White Nile (5B) Ltd; (39%), Lundin Petroleum (24.5%), ONGC Videsh Ltd (23.5%) and Sudapet Ltd (13%). Furthermore, the partnership had accepted the recommendation of the National Petroleum Commission to assign a 10 percent share to the National Oil Company of Southern Sudan to be allocated on a "pro rata" basis from each of the partner’s share.
The minister also said the Commission has mapped out a new oil concession called block EA. The long slim block runs through four southern states along the western flank of four other already commissioned blocks in southern Sudan.
The NPC, according to the minister, set up a joint committee of the Federal Government and the Government of the South to negotiate with two Spanish firms that stated their desire to drill in the block and to consider financial and technical abilities, as well as attracting other new offers.
With regard to the long time disputed block B between the British WNK.LN and the French Total, Al-Hassan said the meeting adopted the outcome of a commission on the evaluation of WNK assets. He further said that it was decided that Total would compensate its British past rival.
The British White Oil Company had started operating in the disputed 67,000 square km concession of block B on April 19, 2007; but the President of the semi-autonomous region Salva Kiir ordered to freeze its activities in May of the same year and the NPC decided to exclude the British firm.
At the time Sudan oil commission also decided on an adequate and fair compensation for the White Nile in return for any achievement in the fields, but it didn’t give any indication on who will pay the indemnities.
According to a new agreement between the Sudanese parties, Total has operating rights for the block with a 32.5 percent stake, as it was the case in the initial deal, Kuwaiti Kufpec Sudan Ltd 27.5 percent instead of 25% and state-owned Sudapet maintains its 10 percent, the southern Sudan government owned Nilepet 10%. The remaining 20% should be offered in a public bid.
Today’s meeting acknowledged the need for a third partner company to replace the US Marathon, said the minister.
Marathon Oil Corp.’s (MRO), which had been unable to keep its 32.5% interest in the block because Sudan is under U.S. sanctions, sold the stake to Total in March 2008.
Mubadala Development Company, a wholly owned investment vehicle of the Government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi,.was seen as strongest candidate to enter Block B, but the first Vice-President didn’t yet give his approval.
Police arrest ex-governor in connection with Puntland minister's assassination.
Garowe Online
25 August 2009
Security forces in Somalia’s Puntland State government have arrested a former regional governor in connection with the assassination of a Cabinet minister earlier this month, Radio Garowe reports.
Mr. Abdinur Mohamed “Gessey,” the former governor of Mudug region, was arrested at a house in the provincial capital Galkayo in a police operation overnight Monday, sources said.
Mr. Gessey did not resist authorities as police and soldiers raided the home. He is currently being held at the Galkayo central region, according to police officials.
Puntland's leaders: Farole [left] and Shire
Dr. Abdirahman Mohamed “Farole,” the president of Puntland State, revoked Mr. Gessey of his duty as governor two weeks ago after the former governor refused to appear in public following the assassination of Puntland’s former information minister, Mr. Warsame Abdi “Sefta Bananka.”
Widespread speculation linked Mr. Gessey to the information minister’s killing, but Mr. Gessey has repeatedly rejected any connection to the murder case.
Separately, Mr. Gessey’s son shot and killed a relative of the deceased information minister overnight Monday and escaped. Puntland authorities continue to conduct search operations in Galkayo, which is under a nighttime curfew.
Independent sources said the latest victim, identified as Gobe Ali Hobar, is a distant relative of Mr. Sefta Bananka, Puntland’s late information minister who was assassinated in Galkayo on August 5. Mr. Gessey’s son and the late Mr. Hobar reportedly had an argument over the information minister’s assassination before a fatal bullet ended Mr. Hobar’s life.
The killers behind Mr. Sefta Bananka’s assassination have yet to be brought to court, but police investigations into the matter continue.
Meanwhile, Puntland’s leaders, including President Farole and the Vice President, Gen. Abdisamad Ali Shire, say they are committed to staying in Galkayo until the city elects a new District Council representing the city’s various interests.
The new District Council, which is almost complete, is expected to elect a mayor, police commanders and court judges.
25 August 2009
Security forces in Somalia’s Puntland State government have arrested a former regional governor in connection with the assassination of a Cabinet minister earlier this month, Radio Garowe reports.
Mr. Abdinur Mohamed “Gessey,” the former governor of Mudug region, was arrested at a house in the provincial capital Galkayo in a police operation overnight Monday, sources said.
Mr. Gessey did not resist authorities as police and soldiers raided the home. He is currently being held at the Galkayo central region, according to police officials.
Puntland's leaders: Farole [left] and Shire
Dr. Abdirahman Mohamed “Farole,” the president of Puntland State, revoked Mr. Gessey of his duty as governor two weeks ago after the former governor refused to appear in public following the assassination of Puntland’s former information minister, Mr. Warsame Abdi “Sefta Bananka.”
Widespread speculation linked Mr. Gessey to the information minister’s killing, but Mr. Gessey has repeatedly rejected any connection to the murder case.
Separately, Mr. Gessey’s son shot and killed a relative of the deceased information minister overnight Monday and escaped. Puntland authorities continue to conduct search operations in Galkayo, which is under a nighttime curfew.
Independent sources said the latest victim, identified as Gobe Ali Hobar, is a distant relative of Mr. Sefta Bananka, Puntland’s late information minister who was assassinated in Galkayo on August 5. Mr. Gessey’s son and the late Mr. Hobar reportedly had an argument over the information minister’s assassination before a fatal bullet ended Mr. Hobar’s life.
The killers behind Mr. Sefta Bananka’s assassination have yet to be brought to court, but police investigations into the matter continue.
Meanwhile, Puntland’s leaders, including President Farole and the Vice President, Gen. Abdisamad Ali Shire, say they are committed to staying in Galkayo until the city elects a new District Council representing the city’s various interests.
The new District Council, which is almost complete, is expected to elect a mayor, police commanders and court judges.
U.S. Military to Stay in Philippines.
New York Times
By THOM SHANKER
Published: August 20, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/world/asia/21military.html
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has decided to keep an elite 600-troop counterinsurgency operation deployed in the Philippines despite pressure to reassign its members to fulfill urgent needs elsewhere, like in Afghanistan or Iraq, according to Pentagon officials.
The high-level attention given to the future of the force, known as the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines, illustrates the Pentagon’s difficulty in finding enough of these highly trained units for assignments to two wars — as well as for the wider effort to combat insurgencies and militancy in other parts of the world deemed to be threats to American interests.
Senior officials said the decision also acknowledged a cautionary lesson from Afghanistan: that battlefield success should be rewarded with sustained commitment, while prematurely turning the military’s attention elsewhere — as when the Bush administration shifted focus to Iraq — provides insurgents and terrorists the opportunity to rush back in.
In the seven years that the Philippines-based American force has been operating, its members have trained local security units and provided logistical and intelligence support to Filipino forces fighting insurgents.
Senior officials say the American force and partners in the Central Intelligence Agency were instrumental in successes by the Filipino armed forces in killing and capturing leaders of the militant group Abu Sayyaf and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, antigovernment organizations operating in the south.
In a simultaneous counterinsurgency effort in the Philippines, members of the American force have completed hundreds of infrastructure projects, including roads, schools, health clinics and firehouses, conducted medical examinations and administered vaccines.
Adm. Timothy J. Keating, commander of American forces in the Pacific, said the force’s work was not yet done. “The successes we enjoy, and the gains, can tend to anesthetize us a little bit,” he said. “When the options were presented to our leadership, the decision was made to continue the Philippines mission.”
Before making his decision, Mr. Gates visited the Philippines in June. Then, Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A. director, followed with an unannounced visit in July — underscoring the tight link between the military and intelligence efforts.
“Based on his briefings heading into Manila and his meetings on the ground there, Secretary Gates just felt this is not the right time to begin scaling back our support,” said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary. “While we have made real progress against international terrorist groups there, everyone believes they would ramp back up their attacks if we were to draw down.”
Even independent, nongovernmental organizations that normally look skeptically on American military efforts have praised the Philippines operation.
“In general, the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines has been regarded as a success story, especially in terms of winning hearts and minds through civic action and medical assistance projects,” said Mark L. Schneider, senior vice president of the International Crisis Group.
He noted, however, that the insurgency in the Philippines “is a political problem first and foremost” and that no military effort alone can bring success against antigovernment forces.
Special Operations Forces are the most highly skilled in the military at capture-and-kill missions against insurgent and terrorist leaders. Within their ranks, Army Special Forces, known as the Green Berets, have for decades been training allied troops on their home soil and conducting counterinsurgency missions.
The American ambassador to the Philippines, Kristie A. Kenney, said that measuring the impact of the military mission there was difficult, but she emphasized that the task force’s efforts were multiplied by being closely coordinated with the Filipino government and American development assistance.
Col. Bill Coultrup, the task force commander, said that when he arrived in 2007, his goal was simple: “Help the Philippines security forces. It’s their fight. We don’t want to take over.”
His service includes deployments with Special Operations units in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Bosnia, where the mission focused on capturing or killing adversaries. But in the Philippines, Colonel Coultrup’s work has been only 20 percent combat-related. That portion of the military mission is designed to “help the armed forces of the Philippines neutralize high-value targets — individuals who will never change their minds,” he said.
Eighty percent of the effort, though, has been “civil-military operations to change the conditions that allow those high-value targets to have a safe haven,” Colonel Coultrup added. “We do that through helping give a better life to the citizens: good governance, better health care, a higher standard of living.”
By THOM SHANKER
Published: August 20, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/world/asia/21military.html
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has decided to keep an elite 600-troop counterinsurgency operation deployed in the Philippines despite pressure to reassign its members to fulfill urgent needs elsewhere, like in Afghanistan or Iraq, according to Pentagon officials.
The high-level attention given to the future of the force, known as the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines, illustrates the Pentagon’s difficulty in finding enough of these highly trained units for assignments to two wars — as well as for the wider effort to combat insurgencies and militancy in other parts of the world deemed to be threats to American interests.
Senior officials said the decision also acknowledged a cautionary lesson from Afghanistan: that battlefield success should be rewarded with sustained commitment, while prematurely turning the military’s attention elsewhere — as when the Bush administration shifted focus to Iraq — provides insurgents and terrorists the opportunity to rush back in.
In the seven years that the Philippines-based American force has been operating, its members have trained local security units and provided logistical and intelligence support to Filipino forces fighting insurgents.
Senior officials say the American force and partners in the Central Intelligence Agency were instrumental in successes by the Filipino armed forces in killing and capturing leaders of the militant group Abu Sayyaf and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, antigovernment organizations operating in the south.
In a simultaneous counterinsurgency effort in the Philippines, members of the American force have completed hundreds of infrastructure projects, including roads, schools, health clinics and firehouses, conducted medical examinations and administered vaccines.
Adm. Timothy J. Keating, commander of American forces in the Pacific, said the force’s work was not yet done. “The successes we enjoy, and the gains, can tend to anesthetize us a little bit,” he said. “When the options were presented to our leadership, the decision was made to continue the Philippines mission.”
Before making his decision, Mr. Gates visited the Philippines in June. Then, Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A. director, followed with an unannounced visit in July — underscoring the tight link between the military and intelligence efforts.
“Based on his briefings heading into Manila and his meetings on the ground there, Secretary Gates just felt this is not the right time to begin scaling back our support,” said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary. “While we have made real progress against international terrorist groups there, everyone believes they would ramp back up their attacks if we were to draw down.”
Even independent, nongovernmental organizations that normally look skeptically on American military efforts have praised the Philippines operation.
“In general, the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines has been regarded as a success story, especially in terms of winning hearts and minds through civic action and medical assistance projects,” said Mark L. Schneider, senior vice president of the International Crisis Group.
He noted, however, that the insurgency in the Philippines “is a political problem first and foremost” and that no military effort alone can bring success against antigovernment forces.
Special Operations Forces are the most highly skilled in the military at capture-and-kill missions against insurgent and terrorist leaders. Within their ranks, Army Special Forces, known as the Green Berets, have for decades been training allied troops on their home soil and conducting counterinsurgency missions.
The American ambassador to the Philippines, Kristie A. Kenney, said that measuring the impact of the military mission there was difficult, but she emphasized that the task force’s efforts were multiplied by being closely coordinated with the Filipino government and American development assistance.
Col. Bill Coultrup, the task force commander, said that when he arrived in 2007, his goal was simple: “Help the Philippines security forces. It’s their fight. We don’t want to take over.”
His service includes deployments with Special Operations units in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Bosnia, where the mission focused on capturing or killing adversaries. But in the Philippines, Colonel Coultrup’s work has been only 20 percent combat-related. That portion of the military mission is designed to “help the armed forces of the Philippines neutralize high-value targets — individuals who will never change their minds,” he said.
Eighty percent of the effort, though, has been “civil-military operations to change the conditions that allow those high-value targets to have a safe haven,” Colonel Coultrup added. “We do that through helping give a better life to the citizens: good governance, better health care, a higher standard of living.”
Filipino terror group crippled by leader's capture.
AP
25 August 2009
Dinno-Amor Rosalejos Pareja, also known as Khalil Pareja, allegedly headed the Rajah Solaiman Movement — a group of Christian converts to Islam — that officials say was behind the 2004 Manila ferry bombing that killed 116 people in the country's worst terror attack.
U.S. and Philippine authorities say the group is allied with two al-Qaida-linked organizations — the Southeast Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiyah and the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim extremist group based in the southern Philippines.
Converts to Islam in this predominantly Roman Catholic country — who often hail from the north — are valuable because their familiarity with that region, which includes Manila, could be exploited by southern-based Muslim separatist rebels for launching fresh attacks on the capital, police say. In contrast, many members of the Abu Sayyaf come from traditionally Muslim areas in the southern Philippines.
Police intelligence agents, backed by army troops, captured Pareja in southern Marawi city on Friday. Held without bail on rebellion charges, he was flown to Manila and photographed by reporters while being escorted to a detention center.
Police intelligence chief Rolando Anonuevo said Pareja was the last senior commander of his group and his capture "practically, totally diminished the capability" of his radical movement.
But national police chief Jesus Verzosa said a successor to Pareja could still emerge and plot new attacks in the country.
Police officials on Tuesday rewarded a masked informant with 500,000 pesos ($10,400) for providing information that led to Pareja's capture. The U.S. Department of Defense separately offered a $90,000 reward for Pareja.
The U.S. Embassy lauded Philippine authorities for Pareja's arrest. The U.S. Department of Defense will now start to determine who should get the bounty for the terror suspect's capture, embassy spokeswoman Rebecca Thompson said.
Pareja, who is allegedly a bomb-making expert, is believed to have taken over his group's leadership following the 2005 arrest of Hilarion Santos, the movement's former leader, Verzosa said.
Authorities have accused Pareja of involvement in a Muslim rebel attack that killed 10 soldiers in 2005.
Pareja's group and Abu Sayyaf militants were believed to be behind the 2004 ferry bombing in Manila Bay. It was the second most deadly terrorist attack in Southeast Asia after the 2002 bombing on the Indonesian resort island of Bali that killed 202 people.
In June last year, Washington froze bank accounts and other financial assets in the United States that belong to the group or its members.
The Treasury Department said the group has received training, money and operational assistance from Jemaah Islamiyah and the Abu Sayyaf group and from private Saudi sources that channeled funds through private charitable organizations in the Philippines.
25 August 2009
Dinno-Amor Rosalejos Pareja, also known as Khalil Pareja, allegedly headed the Rajah Solaiman Movement — a group of Christian converts to Islam — that officials say was behind the 2004 Manila ferry bombing that killed 116 people in the country's worst terror attack.
U.S. and Philippine authorities say the group is allied with two al-Qaida-linked organizations — the Southeast Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiyah and the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim extremist group based in the southern Philippines.
Converts to Islam in this predominantly Roman Catholic country — who often hail from the north — are valuable because their familiarity with that region, which includes Manila, could be exploited by southern-based Muslim separatist rebels for launching fresh attacks on the capital, police say. In contrast, many members of the Abu Sayyaf come from traditionally Muslim areas in the southern Philippines.
Police intelligence agents, backed by army troops, captured Pareja in southern Marawi city on Friday. Held without bail on rebellion charges, he was flown to Manila and photographed by reporters while being escorted to a detention center.
Police intelligence chief Rolando Anonuevo said Pareja was the last senior commander of his group and his capture "practically, totally diminished the capability" of his radical movement.
But national police chief Jesus Verzosa said a successor to Pareja could still emerge and plot new attacks in the country.
Police officials on Tuesday rewarded a masked informant with 500,000 pesos ($10,400) for providing information that led to Pareja's capture. The U.S. Department of Defense separately offered a $90,000 reward for Pareja.
The U.S. Embassy lauded Philippine authorities for Pareja's arrest. The U.S. Department of Defense will now start to determine who should get the bounty for the terror suspect's capture, embassy spokeswoman Rebecca Thompson said.
Pareja, who is allegedly a bomb-making expert, is believed to have taken over his group's leadership following the 2005 arrest of Hilarion Santos, the movement's former leader, Verzosa said.
Authorities have accused Pareja of involvement in a Muslim rebel attack that killed 10 soldiers in 2005.
Pareja's group and Abu Sayyaf militants were believed to be behind the 2004 ferry bombing in Manila Bay. It was the second most deadly terrorist attack in Southeast Asia after the 2002 bombing on the Indonesian resort island of Bali that killed 202 people.
In June last year, Washington froze bank accounts and other financial assets in the United States that belong to the group or its members.
The Treasury Department said the group has received training, money and operational assistance from Jemaah Islamiyah and the Abu Sayyaf group and from private Saudi sources that channeled funds through private charitable organizations in the Philippines.
Sibel Edmonds Testimony Transcript Available.
http://www.bradblog.com/Docs/SibelEdmondsDeposition_Transcript_080809.pdf
25 August, 2009
SAIC to Support U.S. Military Training Mission to Saudi Arabia.
Company to Help Establish Saudi War College
SAN DIEGO and MCLEAN, Va., Aug. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Science Applications International Corporation (NYSE: SAI) today announced it has been awarded a prime contract by the U.S. Military Training Mission (USMTM) to support the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces (SAAF) by establishing a Saudi War College (SWC) that meets educational and administrative standards of US War Colleges. The contract has a one year base period of performance, three one-year options and a contract value of more than $11 million if all options are exercised. Work will be performed primarily in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The USMTM to Saudi Arabia is a joint training mission and functional component command under the military command of the U.S. Central Command. The USMTM advises and assists the SAAF through security assistance efforts by developing, training and sustaining capable deterrent and self-defense forces for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in order to facilitate regional security. Under the contract, SAIC will help establish an SWC to assist in preparing and educating Saudi leaders to face domestic and global challenges. SAIC will help establish a state-of-the-art educational institution, and develop and implement a flexible curriculum that will enable the SWC to adapt to future Saudi mission requirements. SAIC will also recruit, hire, and retain fully qualified Saudi instructors, develop and implement a quality assurance plan, and establish a career and mentoring program for SWC instructors.
"SAIC is honored to support the SAAF by helping establish a world-class SWC. We believe that SAAF, teamed with SAIC, has the prerequisites for creating a prestigious military institution for the education of strategic leaders," said Charles Zang, SAIC senior vice president and business unit general manager.
About SAIC
SAIC is a FORTUNE 500((R) )scientific, engineering, and technology applications company that uses its deep domain knowledge to solve problems of vital importance to the nation and the world, in national security, energy and the environment, critical infrastructure, and health. The company's approximately 45,000 employees serve customers in the U.S. Department of Defense, the intelligence community, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, other U.S. Government civil agencies and selected commercial markets. SAIC had annual revenues of $10.1 billion for its fiscal year ended January 31, 2009. For more information, visit www.saic.com.
SAIC: From Science to Solutions((R))
Statements in this announcement, other than historical data and information, constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements, or industry results to be very different from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some of these factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in SAIC's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended January 31, 2009, and other such filings that SAIC makes with the SEC from time to time. Due to such uncertainties and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof.
Contact: Melissa Koskovich Laura Luke
(703) 676-6762 (703) 676-6533
Melissa.l.koskovich@saic.com laura.luke@saic.com
SOURCE SAIC
SAN DIEGO and MCLEAN, Va., Aug. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Science Applications International Corporation (NYSE: SAI) today announced it has been awarded a prime contract by the U.S. Military Training Mission (USMTM) to support the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces (SAAF) by establishing a Saudi War College (SWC) that meets educational and administrative standards of US War Colleges. The contract has a one year base period of performance, three one-year options and a contract value of more than $11 million if all options are exercised. Work will be performed primarily in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The USMTM to Saudi Arabia is a joint training mission and functional component command under the military command of the U.S. Central Command. The USMTM advises and assists the SAAF through security assistance efforts by developing, training and sustaining capable deterrent and self-defense forces for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in order to facilitate regional security. Under the contract, SAIC will help establish an SWC to assist in preparing and educating Saudi leaders to face domestic and global challenges. SAIC will help establish a state-of-the-art educational institution, and develop and implement a flexible curriculum that will enable the SWC to adapt to future Saudi mission requirements. SAIC will also recruit, hire, and retain fully qualified Saudi instructors, develop and implement a quality assurance plan, and establish a career and mentoring program for SWC instructors.
"SAIC is honored to support the SAAF by helping establish a world-class SWC. We believe that SAAF, teamed with SAIC, has the prerequisites for creating a prestigious military institution for the education of strategic leaders," said Charles Zang, SAIC senior vice president and business unit general manager.
About SAIC
SAIC is a FORTUNE 500((R) )scientific, engineering, and technology applications company that uses its deep domain knowledge to solve problems of vital importance to the nation and the world, in national security, energy and the environment, critical infrastructure, and health. The company's approximately 45,000 employees serve customers in the U.S. Department of Defense, the intelligence community, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, other U.S. Government civil agencies and selected commercial markets. SAIC had annual revenues of $10.1 billion for its fiscal year ended January 31, 2009. For more information, visit www.saic.com.
SAIC: From Science to Solutions((R))
Statements in this announcement, other than historical data and information, constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements, or industry results to be very different from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some of these factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in SAIC's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended January 31, 2009, and other such filings that SAIC makes with the SEC from time to time. Due to such uncertainties and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof.
Contact: Melissa Koskovich Laura Luke
(703) 676-6762 (703) 676-6533
Melissa.l.koskovich@saic.com laura.luke@saic.com
SOURCE SAIC
Crackdown on independent media ahead of election.
Afrol News
25 August 2009
The Committee to Protect Journalists has called for an end to an ongoing government crackdown on independent journalists in the semi-autonomous republic of Somaliland, ahead of the election scheduled for 27 September.
On Sunday, the Sahil regional court in the costal city of Berbera sentenced the editor-in-chief of the online publication Berberanews, Mohamed Said, in absentia to three years in jail on defamation charges, according to local journalists.
Mr Said has reportedly been in hiding since mid-August, however, local journalists told the CPJ that Mr Said plans to appeal the verdict.
Judge Osman Ibrahim read a letter that claimed Berberanews published articles that “spread scandals” against local officials, the National Union of Somali Journalists reported.
The verdict banned the Web site from operating in Somaliland for an indefinite period.
The regional court ruling also banned Yasin Jama, a contributor to Berberanews, from practicing journalism until further notice from the court. Local police arrested Jama and detained him for 10 days with no official charges.
Police accused Jama of defamation after he posted two opinion pieces, not written by him, that accused local officials of misusing public funds to support a local political party.
“Somaliland authorities must end this crackdown on independent reporting,” said CPJ’s Africa Programme Coordinator Tom Rhodes. “We call on the authorities to drop the charges against Yasin Jama immediately and on the court of appeals to overturn the verdict against Mohamed Said.”
Police in the northwestern town of Burao have also been holding private Radio Horyaal journalist Fowsi Suleiman since 3 August for a story that accused local Governor Jama Abdillahi of embezzlement, local journalists told CPJ. Fowsi has been detained without charge or brought to court for 21 days despite the 48-hour limit for detentions without charge permitted under Somaliland law. Repeated calls to Abdillahi went unanswered, the CPJ said.
The CPJ also said that on 17 August, four relatives of the chairman of the ruling party beat Ali Adan, a reporter for Horn Cable TV and Radio Horyaal, with sticks in Erigabo, a city in northeastern Somalia. According to Horn Cable TV Director Abdu Hakim, the chairman of the ruling party in Erigayo had threatened him three days earlier for covering recent political rallies. Adan told CPJ he has been released from the hospital but was still recovering from injuries. Police reportedly arrested the four relatives but the governor released them the next day.
25 August 2009
The Committee to Protect Journalists has called for an end to an ongoing government crackdown on independent journalists in the semi-autonomous republic of Somaliland, ahead of the election scheduled for 27 September.
On Sunday, the Sahil regional court in the costal city of Berbera sentenced the editor-in-chief of the online publication Berberanews, Mohamed Said, in absentia to three years in jail on defamation charges, according to local journalists.
Mr Said has reportedly been in hiding since mid-August, however, local journalists told the CPJ that Mr Said plans to appeal the verdict.
Judge Osman Ibrahim read a letter that claimed Berberanews published articles that “spread scandals” against local officials, the National Union of Somali Journalists reported.
The verdict banned the Web site from operating in Somaliland for an indefinite period.
The regional court ruling also banned Yasin Jama, a contributor to Berberanews, from practicing journalism until further notice from the court. Local police arrested Jama and detained him for 10 days with no official charges.
Police accused Jama of defamation after he posted two opinion pieces, not written by him, that accused local officials of misusing public funds to support a local political party.
“Somaliland authorities must end this crackdown on independent reporting,” said CPJ’s Africa Programme Coordinator Tom Rhodes. “We call on the authorities to drop the charges against Yasin Jama immediately and on the court of appeals to overturn the verdict against Mohamed Said.”
Police in the northwestern town of Burao have also been holding private Radio Horyaal journalist Fowsi Suleiman since 3 August for a story that accused local Governor Jama Abdillahi of embezzlement, local journalists told CPJ. Fowsi has been detained without charge or brought to court for 21 days despite the 48-hour limit for detentions without charge permitted under Somaliland law. Repeated calls to Abdillahi went unanswered, the CPJ said.
The CPJ also said that on 17 August, four relatives of the chairman of the ruling party beat Ali Adan, a reporter for Horn Cable TV and Radio Horyaal, with sticks in Erigabo, a city in northeastern Somalia. According to Horn Cable TV Director Abdu Hakim, the chairman of the ruling party in Erigayo had threatened him three days earlier for covering recent political rallies. Adan told CPJ he has been released from the hospital but was still recovering from injuries. Police reportedly arrested the four relatives but the governor released them the next day.
White House sets up new "interrogation" unit under NSC, not CIA.
AP
By STEVEN R. HURST and DEVLIN BARRETT
24 August 2009
President Barack Obama has moved more forcefully than ever to abandon Bush administration interrogation policies, approving creation of a special White House unit for questioning terrorism suspects, as Attorney General Eric Holder weighs a Justice Department recommendation to reopen and pursue prisoner abuse cases.
A senior administration official told The Associated Press Monday that Obama has approved establishment of the new unit, to be known as the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, which will be overseen by the National Security Council. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the program has not yet been officially announced.
A U.S. intelligence official said Monday that the CIA welcomes the change, saying the agency does not want to be in the long-term detention business. The official spoke on grounds of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss it publicly.
Obama campaigned vigorously against President George W. Bush's interrogation policies in his successful run for the presidency. He has said more recently he didn't particularly favor prosecuting Bush administration officials in connection with instances of prisoner abuse. But the issue now before Holder for consideration would have the new administration do precisely that: reopen several such cases with an eye toward possible criminal prosecution.
A government official confirmed to The AP the recommendation of Justice's ethics office on grounds of anonymity, citing the internal legal deliberations and indicating they remain ongoing.
Obama created task forces to study U.S. policy and practices on handling terrorism captives shortly after taking office. Obama has vowed to close the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison by next year, hoping to free those prisoners against whom there is no case, to transfer others to the custody of other countries and to put still others on trial, ending their condition of limbo in the U.S. brig.
While information on the new interrogation unit, known by the acronym HIG, will be made public later Monday, the task force working on questions about Guantanamo and prisoners still held there has not completed its work.
The new group and new directives to rely soley on the Army Field Manual when interrogating prisoners is an attempt by the administration to separate itself from allegation that the Bush administration tortured some prisoners. While the practice of waterboarding — simulated drowning — has been banned, the field manual directives would also end the practice of subjecting prisoners to loud music for long periods and sleep deprivation.
The administration is announcing the new interrogation unit on the same day that the CIA inspector general was to unveil a report on Bush administration handling of suspects. Details were expected to show that highly questionable tactics were used.
Subjecting prisoner abuse cases to a new review and possible prosecution could expose CIA employees and agency contractors to criminal prosecution for the alleged mistreatment of terror suspects in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Holder reportedly reacted with disgust when he first read accounts of prisoner abuse earlier this year in a classified version of the IG report.
The Justice report is said to reveal how interrogators conducted mock executions and threatened at least one man with a gun and a power drill. Threatening a prisoner with death violates U.S. anti-torture laws.
A federal judge has ordered the IG report made public Monday, in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.
A CIA spokesman, Paul Gimigliano, told the Times that the recommendation to reopen the cases had not been sent to the agency.
The accounts of the White House-supervised interrogation unit and the ethics recommendation to Holder were first reported, respectively, by The Washington Post and The New York Times.
The recommendation by the Office of Professional Responsibility was recently presented to Holder, an official, speaking on grounds of anonymity, told The Associated Press.
The structure of the new unit the White House is creating would depart significantly from such work under the previous administration, when the CIA had the lead and sometimes exclusive role in questioning al-Qaida suspects.
By STEVEN R. HURST and DEVLIN BARRETT
24 August 2009
President Barack Obama has moved more forcefully than ever to abandon Bush administration interrogation policies, approving creation of a special White House unit for questioning terrorism suspects, as Attorney General Eric Holder weighs a Justice Department recommendation to reopen and pursue prisoner abuse cases.
A senior administration official told The Associated Press Monday that Obama has approved establishment of the new unit, to be known as the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, which will be overseen by the National Security Council. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the program has not yet been officially announced.
A U.S. intelligence official said Monday that the CIA welcomes the change, saying the agency does not want to be in the long-term detention business. The official spoke on grounds of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss it publicly.
Obama campaigned vigorously against President George W. Bush's interrogation policies in his successful run for the presidency. He has said more recently he didn't particularly favor prosecuting Bush administration officials in connection with instances of prisoner abuse. But the issue now before Holder for consideration would have the new administration do precisely that: reopen several such cases with an eye toward possible criminal prosecution.
A government official confirmed to The AP the recommendation of Justice's ethics office on grounds of anonymity, citing the internal legal deliberations and indicating they remain ongoing.
Obama created task forces to study U.S. policy and practices on handling terrorism captives shortly after taking office. Obama has vowed to close the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison by next year, hoping to free those prisoners against whom there is no case, to transfer others to the custody of other countries and to put still others on trial, ending their condition of limbo in the U.S. brig.
While information on the new interrogation unit, known by the acronym HIG, will be made public later Monday, the task force working on questions about Guantanamo and prisoners still held there has not completed its work.
The new group and new directives to rely soley on the Army Field Manual when interrogating prisoners is an attempt by the administration to separate itself from allegation that the Bush administration tortured some prisoners. While the practice of waterboarding — simulated drowning — has been banned, the field manual directives would also end the practice of subjecting prisoners to loud music for long periods and sleep deprivation.
The administration is announcing the new interrogation unit on the same day that the CIA inspector general was to unveil a report on Bush administration handling of suspects. Details were expected to show that highly questionable tactics were used.
Subjecting prisoner abuse cases to a new review and possible prosecution could expose CIA employees and agency contractors to criminal prosecution for the alleged mistreatment of terror suspects in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Holder reportedly reacted with disgust when he first read accounts of prisoner abuse earlier this year in a classified version of the IG report.
The Justice report is said to reveal how interrogators conducted mock executions and threatened at least one man with a gun and a power drill. Threatening a prisoner with death violates U.S. anti-torture laws.
A federal judge has ordered the IG report made public Monday, in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.
A CIA spokesman, Paul Gimigliano, told the Times that the recommendation to reopen the cases had not been sent to the agency.
The accounts of the White House-supervised interrogation unit and the ethics recommendation to Holder were first reported, respectively, by The Washington Post and The New York Times.
The recommendation by the Office of Professional Responsibility was recently presented to Holder, an official, speaking on grounds of anonymity, told The Associated Press.
The structure of the new unit the White House is creating would depart significantly from such work under the previous administration, when the CIA had the lead and sometimes exclusive role in questioning al-Qaida suspects.
Embeds Screened by Controversial Company.
E&P Pub
24 August 2009
Stars and Stripes reveals that journos seeking to embed with U.S. troops in war zones are now being screened by the controversial Rendon Group. The story opens:
As more journalists seek permission to accompany U.S. forces engaged in escalating military operations in Afghanistan, many of them could be screened by a controversial Washington-based public relations firm contracted by the Pentagon to determine whether their past coverage has portrayed the U.S. military in a positive light.
U.S. public affairs officials in Afghanistan acknowledged to Stars and Stripes that any reporter seeking to embed with U.S. forces is subject to a background profile by The Rendon Group, which gained notoriety in the run-up to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq for its work helping to create the Iraqi National Congress. That opposition group, reportedly funded by the CIA, furnished much of the false information about Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction used by the Bush administration to justify the invasion.
Rendon examines individual reporters’ recent work and determines whether the coverage was “positive,” “negative” or “neutral” compared to mission objectives, according to Rendon officials. It conducts similar analysis of general reporting trends about the war for the military and has been contracted for such work since 2005, according to the company.
24 August 2009
Stars and Stripes reveals that journos seeking to embed with U.S. troops in war zones are now being screened by the controversial Rendon Group. The story opens:
As more journalists seek permission to accompany U.S. forces engaged in escalating military operations in Afghanistan, many of them could be screened by a controversial Washington-based public relations firm contracted by the Pentagon to determine whether their past coverage has portrayed the U.S. military in a positive light.
U.S. public affairs officials in Afghanistan acknowledged to Stars and Stripes that any reporter seeking to embed with U.S. forces is subject to a background profile by The Rendon Group, which gained notoriety in the run-up to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq for its work helping to create the Iraqi National Congress. That opposition group, reportedly funded by the CIA, furnished much of the false information about Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction used by the Bush administration to justify the invasion.
Rendon examines individual reporters’ recent work and determines whether the coverage was “positive,” “negative” or “neutral” compared to mission objectives, according to Rendon officials. It conducts similar analysis of general reporting trends about the war for the military and has been contracted for such work since 2005, according to the company.
PHILIPPINES: SHIP WITH ISRAELI WEAPONS STOPPED.
AGI
21 August 2009
Authorities in the Philippines have seized a cargo ship sailing under Panamanian flags for alleged weapons trafficking. On board the ship, the 'Captain Ufuk', were 14 cases loaded with assault rifles manufactured in Israel, which were probably destined to rebel groups or criminal organisations in the Philippines. The Coast Guard intercepted the cargo ship when it entered the Port of Mariveles without prior warning, at the entrance of the Bay of Manila. According to documents on the ship, the 'Captain Ufuk' departed from Turkey and stopped in Indonesia before continuing to the Philippines. The South African captain and 12 crew members, all Georgian nationals, were arrested and are now awaiting trial.
21 August 2009
Authorities in the Philippines have seized a cargo ship sailing under Panamanian flags for alleged weapons trafficking. On board the ship, the 'Captain Ufuk', were 14 cases loaded with assault rifles manufactured in Israel, which were probably destined to rebel groups or criminal organisations in the Philippines. The Coast Guard intercepted the cargo ship when it entered the Port of Mariveles without prior warning, at the entrance of the Bay of Manila. According to documents on the ship, the 'Captain Ufuk' departed from Turkey and stopped in Indonesia before continuing to the Philippines. The South African captain and 12 crew members, all Georgian nationals, were arrested and are now awaiting trial.
Manila detains ship for smuggling Israeli Arms to Phillippines.
Reuters
22 August 2009
Philippine authorities have seized a Panama-registered cargo ship and its crew after the vessel was found to contain crates of assault rifles when it docked at a local port without prior notice, officials said yesterday.
Customs and coast guard officials boarded the 5,421 gross ton ship on Thursday and found five crates containing 50 Israeli-made Galil assault rifles, they said. Ten empty crates were also found.
The ship came in to the Mariveles port, northwest of the capital. “The ship just docked at the port of Mariveles without any prior notice, which made port and customs officials suspicious,” said coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo.
The ship was bound for Batangas province south of Manila from a port in Turkey based on a map found on board. Authorities are investigating whether it was transporting firearms to illegal syndicates, local warlords or militant groups. “These guns are the primary weapon of the Israeli army,” Balilo said. “This is dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands.”
The crew, mostly Georgians, do not speak English, police regional director Leonilo de la Cruz said. They did not provide any documentation to prove the cargo was legitimate.
“We’re having a hard time talking to them,” de la Cruz said, adding an interpreter would help investigations yesterday.
“They are either pretending they don’t know how to speak English or they simply do not know how.” The Philippines has been battling communist and Muslim separatist rebellions for decades, conflicts that have killed about 160,000 people. Some local officials are also known to maintain private armies.
Officials said the crew faced possible charges of violating local immigration and customs laws. The Philippine coast guard said it would take the matter to international maritime authorities if warranted.
22 August 2009
Philippine authorities have seized a Panama-registered cargo ship and its crew after the vessel was found to contain crates of assault rifles when it docked at a local port without prior notice, officials said yesterday.
Customs and coast guard officials boarded the 5,421 gross ton ship on Thursday and found five crates containing 50 Israeli-made Galil assault rifles, they said. Ten empty crates were also found.
The ship came in to the Mariveles port, northwest of the capital. “The ship just docked at the port of Mariveles without any prior notice, which made port and customs officials suspicious,” said coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo.
The ship was bound for Batangas province south of Manila from a port in Turkey based on a map found on board. Authorities are investigating whether it was transporting firearms to illegal syndicates, local warlords or militant groups. “These guns are the primary weapon of the Israeli army,” Balilo said. “This is dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands.”
The crew, mostly Georgians, do not speak English, police regional director Leonilo de la Cruz said. They did not provide any documentation to prove the cargo was legitimate.
“We’re having a hard time talking to them,” de la Cruz said, adding an interpreter would help investigations yesterday.
“They are either pretending they don’t know how to speak English or they simply do not know how.” The Philippines has been battling communist and Muslim separatist rebellions for decades, conflicts that have killed about 160,000 people. Some local officials are also known to maintain private armies.
Officials said the crew faced possible charges of violating local immigration and customs laws. The Philippine coast guard said it would take the matter to international maritime authorities if warranted.
24 August, 2009
Sinopec May Buy Addax.
by Yvonne Lee
Dow Jones Newswires 8/24/2009
URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=79568
HONG KONG (Dow Jones)
China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (SNP), or Sinopec Corp., is considering buying Addax Petroleum Corp. (AXC.T) from its parent, as part of its effort to expand outside China, Chairman Su Shulin said in a press conference Monday.
Su said Sinopec Corp., the biggest refiner in Asia by capacity, has set up a unit to review overseas acquisition opportunities - including assets in Angola, Russia, Kazakhstan and Australia now held by its parent, China Petrochemical Corp.
"We are studying assets which are already in production, and those which are still in exploration. We are also interested in buying companies," Su said.
The company is also in talks to buy liquefied natural gas from the ExxonMobil-led (XOM) LNG project in Papua New Guinea, he said without elaborating.
Beijing-based Sinopec Corp. said earlier Monday it is actively seeking overseas investments in oil and gas resources as part of a three-year plan ending Dec. 31, 2011, to boost crude oil and natural gas production.
Next year's capital expenditure will likely be similar to this year's CNY120 billion, with most of the money to be spent on upstream exploration, Su said.
Chief Financial Officer Wang Xinhua said at the same conference he expects international crude oil prices to hover between $65 and $75 a barrel in the second half.
Dow Jones Newswires 8/24/2009
URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=79568
HONG KONG (Dow Jones)
China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (SNP), or Sinopec Corp., is considering buying Addax Petroleum Corp. (AXC.T) from its parent, as part of its effort to expand outside China, Chairman Su Shulin said in a press conference Monday.
Su said Sinopec Corp., the biggest refiner in Asia by capacity, has set up a unit to review overseas acquisition opportunities - including assets in Angola, Russia, Kazakhstan and Australia now held by its parent, China Petrochemical Corp.
"We are studying assets which are already in production, and those which are still in exploration. We are also interested in buying companies," Su said.
The company is also in talks to buy liquefied natural gas from the ExxonMobil-led (XOM) LNG project in Papua New Guinea, he said without elaborating.
Beijing-based Sinopec Corp. said earlier Monday it is actively seeking overseas investments in oil and gas resources as part of a three-year plan ending Dec. 31, 2011, to boost crude oil and natural gas production.
Next year's capital expenditure will likely be similar to this year's CNY120 billion, with most of the money to be spent on upstream exploration, Su said.
Chief Financial Officer Wang Xinhua said at the same conference he expects international crude oil prices to hover between $65 and $75 a barrel in the second half.
Russia says Ukrainians fought for Georgia in 2008 war.
Reuters
By Conor Humphries
August 24, 2009
Russia said on Monday that Ukrainian troops and volunteers fought for Georgia in its war with Russia last year in the latest sign of strained relations between the neighbours.
Ukraine has denied earlier Russian accusations that it supplied arms to Georgia during the five-day war last August in which Moscow invaded the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia to drive out Georgian government troops.
"Soldiers from Ukraine's regular defence ministry detachments and at least 200 members of the UNA-UNSO nationalist organisation took part in the armed aggression against South Ossetia," Russia's Prosecutor General's office said in a statement released on Ukraine's Independence Day.
Dozens of members of the UNA-UNSO paramilitary group fought for Chechen rebels against Russian troops in the 1990s but the organisation has become less active in recent years.
Russian investigators said they had found uniforms and documents from the UNA-USNO, as well as documents referring to Georgian-provided transportation.
Ukrainian officials were unavailable for comment on Monday, a public holiday in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko openly supported Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in the aftermath of the war but Kiev authorities denied they provided Georgia with military support during the hostilities.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev this month waded into Ukraine's presidential election, set for January, by accusing Yushchenko of anti-Russian policies and saying he had given up on any improvement on relations as long as he remained in power.
(Writing by Conor Humphries; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
By Conor Humphries
August 24, 2009
Russia said on Monday that Ukrainian troops and volunteers fought for Georgia in its war with Russia last year in the latest sign of strained relations between the neighbours.
Ukraine has denied earlier Russian accusations that it supplied arms to Georgia during the five-day war last August in which Moscow invaded the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia to drive out Georgian government troops.
"Soldiers from Ukraine's regular defence ministry detachments and at least 200 members of the UNA-UNSO nationalist organisation took part in the armed aggression against South Ossetia," Russia's Prosecutor General's office said in a statement released on Ukraine's Independence Day.
Dozens of members of the UNA-UNSO paramilitary group fought for Chechen rebels against Russian troops in the 1990s but the organisation has become less active in recent years.
Russian investigators said they had found uniforms and documents from the UNA-USNO, as well as documents referring to Georgian-provided transportation.
Ukrainian officials were unavailable for comment on Monday, a public holiday in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko openly supported Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in the aftermath of the war but Kiev authorities denied they provided Georgia with military support during the hostilities.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev this month waded into Ukraine's presidential election, set for January, by accusing Yushchenko of anti-Russian policies and saying he had given up on any improvement on relations as long as he remained in power.
(Writing by Conor Humphries; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Eldoret-Kampala Oil Pipeline sees growing dominance by Libyan Tamoil.
The Independent (Uganda)
20 June 2009
In June, the Kenya Petroleum Refinery in Mombasa is set to close for routine maintenance. As a result, Uganda could suffer disruptions in supply. The Mombasa refinery shutdown also comes at a time of significant developments in the fuel sector.
Top on the list is the increasing marginalisation of the traditional supers Shell and Total, the emergency of a regional monopoly called Tamoil of Libya, and the creeping rise in the international price of crude. Other issues include the absence of a regulatory authority for the oil sector, the government's handing of control of the "strategic" national reserve tanks at Jinja to a Libyan company, Tamoil, and the confusion around several companies under that trade name that are set to become the most powerful player in the sector.
Tamoil is the name of the company or companies that won the tender to construct the Eldoret-Kampala Oil Pipeline. It was awarded -- without a tendering process -- the deal to repair and restock the national fuel reserves in Jinja, and another to build the new national strategic Kampala Oil Products Terminal.
At the time, acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy, Paul Mubiru is reported to have defended Tamoil because it "had the skills and experience in fuel supply and depot operation and had already produced the design for up-grading the facility." He claimed Tamoil was favoured because its build, own, operate, and transfer (BOOT) operations were not costing the government a single penny.
Ugandan fuel operators are not alone in feeling the Tamoil heat. In Kenya, Tamoil East Africa was awarded the deal to build a $ 60-mm liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage facility in Mombasa and another $ 300 mm to upgrade the Mombasa refinery. This is the refinery for most of the products sold in the East Africa region.
None of these projects has advanced substantially, but should Tamoil implement any or all of them, it will be in a position to dictate terms to the governments of both Kenya and Uganda and the other bigoil sector players. Not surprisingly, some major players, like Caltex, are cutting their losses. Caltex quit Uganda after selling its 70 stations to Total in April. The deal included terminals and fuel depots, aviation facilities, and commercial and industrial fuels business in Entebbe. Caltex sold its Kenya operation also to Total.
Energy Minister Simon D'Ujang said the existing oil firms have nothing to fear.
"Tamoil is only for the oil pipeline and the smooth transportation of the oil from Eldoret to Kampala and later to Kigali. It has nothing to do with retail trading in oil," he said, "What will happen is that oil will be delivered by pipeline up to Kampala and then picked by trucks for onward delivery to the various destinations."
But leading sector players, including Shell Uganda boss, Ivan Kyayonka, confirmed that Tamoil has its sights set on retail.
"Tamoil bought most of the stations that we (Shell) sold when we took over the Agip operation but could not use," Kyayonka told.
Shell in 2000 bought AgipPetroli's service station networks, storage and distribution facilities, direct sales of lubricants and bitumen. There are several retail fuel stations with a Libyan connection trading under the name Oilibya. Sector experts now claim that if Tamoil entered the retail market, it would lead to "lower stream complications". Already, according to them, investment in Uganda's retail fuel sector has stalled.
"Nobody wants to lose money. Confusion over the role of Tamoil has led players to refrain from investing in new trucks to transport fuel to Uganda," a member of a leading energy sector committee that meets regularly told.
At the time, the source claimed the Energy ministry was in fact finding difficulty in handing over the oil reserves in Jinja to Tamoil despite a cabinet directive. But recently, Minister D'Ujang dismissed the claims.
"I am glad to say that Tamoil last week started rehabilitation of the Jinja storage tanks," he said at the end of May.
Regarding the implementation of a regulatory framework, which the other sector players see as the only defence against a government-backed Tamoil monopoly, the minister said the issue was being handled by Parliament.
"We can't introduce or talk about an oil regulatory authority without a law to guide it," he said. What he did not say is that the sector has been waiting for at least seven years for the regulatory framework to be set up.
In September 2002, then minister of Energy, Syda Bbumba, who is now Finance minister, published the "Energy Policy for Uganda". The policy drafters noted that among the key issues under the petroleum sub-sector was the inadequate institutional and legal framework to regulate the petroleum supply industry, resulting in unfair competition and lack of transparency and two; the low storage private capacity compared to national requirements. Seven years later, these two issues remain unresolved.
The Petroleum Supply Act, 2003 provides for new regulatory framework that aims to monitor the subsector to reinforce and promote competition among the players. If it does not happen soon, then the country could be placed at the mercy of a Tamoil monopoly, an entity whose credentials have in the past been queried.
Officially, Tamoil is the trading name of the Oilinvest Group, an oil company based in the Netherlands and set up by the Libyan state-owned National Oil Corporation in 1988. Tamoil in 2008 also formed a holding company, Oilinvest, which is controlled by the Libya Investment Authority. Oilinvest supplies, trades, and refines crude oil. It also sales refined oil products and operates over 3,000 fuel stations in Europe, especially Italy, and over 150 in Africa.
In 2006, it bought Mobil's network on Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Gabon and the Isle of Reunion and introduced a retailing brand Oilibya.
Significantly, in 2008 it won the contract to construct a 354-km oil pipeline between Eldoret in Kenya and Kampala after offering the lowest bid, $ 71 mm (later revised to $ 78 mm) against $ 100 mm from the nearest challenger, a Chinese firm. But the work, which it offered to complete in 18 months, is yet to start. The final bill is also likely to be higher. In January 2007, Tamoil claimed the cost of the project had swollen by $ 12 mm.
Unofficially, however, several organisations trading under the Tamoil have sprung up causing confusion over their ownership, technical and financial ability, and their link to Libya. Among them are Tamoil East Africa, Tamoil Holding, Habib Investments, and Oilibya.
Controversy over Tamoil is not new. In 2006, there were media reports that President Yoweri Museveni had ordered the firm to be investigated.
When Tamoil East Africa's credential were queried during the bidding process for the pipeline, according to the leading sector information portal Alexander's Gas & Oil Connections, it told the Kenya-Uganda Joint Coordination Committee that it was 70 % owned by Tamoil Holding and 30 % owned by Habib Investments of Habib Kagimu. Kagimu in turn is said to have connections and influence in the Libya and Uganda governments.
Unconvinced, the project consultant, Alain Rosier of Nexant (a subsidiary of Bechtel-Editor), raised further queries about its ability to design, construct, finance, own, operate, and transfer the pipeline to the two governments after a 20 year period. He was removed. But Energy Minister D'Ujang claims they are all the same company.
"All the Tamoil's you are asking about are subsidiaries of the Libyan Tamoil Group," he said.
If that is correct, then it would suggest that the government is brushing aside concerns by sector players that it is breeding a monopoly.
The Petroleum Supply Act, 2003, Part VII on "Market Competition and Assurance of Supply", Section 30 (1) states: "Participants in the supply chain shall not form cartels or attempt to control prices or create artificial shortages of products or services, or engage in any other restrictive trade practices or any other acts or omissions which are contrary to the principles of fair competition or are intended to impede the functioning of the free market of petroleum products in Uganda."
As Shell boss Ivan Kyayonka told, there is concern that Tamoil could have unfair advantage if it builds and owns the pipeline, repairs, restocks, and operates the Jinja Oil Reserves, and enters the retail trading.
"It is fine for them to build the pipeline because they offered the lowest bid," Kyayonka said," and it's OK for them to repair the oil reservoirs. But whose product will it be when they restock?" Kyayonka said sector players are concerned that filling the oil reservoirs with Tamoil's product would mean it has entered the retail trade.
Apparently, government's claim that it is allowing the Tamoil dominance to emerge because it is not spending a penny on the investments does not hold water.
"The big five (Shell, Total, etc.) offered the government a cost-neutral proposal but it was blocked," a source said. The proposal was for a similar arrangement that the fuel companies have for Jet-fuel at Entebbeairport. They jointly run the reserve tanks with each company entitled to a specific quota of storage. Shell manages the facility.
But D'Ujang is emphatic: "I want you to get this very clearly. Shell, Total and the other oil companies were allowed to put their fuel there but those tanks are a property of the government of Uganda. Oil companies were only allowed to keep their products there. Now with this new oil pipeline, the reserves will become part of the pipeline and the oil companies that have been using them will have to use their individual reserve tanks. Besides, the oil companies are supposed to have oil reserves for at least ten days."
That is a tough call as oil companies have depended on small storage depots yet demand has grown dramatically from about 9,000 bpd in 2000 to 12,000 bpd currently.
Previously, they have held their reserves at the Jinja national reserve tanks but that is unlikely now that they are under repair by Tamoil. The Kampala Storage Terminal is planned for 180 mm litres but is also under Tamoil.
Hopefully, the government has plans that Tamoil's growing dominance does not plunge the oil sector into turmoil.
Editor's Note: Tamoil is owned by US-based Colony Capital.
20 June 2009
In June, the Kenya Petroleum Refinery in Mombasa is set to close for routine maintenance. As a result, Uganda could suffer disruptions in supply. The Mombasa refinery shutdown also comes at a time of significant developments in the fuel sector.
Top on the list is the increasing marginalisation of the traditional supers Shell and Total, the emergency of a regional monopoly called Tamoil of Libya, and the creeping rise in the international price of crude. Other issues include the absence of a regulatory authority for the oil sector, the government's handing of control of the "strategic" national reserve tanks at Jinja to a Libyan company, Tamoil, and the confusion around several companies under that trade name that are set to become the most powerful player in the sector.
Tamoil is the name of the company or companies that won the tender to construct the Eldoret-Kampala Oil Pipeline. It was awarded -- without a tendering process -- the deal to repair and restock the national fuel reserves in Jinja, and another to build the new national strategic Kampala Oil Products Terminal.
At the time, acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy, Paul Mubiru is reported to have defended Tamoil because it "had the skills and experience in fuel supply and depot operation and had already produced the design for up-grading the facility." He claimed Tamoil was favoured because its build, own, operate, and transfer (BOOT) operations were not costing the government a single penny.
Ugandan fuel operators are not alone in feeling the Tamoil heat. In Kenya, Tamoil East Africa was awarded the deal to build a $ 60-mm liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage facility in Mombasa and another $ 300 mm to upgrade the Mombasa refinery. This is the refinery for most of the products sold in the East Africa region.
None of these projects has advanced substantially, but should Tamoil implement any or all of them, it will be in a position to dictate terms to the governments of both Kenya and Uganda and the other bigoil sector players. Not surprisingly, some major players, like Caltex, are cutting their losses. Caltex quit Uganda after selling its 70 stations to Total in April. The deal included terminals and fuel depots, aviation facilities, and commercial and industrial fuels business in Entebbe. Caltex sold its Kenya operation also to Total.
Energy Minister Simon D'Ujang said the existing oil firms have nothing to fear.
"Tamoil is only for the oil pipeline and the smooth transportation of the oil from Eldoret to Kampala and later to Kigali. It has nothing to do with retail trading in oil," he said, "What will happen is that oil will be delivered by pipeline up to Kampala and then picked by trucks for onward delivery to the various destinations."
But leading sector players, including Shell Uganda boss, Ivan Kyayonka, confirmed that Tamoil has its sights set on retail.
"Tamoil bought most of the stations that we (Shell) sold when we took over the Agip operation but could not use," Kyayonka told.
Shell in 2000 bought AgipPetroli's service station networks, storage and distribution facilities, direct sales of lubricants and bitumen. There are several retail fuel stations with a Libyan connection trading under the name Oilibya. Sector experts now claim that if Tamoil entered the retail market, it would lead to "lower stream complications". Already, according to them, investment in Uganda's retail fuel sector has stalled.
"Nobody wants to lose money. Confusion over the role of Tamoil has led players to refrain from investing in new trucks to transport fuel to Uganda," a member of a leading energy sector committee that meets regularly told.
At the time, the source claimed the Energy ministry was in fact finding difficulty in handing over the oil reserves in Jinja to Tamoil despite a cabinet directive. But recently, Minister D'Ujang dismissed the claims.
"I am glad to say that Tamoil last week started rehabilitation of the Jinja storage tanks," he said at the end of May.
Regarding the implementation of a regulatory framework, which the other sector players see as the only defence against a government-backed Tamoil monopoly, the minister said the issue was being handled by Parliament.
"We can't introduce or talk about an oil regulatory authority without a law to guide it," he said. What he did not say is that the sector has been waiting for at least seven years for the regulatory framework to be set up.
In September 2002, then minister of Energy, Syda Bbumba, who is now Finance minister, published the "Energy Policy for Uganda". The policy drafters noted that among the key issues under the petroleum sub-sector was the inadequate institutional and legal framework to regulate the petroleum supply industry, resulting in unfair competition and lack of transparency and two; the low storage private capacity compared to national requirements. Seven years later, these two issues remain unresolved.
The Petroleum Supply Act, 2003 provides for new regulatory framework that aims to monitor the subsector to reinforce and promote competition among the players. If it does not happen soon, then the country could be placed at the mercy of a Tamoil monopoly, an entity whose credentials have in the past been queried.
Officially, Tamoil is the trading name of the Oilinvest Group, an oil company based in the Netherlands and set up by the Libyan state-owned National Oil Corporation in 1988. Tamoil in 2008 also formed a holding company, Oilinvest, which is controlled by the Libya Investment Authority. Oilinvest supplies, trades, and refines crude oil. It also sales refined oil products and operates over 3,000 fuel stations in Europe, especially Italy, and over 150 in Africa.
In 2006, it bought Mobil's network on Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Gabon and the Isle of Reunion and introduced a retailing brand Oilibya.
Significantly, in 2008 it won the contract to construct a 354-km oil pipeline between Eldoret in Kenya and Kampala after offering the lowest bid, $ 71 mm (later revised to $ 78 mm) against $ 100 mm from the nearest challenger, a Chinese firm. But the work, which it offered to complete in 18 months, is yet to start. The final bill is also likely to be higher. In January 2007, Tamoil claimed the cost of the project had swollen by $ 12 mm.
Unofficially, however, several organisations trading under the Tamoil have sprung up causing confusion over their ownership, technical and financial ability, and their link to Libya. Among them are Tamoil East Africa, Tamoil Holding, Habib Investments, and Oilibya.
Controversy over Tamoil is not new. In 2006, there were media reports that President Yoweri Museveni had ordered the firm to be investigated.
When Tamoil East Africa's credential were queried during the bidding process for the pipeline, according to the leading sector information portal Alexander's Gas & Oil Connections, it told the Kenya-Uganda Joint Coordination Committee that it was 70 % owned by Tamoil Holding and 30 % owned by Habib Investments of Habib Kagimu. Kagimu in turn is said to have connections and influence in the Libya and Uganda governments.
Unconvinced, the project consultant, Alain Rosier of Nexant (a subsidiary of Bechtel-Editor), raised further queries about its ability to design, construct, finance, own, operate, and transfer the pipeline to the two governments after a 20 year period. He was removed. But Energy Minister D'Ujang claims they are all the same company.
"All the Tamoil's you are asking about are subsidiaries of the Libyan Tamoil Group," he said.
If that is correct, then it would suggest that the government is brushing aside concerns by sector players that it is breeding a monopoly.
The Petroleum Supply Act, 2003, Part VII on "Market Competition and Assurance of Supply", Section 30 (1) states: "Participants in the supply chain shall not form cartels or attempt to control prices or create artificial shortages of products or services, or engage in any other restrictive trade practices or any other acts or omissions which are contrary to the principles of fair competition or are intended to impede the functioning of the free market of petroleum products in Uganda."
As Shell boss Ivan Kyayonka told, there is concern that Tamoil could have unfair advantage if it builds and owns the pipeline, repairs, restocks, and operates the Jinja Oil Reserves, and enters the retail trading.
"It is fine for them to build the pipeline because they offered the lowest bid," Kyayonka said," and it's OK for them to repair the oil reservoirs. But whose product will it be when they restock?" Kyayonka said sector players are concerned that filling the oil reservoirs with Tamoil's product would mean it has entered the retail trade.
Apparently, government's claim that it is allowing the Tamoil dominance to emerge because it is not spending a penny on the investments does not hold water.
"The big five (Shell, Total, etc.) offered the government a cost-neutral proposal but it was blocked," a source said. The proposal was for a similar arrangement that the fuel companies have for Jet-fuel at Entebbeairport. They jointly run the reserve tanks with each company entitled to a specific quota of storage. Shell manages the facility.
But D'Ujang is emphatic: "I want you to get this very clearly. Shell, Total and the other oil companies were allowed to put their fuel there but those tanks are a property of the government of Uganda. Oil companies were only allowed to keep their products there. Now with this new oil pipeline, the reserves will become part of the pipeline and the oil companies that have been using them will have to use their individual reserve tanks. Besides, the oil companies are supposed to have oil reserves for at least ten days."
That is a tough call as oil companies have depended on small storage depots yet demand has grown dramatically from about 9,000 bpd in 2000 to 12,000 bpd currently.
Previously, they have held their reserves at the Jinja national reserve tanks but that is unlikely now that they are under repair by Tamoil. The Kampala Storage Terminal is planned for 180 mm litres but is also under Tamoil.
Hopefully, the government has plans that Tamoil's growing dominance does not plunge the oil sector into turmoil.
Editor's Note: Tamoil is owned by US-based Colony Capital.
CNPC begins construction of Chad oil pipeline.
Asian Energy
4 July 2009
China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) has begun construction in Chad of a 300-km oil pipeline that will transport crude from Koudalwa field to the Djarmaya refinery, north of N'Djamena.
"Chadians have waited a long time for this opportunity," said President Idriss Deby Itno, adding his hopes that oil resources can "contribute to economic development and the battle against poverty in our country."
Deby's office said the south-western Chari-Baguirmi region, where Koudala field is located, will eventually produce 60,000 bpd of oil. In April, CNPC's unit in Chad made its first oil and gas discovery with an exploration well that had output in excess of 1,000 tons of oil equivalent.
CNPC said the Prosopis-1 well produced 7,558 bpd of crude and 46,000 cmpd of natural gas during testing, marking the highest-yielding well on Chad's H Block since the Chinese firm acquired a 100 % stake there in early 2007.
CNPC also said the discovery laid a foundation for the "smooth progress" of the joint venture refinery now being built about 40 km north of N'Djamena, which is designed to produce around 700,000 tpy of gasoline and diesel, 20,000 tpy of kerosene, and 60,000 tpy of LPG.
CNPC began construction of the 1 mm tpy-crude capacity refinery in October. The facility is expected to become operational in 2011. CNPC owns a 60 % stake in the refinery, which aims to supply both the domestic market and neighbouring countries, while Chad's state oil company SHT owns the remaining 40 %.
In February, Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) said it would consider helping finance the N'Djamena refinery.
"The two parties agreed... to examine the details of the project and the possibility of a financial contribution from the bank," IDB said.
The statement came after Chad's Economy and Planning Minister Ousmane Matar Breme asked Ahmed Mohammed Ali, the head of the 56-member IDB, to "contribute to the construction of a... refinery in the capital N'Djamena which will be jointly-developed by... Chad and China."
CNPC purchased assets in Chad from EnCana in January 2007 for $ 202.5 mm, acquiring EnCana's 50 % interest in seven sedimentary basins across 54 mm acres of the Block H concession. In 2007, China National Oil & Gas Exploration & Development Corp. (CNODC) began producing oil from wells in the Mimosa and Ronier fields of the Bongor basin, one of the seven acquired from EnCana, which has proven deposits estimated at more than 100 mm tons of oil.
Recent reports suggest that CNODC may also acquire previously unexplored areas of Chad's oil fields relinquished by members of a consortium comprised of Chevron Texaco 25 %, Esso E&P Chad 40 %, and Petronas 35 %, including Moundouli, Maikeri, Miandoum, Kome, and Bolobo.
Oil production in Chad began when the consortium brought Miandoum on stream in July 2003.
Kome and Bolobo production followed in 2004. Satellite fields Nya, Moundouli, and Maikeri went into production in 2005, 2006, and 2007, respectively.
4 July 2009
China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) has begun construction in Chad of a 300-km oil pipeline that will transport crude from Koudalwa field to the Djarmaya refinery, north of N'Djamena.
"Chadians have waited a long time for this opportunity," said President Idriss Deby Itno, adding his hopes that oil resources can "contribute to economic development and the battle against poverty in our country."
Deby's office said the south-western Chari-Baguirmi region, where Koudala field is located, will eventually produce 60,000 bpd of oil. In April, CNPC's unit in Chad made its first oil and gas discovery with an exploration well that had output in excess of 1,000 tons of oil equivalent.
CNPC said the Prosopis-1 well produced 7,558 bpd of crude and 46,000 cmpd of natural gas during testing, marking the highest-yielding well on Chad's H Block since the Chinese firm acquired a 100 % stake there in early 2007.
CNPC also said the discovery laid a foundation for the "smooth progress" of the joint venture refinery now being built about 40 km north of N'Djamena, which is designed to produce around 700,000 tpy of gasoline and diesel, 20,000 tpy of kerosene, and 60,000 tpy of LPG.
CNPC began construction of the 1 mm tpy-crude capacity refinery in October. The facility is expected to become operational in 2011. CNPC owns a 60 % stake in the refinery, which aims to supply both the domestic market and neighbouring countries, while Chad's state oil company SHT owns the remaining 40 %.
In February, Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) said it would consider helping finance the N'Djamena refinery.
"The two parties agreed... to examine the details of the project and the possibility of a financial contribution from the bank," IDB said.
The statement came after Chad's Economy and Planning Minister Ousmane Matar Breme asked Ahmed Mohammed Ali, the head of the 56-member IDB, to "contribute to the construction of a... refinery in the capital N'Djamena which will be jointly-developed by... Chad and China."
CNPC purchased assets in Chad from EnCana in January 2007 for $ 202.5 mm, acquiring EnCana's 50 % interest in seven sedimentary basins across 54 mm acres of the Block H concession. In 2007, China National Oil & Gas Exploration & Development Corp. (CNODC) began producing oil from wells in the Mimosa and Ronier fields of the Bongor basin, one of the seven acquired from EnCana, which has proven deposits estimated at more than 100 mm tons of oil.
Recent reports suggest that CNODC may also acquire previously unexplored areas of Chad's oil fields relinquished by members of a consortium comprised of Chevron Texaco 25 %, Esso E&P Chad 40 %, and Petronas 35 %, including Moundouli, Maikeri, Miandoum, Kome, and Bolobo.
Oil production in Chad began when the consortium brought Miandoum on stream in July 2003.
Kome and Bolobo production followed in 2004. Satellite fields Nya, Moundouli, and Maikeri went into production in 2005, 2006, and 2007, respectively.
Venezuela to build oil refinery in Haiti.
Downstream Today
17 June 2009
A Haitian delegation headed by Foreign Affairs Minister Alrich Nicolas participated in St Kitts and Nevis in the PetroCaribe summit during which Venezuela announced the reinforcement of its energy cooperation with the countries of the region through various projects including the construction soon of a petroleum refinery in Haiti.
Among the new petroleum installations that Caracas is considering financing is a refinery whose stocking capacity is 20,000 bpd that will be offered to Haiti. Announced a long time ago, this project is about to be materialized.
For its part, the Dominican Republic will be endowed with a refinery that can receive 10,000 bpd. Cuba and Nicaragua, two faithful ideological allies of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, will also be the beneficiaries of the same infrastructure with even greater stocking capacities.
In addition, thanks to Caracas's 49 % participation in the capital of the enterprise, the neighbouring visitor will be able to purchase Refidomsa, a refinerybuilt on its territory and belonging to the English-Dutch Shell petroleum giant.
This PetroCaribe summit marked by the willingness of the leader of the Bolivarian revolution to strengthen his "petroleum diplomacy" gathered in Basse-Terre, capital of St Kitts and Nevis, the heads of states and governments of various partner countries including the Dominican Leonel Fernandez. In addition to Chancellor Nicolas, the Haitian delegation included Finance Minister Daniel Dorsainvil and Michael Lecorps, director of the monetization office in charge of setting up PetroCaribe.
Thanks to this regional energy cooperation program Haiti officially joined in 2006. The country buys Venezuelan petroleum at preferential prices provided that it pays 40 % of the total invoice at the ordering time.
17 June 2009
A Haitian delegation headed by Foreign Affairs Minister Alrich Nicolas participated in St Kitts and Nevis in the PetroCaribe summit during which Venezuela announced the reinforcement of its energy cooperation with the countries of the region through various projects including the construction soon of a petroleum refinery in Haiti.
Among the new petroleum installations that Caracas is considering financing is a refinery whose stocking capacity is 20,000 bpd that will be offered to Haiti. Announced a long time ago, this project is about to be materialized.
For its part, the Dominican Republic will be endowed with a refinery that can receive 10,000 bpd. Cuba and Nicaragua, two faithful ideological allies of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, will also be the beneficiaries of the same infrastructure with even greater stocking capacities.
In addition, thanks to Caracas's 49 % participation in the capital of the enterprise, the neighbouring visitor will be able to purchase Refidomsa, a refinerybuilt on its territory and belonging to the English-Dutch Shell petroleum giant.
This PetroCaribe summit marked by the willingness of the leader of the Bolivarian revolution to strengthen his "petroleum diplomacy" gathered in Basse-Terre, capital of St Kitts and Nevis, the heads of states and governments of various partner countries including the Dominican Leonel Fernandez. In addition to Chancellor Nicolas, the Haitian delegation included Finance Minister Daniel Dorsainvil and Michael Lecorps, director of the monetization office in charge of setting up PetroCaribe.
Thanks to this regional energy cooperation program Haiti officially joined in 2006. The country buys Venezuelan petroleum at preferential prices provided that it pays 40 % of the total invoice at the ordering time.
China and Arab nations agree to establish energy cooperative mechanism.
Kuna
24 June 2009
China and 22 Arab nations agreed to establish a cooperative mechanism on energy resources, according to a document approved by the sixth senior-official meeting of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum in Beijing.
The document said the two sides agreed that cooperative mechanisms for energy resources, including renewable energies such as solar and wind, should be established among the governments, state-owned and private enterprises. The two sides also agreed that both had the right to peaceful use of nuclear energy and that investment in oil and natural gas exploration, refining, transportation and sale should be encouraged, it said.
China and the Arab nations also praised the achievements in building a new type of Sino-Arab partnership, and pledged to enhance cooperation in investment, trade and environment protection and to actively strengthen cultural, artistic and educational exchanges, it said.
The participants agreed to hold the fourth ministerial conference of the Sino-Arab Cooperation Forum in China in the second quarter of 2010 and the seventh senior officials' meeting before the ministerial conference.
24 June 2009
China and 22 Arab nations agreed to establish a cooperative mechanism on energy resources, according to a document approved by the sixth senior-official meeting of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum in Beijing.
The document said the two sides agreed that cooperative mechanisms for energy resources, including renewable energies such as solar and wind, should be established among the governments, state-owned and private enterprises. The two sides also agreed that both had the right to peaceful use of nuclear energy and that investment in oil and natural gas exploration, refining, transportation and sale should be encouraged, it said.
China and the Arab nations also praised the achievements in building a new type of Sino-Arab partnership, and pledged to enhance cooperation in investment, trade and environment protection and to actively strengthen cultural, artistic and educational exchanges, it said.
The participants agreed to hold the fourth ministerial conference of the Sino-Arab Cooperation Forum in China in the second quarter of 2010 and the seventh senior officials' meeting before the ministerial conference.
Russia clinches gas contract with Azerbaijan.
Georgian Daily
29 June 2009
Russian gas giant Gazprom clinched a deal to buy natural gas from Azerbaijan, as Moscow seeks to extend its grip on potential European energy supplies in the resource-rich Caspian Sea. The agreement was signed by Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller and Azerbaijani national energy company chief Rovnag Abdullayev in the presence of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev.
"I think that we will be able to take this work further, in view of greater opportunities and greater volumes, which will be increased," Medvedev told in Baku.
Miller said Gazprom's purchases would start at 500 mm cm of gas annually as of Jan. 1, 2010, with the agreement allowing for supply levels to increase later.
"The price will be commercially attractive for Azerbaijan because we are neighbouring countries so there are no transit states between us," Miller said. "We can therefore begin to buy the gas quickly. There is already a gas pipeline between us," he said.
The deal could cast doubts on the viability of the European Union's ambitious Nabucco pipeline project, aimed at bypassing Russia to deliver Caspian Sea gas to Western Europe.
Rich in oil and gas and strategically located between Russia and Iran, Azerbaijan has been courted by both Russia and the West since gaining its independence with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Backed by Western governments, companies such as BP have pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the country's energy sector, building a corridor of oil and gas pipelines from Azerbaijan through Georgia and Turkey to Europe.
Azerbaijan is seen as a crucial potential provider for Nabucco, a 3,300-km (2,050-mile) pipeline between Turkey and Austria scheduled to be completed by 2013. The pipeline is aimed at reducing European reliance on Russian gas supplied through Ukraine -- a route that has seen repeated interruptions.
Anxious to secure energy sources for its own export pipelines, Russia this year stepped up efforts to buy gas from Azerbaijan. In March the two countries signed a preliminary deal on natural gas sales from 2010 and a month later Medvedev hosted Aliyev in Moscow to push the deal forward.
Russia is also backing a rival pipeline to Nabucco, South Stream, being built by Gazprom and Italy's ENI. That project entails building a gas pipeline under the Black Sea from Russia to Bulgaria and then branches to Austria and Italy.
Azerbaijan last year produced 22.8 bn cm of natural gas, according to government figures, and the country expects to nearly double gas production to 40 bn cm by 2015-2020.
29 June 2009
Russian gas giant Gazprom clinched a deal to buy natural gas from Azerbaijan, as Moscow seeks to extend its grip on potential European energy supplies in the resource-rich Caspian Sea. The agreement was signed by Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller and Azerbaijani national energy company chief Rovnag Abdullayev in the presence of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev.
"I think that we will be able to take this work further, in view of greater opportunities and greater volumes, which will be increased," Medvedev told in Baku.
Miller said Gazprom's purchases would start at 500 mm cm of gas annually as of Jan. 1, 2010, with the agreement allowing for supply levels to increase later.
"The price will be commercially attractive for Azerbaijan because we are neighbouring countries so there are no transit states between us," Miller said. "We can therefore begin to buy the gas quickly. There is already a gas pipeline between us," he said.
The deal could cast doubts on the viability of the European Union's ambitious Nabucco pipeline project, aimed at bypassing Russia to deliver Caspian Sea gas to Western Europe.
Rich in oil and gas and strategically located between Russia and Iran, Azerbaijan has been courted by both Russia and the West since gaining its independence with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Backed by Western governments, companies such as BP have pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the country's energy sector, building a corridor of oil and gas pipelines from Azerbaijan through Georgia and Turkey to Europe.
Azerbaijan is seen as a crucial potential provider for Nabucco, a 3,300-km (2,050-mile) pipeline between Turkey and Austria scheduled to be completed by 2013. The pipeline is aimed at reducing European reliance on Russian gas supplied through Ukraine -- a route that has seen repeated interruptions.
Anxious to secure energy sources for its own export pipelines, Russia this year stepped up efforts to buy gas from Azerbaijan. In March the two countries signed a preliminary deal on natural gas sales from 2010 and a month later Medvedev hosted Aliyev in Moscow to push the deal forward.
Russia is also backing a rival pipeline to Nabucco, South Stream, being built by Gazprom and Italy's ENI. That project entails building a gas pipeline under the Black Sea from Russia to Bulgaria and then branches to Austria and Italy.
Azerbaijan last year produced 22.8 bn cm of natural gas, according to government figures, and the country expects to nearly double gas production to 40 bn cm by 2015-2020.
Gazprom seeking global deals.
Bloomberg
2 July 2009
Gazprom, the Russian company that ships a quarter of Europe's gas, is seeking supply deals in the Caspian, Africa and around the world to anchor its lead in areas where European buyers may turn to rival producers.
"We would like to make the company global in terms of upstream presence," Boris Ivanov, head of Gazprom EP International, said at the Gas Exporting Countries Forum in Doha, Qatar. "We are trying to position Gazprom in the areas where we think we need to be strategically present, like North Africa, West Africa, Latin America and Asia."
Gazprom, the world's largest gas exporter, is facing moves from European Union countries to diversify supplies as nations seek to cut reliance on Russia. By forging partnerships and snapping up production assets in gas-pumping nations, the company can add alternative sources of fuel while stamping out competition for customers in Europe, its biggest export market.
"The criteria are very simple: the availability of hydrocarbon reserves, proximity to the markets where we can bring it and, since our projects are time-consuming and capital-intensive, a friendly relationship with the host governments," Ivanov said on June 30.
Gazprom held talks in Algeria in May on developing the trans-Saharan pipeline from Nigeria, where it has agreed to bid for gas fields through a new joint venture and build a link to the north of the country. In the Caspian region, Gazprom signed a "milestone" deal to buy gas from Azerbaijan, threatening European plans to add the country as a source of supply.
"Russia/Gazprom is now involved in all of the major gas- producing countries that can supply Europe," Chris Weafer, chief strategist at Uralsib, said. "In political terms the Iron Curtain is gone. In energy terms, it is being replaced with a Gazprom gas grid that may stretch unbroken from Nigeria via North Africa, the Gulf and Central Asia all the way to the Arctic Circle."
Russia, holder of the world's largest gas reserves and a recent entrant to the market for liquefied natural gas, met fellow members of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum in Doha to discuss a joint budget and appoint senior officials. Consuming countries have voiced concern that the forum's members will club together to decide investment and output, modelling the group on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
A "gas OPEC" would be the "final part of that jigsaw," Weafer said, referring to state-owned Gazprom's plan to have a role in all the biggest gas-producing nations. Russia has said the aim of the gas exporters group isn't to fix prices.
Reciprocal deals
Russia has been able to use access to its own ample hydrocarbon resources as a negotiating tool in talks with governments and energy producers overseas. Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said June 19 that foreign oil producers seeking to operate in Russia should offer Russian companies participation in projects abroad in exchange.
The following week, the government invited Royal Dutch Shell, the European oil producer that operates from Canada to West Africa, to cooperate in developing Gazprom's Sakhalin-III and Sakhalin-IV offshore deposits in the Russian Far East.
"Russia is bartering with Shell to get into its existing Nigeria business and ramp up Africa quickly," Weafer said. "Sakhalin-III and IV are signs of goodwill."
Gazprom is also contending with competition from producers of liquefied natural gas, a business untapped by the Moscow-based company until this year, as a gas surplus in the US forces LNG exporters to seek EU markets for their fuel.
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago has said it reduced its proportion of LNG shipments to the US to 39 % this year from 69 % in 2008 as a result of falling prices there. Exports to Europe from the Caribbean nation grew 50 % in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to International Energy Agency data. The increase in Europe-bound cargoes followed a payment dispute between Russia and Ukraine in January that cut supplies through that country for two weeks and prompted calls in the EU for swifter diversification of energy routes.
The growth in US gas supply has been led by so-called unconventional resources, fuel that's difficult and costly to extract. Rising production of gas from shale, for example, has reduced US dependence on LNG imports, leaving Trinidad and Tobago looking for alternative markets, Energy Minister Conrad Enill told at the Gas Exporting Countries Forum.
Qatari expansion
Qatar, the world's biggest producer of LNG, is also encroaching on Gazprom's traditional markets. The Persian Gulf state, poised to more than double LNG output to 77 mm tons by 2011, has signed its first accord to ship the fuel to Eastern Europe, which depends on Gazprom for most of its gas supply.
Qatar signed a contract now to send 1 mm tons of LNG to Poland, which gets more than two-thirds of its gas from the former Soviet Union. Qatar will deliver the LNG, or gas that's been cooled to a liquid for shipment by tanker, by 2014.
Gazprom's Ivanov dismissed suggestions that an increase of suppliers may threaten the company's position in Europe.
"In terms of the European market, the more real suppliers that are present on the market -- not the brokers, not the mediators -- companies and countries with equity gas, the more stable the market is," he said. "LNG, of which Qatar has plenty and is planning to increase production, is an important part of the energy balance in Europe. We don't think of it as a threat or hostile."
Gazprom in February entered the increasingly global market for LNG by opening Russia's first liquefaction plant on Sakhalin-Island, in partnership with Shell.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on June 27 invited The Hague-based Shell to participate in the Sakhalin-III oil and gas venture and also plans LNG projects in the Arctic Yamal peninsula with the Anglo-Dutch company.
2 July 2009
Gazprom, the Russian company that ships a quarter of Europe's gas, is seeking supply deals in the Caspian, Africa and around the world to anchor its lead in areas where European buyers may turn to rival producers.
"We would like to make the company global in terms of upstream presence," Boris Ivanov, head of Gazprom EP International, said at the Gas Exporting Countries Forum in Doha, Qatar. "We are trying to position Gazprom in the areas where we think we need to be strategically present, like North Africa, West Africa, Latin America and Asia."
Gazprom, the world's largest gas exporter, is facing moves from European Union countries to diversify supplies as nations seek to cut reliance on Russia. By forging partnerships and snapping up production assets in gas-pumping nations, the company can add alternative sources of fuel while stamping out competition for customers in Europe, its biggest export market.
"The criteria are very simple: the availability of hydrocarbon reserves, proximity to the markets where we can bring it and, since our projects are time-consuming and capital-intensive, a friendly relationship with the host governments," Ivanov said on June 30.
Gazprom held talks in Algeria in May on developing the trans-Saharan pipeline from Nigeria, where it has agreed to bid for gas fields through a new joint venture and build a link to the north of the country. In the Caspian region, Gazprom signed a "milestone" deal to buy gas from Azerbaijan, threatening European plans to add the country as a source of supply.
"Russia/Gazprom is now involved in all of the major gas- producing countries that can supply Europe," Chris Weafer, chief strategist at Uralsib, said. "In political terms the Iron Curtain is gone. In energy terms, it is being replaced with a Gazprom gas grid that may stretch unbroken from Nigeria via North Africa, the Gulf and Central Asia all the way to the Arctic Circle."
Russia, holder of the world's largest gas reserves and a recent entrant to the market for liquefied natural gas, met fellow members of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum in Doha to discuss a joint budget and appoint senior officials. Consuming countries have voiced concern that the forum's members will club together to decide investment and output, modelling the group on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
A "gas OPEC" would be the "final part of that jigsaw," Weafer said, referring to state-owned Gazprom's plan to have a role in all the biggest gas-producing nations. Russia has said the aim of the gas exporters group isn't to fix prices.
Reciprocal deals
Russia has been able to use access to its own ample hydrocarbon resources as a negotiating tool in talks with governments and energy producers overseas. Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said June 19 that foreign oil producers seeking to operate in Russia should offer Russian companies participation in projects abroad in exchange.
The following week, the government invited Royal Dutch Shell, the European oil producer that operates from Canada to West Africa, to cooperate in developing Gazprom's Sakhalin-III and Sakhalin-IV offshore deposits in the Russian Far East.
"Russia is bartering with Shell to get into its existing Nigeria business and ramp up Africa quickly," Weafer said. "Sakhalin-III and IV are signs of goodwill."
Gazprom is also contending with competition from producers of liquefied natural gas, a business untapped by the Moscow-based company until this year, as a gas surplus in the US forces LNG exporters to seek EU markets for their fuel.
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago has said it reduced its proportion of LNG shipments to the US to 39 % this year from 69 % in 2008 as a result of falling prices there. Exports to Europe from the Caribbean nation grew 50 % in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to International Energy Agency data. The increase in Europe-bound cargoes followed a payment dispute between Russia and Ukraine in January that cut supplies through that country for two weeks and prompted calls in the EU for swifter diversification of energy routes.
The growth in US gas supply has been led by so-called unconventional resources, fuel that's difficult and costly to extract. Rising production of gas from shale, for example, has reduced US dependence on LNG imports, leaving Trinidad and Tobago looking for alternative markets, Energy Minister Conrad Enill told at the Gas Exporting Countries Forum.
Qatari expansion
Qatar, the world's biggest producer of LNG, is also encroaching on Gazprom's traditional markets. The Persian Gulf state, poised to more than double LNG output to 77 mm tons by 2011, has signed its first accord to ship the fuel to Eastern Europe, which depends on Gazprom for most of its gas supply.
Qatar signed a contract now to send 1 mm tons of LNG to Poland, which gets more than two-thirds of its gas from the former Soviet Union. Qatar will deliver the LNG, or gas that's been cooled to a liquid for shipment by tanker, by 2014.
Gazprom's Ivanov dismissed suggestions that an increase of suppliers may threaten the company's position in Europe.
"In terms of the European market, the more real suppliers that are present on the market -- not the brokers, not the mediators -- companies and countries with equity gas, the more stable the market is," he said. "LNG, of which Qatar has plenty and is planning to increase production, is an important part of the energy balance in Europe. We don't think of it as a threat or hostile."
Gazprom in February entered the increasingly global market for LNG by opening Russia's first liquefaction plant on Sakhalin-Island, in partnership with Shell.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on June 27 invited The Hague-based Shell to participate in the Sakhalin-III oil and gas venture and also plans LNG projects in the Arctic Yamal peninsula with the Anglo-Dutch company.
Angola and Senegal invest in new refineries.
Downstream Today
18 June 2009
Senegal and Angola have commissioned new oil refining projects to increase petroleum capacity and tap into regional demand.
Angola, which imports 70 % of its gasoline needs from the US, is to build a $ 8 bn, 200,000 bpd facility near the port of Lobito. The plant is due for commissioning by the end of 2013. About 90 % of the refinery's output will be sold domestically and in neighbouring countries with the remainder exported to other regions.
Oil is Angola's lifeblood, accounting for 95 % of its export revenues and 40 % of GDP. In September last year Angola overtook Nigeria to become Africa's largest and the world's eighth-largest oil producer. Its reserves are estimated at around 20 bn barrels.
Senegal, meanwhile, has entered into an agreement with Iran's national oil refining company to increase the capacity of its petroleum processing facility from 25,000 bpd to 64,000. A further Iranian-built refinery and petrochemical complex in Senegal is on the cards.
18 June 2009
Senegal and Angola have commissioned new oil refining projects to increase petroleum capacity and tap into regional demand.
Angola, which imports 70 % of its gasoline needs from the US, is to build a $ 8 bn, 200,000 bpd facility near the port of Lobito. The plant is due for commissioning by the end of 2013. About 90 % of the refinery's output will be sold domestically and in neighbouring countries with the remainder exported to other regions.
Oil is Angola's lifeblood, accounting for 95 % of its export revenues and 40 % of GDP. In September last year Angola overtook Nigeria to become Africa's largest and the world's eighth-largest oil producer. Its reserves are estimated at around 20 bn barrels.
Senegal, meanwhile, has entered into an agreement with Iran's national oil refining company to increase the capacity of its petroleum processing facility from 25,000 bpd to 64,000. A further Iranian-built refinery and petrochemical complex in Senegal is on the cards.
Ghana secures oil deal with Nigeria.
African Manager
23 June 2009
Ghana's President John Evans Atta Mills secured an assurance from the Government of Nigeria that it would supply crude oil to it s neighbour on friendly terms, an official statement in Accra said.
The statement signed by James Agyenim-Boateng, Deputy Minister of Information, said under the arrangement, Nigeria had pledged to supply Ghana with between 60,000 and 65,000 barrels of crude oil daily, with 90 days credit. It said this was the outcome of talks held in Abuja, Nigeria, between President Mills and his Nigerian counterpart Umar Yar'Adua.
The statement said the Nigerian government also pledged to ensure regular supply of gas to help improve Ghana's energy needs. An electricity plant at Tema, 25 km east of Accra, which needs gas to produce some 200 MW of power now and increase it to 560 MW later has been lying idle because there is no gas from Nigeria promised by the West Africa n Gas Pipeline project under which Nigeria is to supply gas to Ghana, Togo and Benin.
The statement said President Mills called for the strengthening of relations between the two countries and said he would do whatever it took to ensure that Ghana-Nigeria relations were improved.
President Mills is in Nigeria with other government officials including Finance Minister Dr Kwabena Duffuor, Energy Minister Dr Oteng Adjei and Foreign Affairs Minister Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni to hold bilateral talks on energy, trade and investment with his Nigerian counterpart. President Mills commended Nigerian business executives for investing in Ghana and gave the assurance that his administration would ensure a level playing field for all investors.
President Mills will also attend the summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Abuja.
23 June 2009
Ghana's President John Evans Atta Mills secured an assurance from the Government of Nigeria that it would supply crude oil to it s neighbour on friendly terms, an official statement in Accra said.
The statement signed by James Agyenim-Boateng, Deputy Minister of Information, said under the arrangement, Nigeria had pledged to supply Ghana with between 60,000 and 65,000 barrels of crude oil daily, with 90 days credit. It said this was the outcome of talks held in Abuja, Nigeria, between President Mills and his Nigerian counterpart Umar Yar'Adua.
The statement said the Nigerian government also pledged to ensure regular supply of gas to help improve Ghana's energy needs. An electricity plant at Tema, 25 km east of Accra, which needs gas to produce some 200 MW of power now and increase it to 560 MW later has been lying idle because there is no gas from Nigeria promised by the West Africa n Gas Pipeline project under which Nigeria is to supply gas to Ghana, Togo and Benin.
The statement said President Mills called for the strengthening of relations between the two countries and said he would do whatever it took to ensure that Ghana-Nigeria relations were improved.
President Mills is in Nigeria with other government officials including Finance Minister Dr Kwabena Duffuor, Energy Minister Dr Oteng Adjei and Foreign Affairs Minister Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni to hold bilateral talks on energy, trade and investment with his Nigerian counterpart. President Mills commended Nigerian business executives for investing in Ghana and gave the assurance that his administration would ensure a level playing field for all investors.
President Mills will also attend the summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Abuja.
Angola and Russia urge cooperation between oil companies.
All Africa
27 June 2009
Angola and Russia have decided to urge their oil companies to establish profitable cooperation for both sides, Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos disclosed.
Asked at the end of a day-long visit of Russian President Dimitri Medvedev, if both sides reached an agreement on oil production and the regulation of the world oil production levels, the Angolan Head of State disclosed that contacts are taking place between Sonangol and Russian oil producers and that "we urge them to continue such discussions to establish cooperation that is profitable for both sides".
The president added that at the bilateral plan, the cooperation was discussed in general terms, not only on the oil and gas sector, but on the whole energy sector, trying to discuss in future a cooperation term allowing to take advantage of other sources of energy. He said that cooperation between Russia and OPEC, now chaired by Angola, was also discussed during the talks labelling Russia as a world big oil producing country with aleading political role in international plan and world economic relations.
President dos Santos said that OPEC is interested in improving cooperation with Russia not only to secure a good market regulation, production overall, but to define mechanisms to protect the interests of producing countries.
27 June 2009
Angola and Russia have decided to urge their oil companies to establish profitable cooperation for both sides, Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos disclosed.
Asked at the end of a day-long visit of Russian President Dimitri Medvedev, if both sides reached an agreement on oil production and the regulation of the world oil production levels, the Angolan Head of State disclosed that contacts are taking place between Sonangol and Russian oil producers and that "we urge them to continue such discussions to establish cooperation that is profitable for both sides".
The president added that at the bilateral plan, the cooperation was discussed in general terms, not only on the oil and gas sector, but on the whole energy sector, trying to discuss in future a cooperation term allowing to take advantage of other sources of energy. He said that cooperation between Russia and OPEC, now chaired by Angola, was also discussed during the talks labelling Russia as a world big oil producing country with aleading political role in international plan and world economic relations.
President dos Santos said that OPEC is interested in improving cooperation with Russia not only to secure a good market regulation, production overall, but to define mechanisms to protect the interests of producing countries.
Canadian expert finds oil refinery in Uganda viable.
Downstream Today
29 June 2009
Refining oil in Uganda is economically viable, a Canadian expert has told President Yoweri Museveni. Claude Landry, an engineer with OPTEC Refinery and Petro-Chemicals consultancy in Montreal, said at a rate of 100,000 barrels of oil per day, the refinery would have a life span of 33 years.
Meeting Museveni at State House, Landry added that refining oil in Uganda would eliminate transportation costs and that there was a market available locally.
Landry, who has been in the petroleum consultancy industry for 50 years, explained that Uganda's oil is among the best in the world because it has very low contents of sulphur. Low-sulphur crude oil is cheaper to refine.
The Canadian expert was accompanied by Uganda's High Commissioner to Britain, Joan Rwabyomere, along with two legal advisors of the Commonwealth Secretariat, John Gara and Ekpon Omonbude.
According to a State House statement, Museveni expressed happiness at the reassurance that the economics of refining oil would be good for Uganda.
"You have immunised me against any confusion of the refinery issue," the President told Landry. He added that the refinery would avoid the construction of a pipeline to Mombasa. The pipeline, he said, would get waxed up along the way, thereby attracting costs in unblocking it.
Landry's advice comes at a time when the Government and the two oil companies are locked in arguments over whether to refine the oil in Uganda or channel crude oil to a refinery in Mombasa.
The companies say refining the oil in Mombasa makes more business sense because they can sell it to other countries. However, the Government wants them to refine it locally and satisfy the Ugandan market.
29 June 2009
Refining oil in Uganda is economically viable, a Canadian expert has told President Yoweri Museveni. Claude Landry, an engineer with OPTEC Refinery and Petro-Chemicals consultancy in Montreal, said at a rate of 100,000 barrels of oil per day, the refinery would have a life span of 33 years.
Meeting Museveni at State House, Landry added that refining oil in Uganda would eliminate transportation costs and that there was a market available locally.
Landry, who has been in the petroleum consultancy industry for 50 years, explained that Uganda's oil is among the best in the world because it has very low contents of sulphur. Low-sulphur crude oil is cheaper to refine.
The Canadian expert was accompanied by Uganda's High Commissioner to Britain, Joan Rwabyomere, along with two legal advisors of the Commonwealth Secretariat, John Gara and Ekpon Omonbude.
According to a State House statement, Museveni expressed happiness at the reassurance that the economics of refining oil would be good for Uganda.
"You have immunised me against any confusion of the refinery issue," the President told Landry. He added that the refinery would avoid the construction of a pipeline to Mombasa. The pipeline, he said, would get waxed up along the way, thereby attracting costs in unblocking it.
Landry's advice comes at a time when the Government and the two oil companies are locked in arguments over whether to refine the oil in Uganda or channel crude oil to a refinery in Mombasa.
The companies say refining the oil in Mombasa makes more business sense because they can sell it to other countries. However, the Government wants them to refine it locally and satisfy the Ugandan market.
Kenya and Tanzania in partnership to put up natural gas plant in Mombasa.
Business Daily Africa
1 July 2009
Kenya has managed to convince Tanzania to put up a joint gas plant in Mombasa for processing of natural gas deposits from her southern neighbour.
The African Development Bank will finance studies for construction of the Dar-es-Salaam-Tanga-Mombasa natural gas pipeline that will pave way for the construction of the plant by year end, according to an energy official at the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat. Earlier, potential investors were invited through a memorandum on the United Nations Business Development to express interest for the pipeline project.
Energy minister Kiraitu Murungi and his counterpart William Ngeleja, Tanzania's minister for energy and minerals are expected to complete modalities for the multi-billion twin projects.
"I have invited my Tanzanian counterpart for talks in Nairobi for the Tanzanian gas to be processed in a new plant in Mombasa," said Mr Murungi recently. "With the assistance of the AfDB, we are going to carry out a study for the pipeline to run from Dar-es-Salaam to Mombasa via Tanga," Mizengo Pinda, Tanzania's prime minister recently told investors in Dar-es-Salaam.
Tanzania has natural gas reserves in Songo Songo, in Mnazi Bay, at Mkuranga, some 40 km south of Dar es Salaam and Kiliwani on the Songo Songo Island. Analysts say it makes more sense to build another extension from Kenya's pipeline to serve Tanzania, rather than Tanzania going it alone and building one from Dar-es-Salaam.
Among the expected beneficiaries include Kenya's biggest independent power producer at Rabai near Mombasa.
The single largest power project by an independent power producer Aldwych International and Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor (BWSC) is set to be completed by December, easing current pressure on the national grid.
"The plant could use natural gas which is cheaper, once we complete an arrangement-for a pipeline connecting Mombasa and the gas fields at Songo Songo in Northern Tanzania are complete," said Energy Permanent Secretary Patrick Nyoike.
When completed, the Sh 12 bn plant will add 90 MW to the national grid through a 20-year power purchase agreement signed with the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC).
1 July 2009
Kenya has managed to convince Tanzania to put up a joint gas plant in Mombasa for processing of natural gas deposits from her southern neighbour.
The African Development Bank will finance studies for construction of the Dar-es-Salaam-Tanga-Mombasa natural gas pipeline that will pave way for the construction of the plant by year end, according to an energy official at the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat. Earlier, potential investors were invited through a memorandum on the United Nations Business Development to express interest for the pipeline project.
Energy minister Kiraitu Murungi and his counterpart William Ngeleja, Tanzania's minister for energy and minerals are expected to complete modalities for the multi-billion twin projects.
"I have invited my Tanzanian counterpart for talks in Nairobi for the Tanzanian gas to be processed in a new plant in Mombasa," said Mr Murungi recently. "With the assistance of the AfDB, we are going to carry out a study for the pipeline to run from Dar-es-Salaam to Mombasa via Tanga," Mizengo Pinda, Tanzania's prime minister recently told investors in Dar-es-Salaam.
Tanzania has natural gas reserves in Songo Songo, in Mnazi Bay, at Mkuranga, some 40 km south of Dar es Salaam and Kiliwani on the Songo Songo Island. Analysts say it makes more sense to build another extension from Kenya's pipeline to serve Tanzania, rather than Tanzania going it alone and building one from Dar-es-Salaam.
Among the expected beneficiaries include Kenya's biggest independent power producer at Rabai near Mombasa.
The single largest power project by an independent power producer Aldwych International and Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor (BWSC) is set to be completed by December, easing current pressure on the national grid.
"The plant could use natural gas which is cheaper, once we complete an arrangement-for a pipeline connecting Mombasa and the gas fields at Songo Songo in Northern Tanzania are complete," said Energy Permanent Secretary Patrick Nyoike.
When completed, the Sh 12 bn plant will add 90 MW to the national grid through a 20-year power purchase agreement signed with the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC).
Russia sees no threat to deals in new Mongolia leader.
By Denis Dyomkin
Reuters
23 August 2009
Russia is confident planned investments in Mongolia's uranium fields and rail network will not be undermined by the country's new leadership, a Kremlin official said ahead of the Russian president's visit this week.
President Dmitry Medvedev will discuss military cooperation and investment in uranium on the two-day visit to Ulan Bator, which is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, chief Kremlin foreign policy aide Sergei Prikhodko told reporters on Sunday.
Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj won Mongolia's presidency in May on a promise to ensure that voters benefit more from the country's mineral wealth, prompting fears among foreign investors that earlier deals might be revised.
"There was speculation around the new president ... But we have not felt any fundamental changes in the approach to strategic cooperation with Russia," Prikhodko said.
"We feel the new leadership of Mongolia is disposed to preserving everything that has been achieved in recent years."
Russia's state rail monopoly in May signed a deal potentially totaling $7 billion to upgrade Mongolia's rail network and improve access to untapped deposits of uranium, coal and other minerals in the Gobi desert.
Mongolia has also offered Russia access to its uranium deposits as the Kremlin seeks to position itself as a major supplier to the growing nuclear fuel industry.
Medvedev will be accompanied by the heads of Russian state companies Russian Railways, Russian Technologies and Rosatom, the state nuclear corporation.
"Dialogue is continuing on establishing cooperation with Mongolia via state corporation Rosatom in the areas of exploration, extraction and processing of uranium ore," Prikhodko said.
Moscow has been trying to break into the prosperous nuclear markets of the United States and the European Union, and has been eyeing possible alliances in the world market.
Russia holds more than 10 percent of the world's uranium reserves. It is also among the world's biggest providers of enrichment services and has ventured abroad to seek additional raw materials.
The planned railway upgrade aims to improve access to Tavan Tolgoi, where estimated coal reserves of 6.5 billion tonnes rank it as the world's largest untapped deposit of the type of coal used by steel makers in their blast furnaces.
Russian companies have expressed interest in helping to develop the deposit.
(Writing by Conor Humphries; editing by Ralph Boulton)
Reuters
23 August 2009
Russia is confident planned investments in Mongolia's uranium fields and rail network will not be undermined by the country's new leadership, a Kremlin official said ahead of the Russian president's visit this week.
President Dmitry Medvedev will discuss military cooperation and investment in uranium on the two-day visit to Ulan Bator, which is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, chief Kremlin foreign policy aide Sergei Prikhodko told reporters on Sunday.
Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj won Mongolia's presidency in May on a promise to ensure that voters benefit more from the country's mineral wealth, prompting fears among foreign investors that earlier deals might be revised.
"There was speculation around the new president ... But we have not felt any fundamental changes in the approach to strategic cooperation with Russia," Prikhodko said.
"We feel the new leadership of Mongolia is disposed to preserving everything that has been achieved in recent years."
Russia's state rail monopoly in May signed a deal potentially totaling $7 billion to upgrade Mongolia's rail network and improve access to untapped deposits of uranium, coal and other minerals in the Gobi desert.
Mongolia has also offered Russia access to its uranium deposits as the Kremlin seeks to position itself as a major supplier to the growing nuclear fuel industry.
Medvedev will be accompanied by the heads of Russian state companies Russian Railways, Russian Technologies and Rosatom, the state nuclear corporation.
"Dialogue is continuing on establishing cooperation with Mongolia via state corporation Rosatom in the areas of exploration, extraction and processing of uranium ore," Prikhodko said.
Moscow has been trying to break into the prosperous nuclear markets of the United States and the European Union, and has been eyeing possible alliances in the world market.
Russia holds more than 10 percent of the world's uranium reserves. It is also among the world's biggest providers of enrichment services and has ventured abroad to seek additional raw materials.
The planned railway upgrade aims to improve access to Tavan Tolgoi, where estimated coal reserves of 6.5 billion tonnes rank it as the world's largest untapped deposit of the type of coal used by steel makers in their blast furnaces.
Russian companies have expressed interest in helping to develop the deposit.
(Writing by Conor Humphries; editing by Ralph Boulton)
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