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Nigerian Minister Defends Government's Corruption Policy
By James Butty
Washington, D.C.
21 November 2006
Butty interview with Frank Nweke
Nigeria’s information minister Frank Nweke says corruption is a worldwide thing that is not limited to Nigeria or Africa. He says President Olusegun Obasanjo has been fighting corruption in an unprecedented way. Nweke rejects any suggestion that corruption is rampant in Nigeria.
“The issue you raised about Nigeria is merely based on perception. We are willing to deal with our own issues. There are countries in the world today who all through their histories have been known as havens of corruption and havens of keeping stolen money. Have you ever heard any of those countries mentioned? I want to take this opportunity to dare every country in the world, the Western nations included, we dare them to have the courage to talk about what is happening in their governments,” Nweke said.
Nweke said corruption is not an African problem, especially with the United Nations planning to hold a convention on corruption. He said President Obasanjo has demonstrated courage in dealing with corruption.
“Let me say very clearly that the Obasanjo administration has confronted corruption in Nigeria in an unprecedented manner and this has seen the prosecution of several public officials as never before. And the situation with the vice president, Atiku Abubakar, was a test case about the political will of the president and his administration to deal with the issue of corruption,” Nweke said.
He said the Nigerian government does not have a problem with militants in the country’s oil-rich Niger Delta region.
“The government of Nigeria under President Obasanjo has continued to address the challenges of development and environment in the Niger Delta area in a way that is unprecedented in Nigerian history. The president has established what we call a council of Niger Delta coastal states. This is also an effort by the administration to inject more funds to bring about development and improve the welfare and wellbeing of the people in Niger Delta,” Nweke said.
Nweke said the situation in the Niger Delta is under control. He appealed to the Voice of America and other Western media not to be used by the militants.
“I also want to encourage the Voice of America, a very important medium in global news determination, to be mindful of their responsibility to the world by not providing the platform for the militants to propagate what are clear illegal activities because to do so will be negating the global commitment to the fight against terrorism and this kind of militant activities,” Nweke said.
The Nigerian information minister said he was not suggesting that journalists should not report the activities of the Niger Delta militants.
“Not at all, but you should also not allow it to be celebrated because to celebrate it would be to provide the platform for illegal activities because if you want to do that, then you can also provide a platform for al Qaeda and the rest of them. And I believe the American government would not permit such a situation,” Nweke said.
Nweke would not say whether he was equating the Niger Delta militants to al Qaeda except to say that they were involved in illegal activities.
Let us know what you think of this report and other stories on our website. Send your views to AFRICA@VOANEWS.COM, and include your phone number. Or, call us here in Washington, DC at (202) 205-9942. After you hear the VOA identification, press 30 to leave a message. We want to hear what you have to say!
Nigerian govt to stop award of oil blocs to politicians
October 30th, 2006
FG vows to stop award of oil blocs to politicians
The Federal Government has vowed to continuously discourage the award of oil blocs to politicians and other influential Nigerians who have no track record of oil and gas exploration or who are perceived as cronies of foreign companies.
EJIOFOR ALIKE
Tony Chukwueke, director of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) who made this remark during a workshop in Lagos, said these influential Nigerians, especially politicians parade oil blocs awarded them for sale.
He regretted that many Nigerians have allowed underdeveloped discoveries awarded to them in the past exercises to fallow.
According to him, once an oil bloc is awarded to a Nigerian the next thing he does is to board airplane to look for foreign buyers.
"You see Nigerians, especially the politicians parade oil blocs for sale. They say it is monetisation. You cannot stop it. Before you stop it they will remove you before you even start. But we have to gradually stop it", an angry Chukwueke said.
The DPR boss disclosed that the government discarded the local content policy of allocating a certain percentage of oil blocs to indigenous companies because of re-sale of oil blocs.
"When they were allocated 10 percent, they started selling it and the President said we should stop local content in that way", he said.
He stated that Nigerians earn only five percent of about $12billion spent yearly on exploration and production because they prefer to be mere agents.
According to him, they prefer to be middle-men so as to collect what Nigerians call ‘farm-in fees’ while the actual exploration and production are left in the hands of foreign companies.
Nigerians, he said, are not yet prepared for the oil business of exploration and production as only two percent of these operations are done by Nigerians.
According to him, it is only in agency which accounts for a paltry 2.5 percent of the exploration and production spending that over 60 percent Nigerians operate.
The DPR boss argued that Nigerians are still low down compared to their contemporaries in oil business.
According to him, it took Brazil only six years to increase its local content capacity from 15 percent to 70 percent by the conscious efforts of the government.
He identified the increasing cost of borrowing, to the fact that Nigerians are not used to doing oil and gas business and the Niger Delta challenges as the major problems facing the oil and gas industry.
He lamented that despite that oil and gas are the mainstay of the nation’s economy, the Nigerian banks are not funding exploration and production due to its long term nature.
Chukwueke disclosed that banks would prefer to assist importers and other investors who engage in short-term businesses than funding oil and gas.
He challenged indigenous oil companies to take advantage of the Federal Government’s marginal field programme which had fully taken off.
http://www.businessdayonline.com/?c=52&a=9399
Jean Claude said we could get $100 oil soon if there was a world crisis in Iran or China or something to that effect.... meaning, any disruption of todays supply and demand........
ND9
Afren to Acquire a 5% Stake in Promising Exploration Block in Onshore Angola
Wednesday November 22, 10:45 am ET
NEW YORK, Nov. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Nanes Delorme Capital LLC., a New York- based broker-dealer and financial advisory firm, announced that its client, Afren PLC (FTSE/AIM: AFR) ("Afren"), has executed a Heads of Agreement with Gulf Energy Resources ("GER") for the acquisition of a five percent stake in Angola's highly prospective onshore Cabinda Central License Block B (the "License").
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Nanes Delorme Capital LLC is acting as sole financial adviser to Afren in the transaction. Afren is an oil and gas exploration and production company headquartered in London. The transaction is expected to close in the 1Q07, subject to certain conditions including the negotiation of a final Share Purchase Agreement and the lifting of Force Majeure.
The exploration license, located in the Cabinda province, covers an area of 1,125km2 and is operated by Devon Energy (30%) and other partners include Repsol (25%), Sonangol (20%) and Petrogal (20%).
"This strategic acquisition is consistent with Afren's decision to further expand its presence in Western Africa by entering into one of the most promising onshore blocks in the second largest sub-Saharan producing country," said Julien Balkany, Managing Director of Nanes Delorme.
According to Balkany, the License is part of the highly prospective and largely unexplored Angola onshore belt adjacent to the M'Boundi discovery in Congo, the largest onshore oilfield in the region.
"Several attractive prospects and structural leads have already been identified and mapped on this license," Balkany noted. "In addition, 32 wells have been previously drilled, several of which found light oil, providing a very exciting exploration opportunity," he added.
Balkany also said that Devon plans to re-commence exploration work in the License subject to the effectiveness of the production sharing agreement (PSA).
About Nanes Delorme Capital LLC
Nanes Delorme Capital LLC is a U.S. boutique financial advisory services firm involved in a wide range of investment banking and other broker/dealer related activities and is a member of the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB). Its services include debt and equity private placements, institutional equities and fixed income trading, asset allocation models, portfolio strategy and concentrated stock diversification risk management and hedging strategies. The firm specializes in merger and acquisition advisory services to the oil and gas industry.
About Afren PLC
Afren (www.afren.com) was founded in December 2004 by a management team including as Non-Executive Chairman Dr. Rilwanu Lukman, the former Secretary General and President of OPEC, with the vision to become the leading pan African independent Exploration and Production company. Since its listing on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange, Afren has rapidly expanded its portfolio and the management team has acquired assets in the Joint Development Zone of Nigeria Sao Tome and Principe, Nigeria, Gabon and Congo.
Balance, like you I'm listening to what Oily says. Does figure 15 match up with Oily's Obo-1 location? The figure's location looks to be farther West..... Hmmmm, just wondering.
thanks,
ND9
Africa Oil & Gas Forum, 11/29, Washington DC.
************************************************
Current and Former Heads of OPEC to Address CCA's 2006 Africa Oil & Gas Forum
CCA (Washington, D.C.)
SPONSOR WIRE
November 21, 2006
Posted to the web November 21, 2006
Washington, D.C.
Current and former heads of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are confirmed to speak at the The Corporate Council on Africa's (CCA) annual Africa Oil & Gas Forum to be held this year from November 29 to December 1, 2006, in Washington, D.C.
Nigeria's Minister of State for Petroleum, the Honorable Edmund Daukoru, is OPEC's current President of the Conference and Secretary General. Minister Daukoru will open the event with remarks addressing the conference theme of Expectations & Reality. His speech will set the stage for constructive dialogue on what African nations and oil companies with operations on the continent expect to gain from current and future oil and gas investments. The Honorable Chakib Khelil, Minister of Energy and Mining from Algeria and former President and Secretary General of OPEC in 2001, will also address the conference.
Minister Daukoru and Minister Khelil will each share their views on the types of partnerships that African nations seek from oil companies considering investments in Africa. The objective of these discussions is to assess whether expanding global competition in the energy sector, driven by emerging national oil companies, creates any unique challenges for U.S.-Africa bilateral relations. Each minister will also address important issues pertaining to their respective legal environments, local content, and natural gas reserves.
"By presenting at CCA's 2006 Oil & Gas Forum, OPEC's current and past leadership is making a strong statement about the importance of Africa's role in meeting global energy demands. OPIC is also affirming the importance of continuing Africa's positive engagement with the U.S. public and private sectors," says CCA President Stephen Hayes.
CCA's 2006 Africa Oil & Gas Forum will also highlight other salient industry issues such as changing global energy markets and the strategic importance of African oil and gas producing countries to the United States. Financial sponsors of this conference thus far include ExxonMobil, Chevron, Marathon, Devon Energy, and the Republic of Mali.
For additional information and to register online, visit CCA's website at www.africacncl.org or email Katherine Wells at kwells@africacncl.org.
REGISTRATION RATES:
CCA Members: $750
African Attendees: $750
Non-Members: $1,000
Government: $550
ACCOMODATIONS:
Bethesda Marriott Hotel
5151 Pooks Hill Road, Bethesda, Maryland
Room Reservations: 1-301-897-9400
CCA, established in 1993, is a nonpartisan 501(3)(c) membership organization of nearly 200 U.S. companies dedicated to strengthening the commercial relationship between the United States and Africa. CCA members represent nearly 85 percent of total U.S. private sector investments in Africa.
DougQuaid - could you elaborate please. EOM.
APC gets $1.35B for 170M barrels max of oil equivalent?
This article says Anadarko sold to the consortium (Hess, BHP, Repsol) their GOM field and received $1.35B for somewhere between 65 to 170M barrels of oil equivalent??
If I use the max, and take $1.35B/170M, that would equate to about $7.94 per Barrel. Did I get that right? Also, is oil equivalent equal to proven?
All thoughts appreciated.
thanks,
ND9
**********************************************************
BHP Buys Stake in Genghis Khan Oil Field
Monday November 13, 7:25 am ET
Australia's BHP Buys Stake in Genghis Khan Oil Field in Gulf of Mexico
PERTH, Australia (AP) -- BHP Billiton Ltd., one of the world's largest mining companies, said Monday it will pay US$594 million (euro463 million) for a share of the partly-developed Genghis Khan oil field in the Gulf of Mexico.
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The purchase is part of BHP's multibillion dollar plans to expand its U.S. operations.
The new project is due to start production by mid-2007, shoring up Melbourne-based BHP's plan to increase oil and gas production by a third in the next three years.
Most of the increase will come from expensive, deep water fields in the Gulf of Mexico, which BHP wants to turn into a powerhouse earnings unit that will offset declines in older fields such as Australia's Bass Strait.
BHP and its Shenzi joint venture partners Hess Corporation and Repsol YPF agreed to buy Genghis Khan from Anadarko Petroleum for a total US$1.35 billion (euro1.05 billion). The field is adjacent to Shenzi, which BHP and its partners approved for development in June at a cost of US$4.4 billion (euro3.42 billion).
BHP Group Energy President Mike Yeager said that Genghis Khan will provide "synergies" for Shenzi which, along with the BP-operated Atlantis development, forms the backbone of BHP's Gulf of Mexico growth ambitions.
Analysts say it is difficult to assess the financial implications of the deal for BHP because of the wide-ranging reserve estimate for Genghis Khan of between 65 million and 170 million barrels of oil equivalent.
But JP Morgan said in a note on Nov. 7 the field was likely to fetch between US$1.6 billion (euro1.24 billion) and US$2.4 billion (euro1.87 billion) in an auction, which suggests that BHP didn't overpay.
First oil from Genghis Khan is expected in mid-2007.
The field, located beneath 4,300 feet of water, already has two development wells and pipeline infrastructure in place, BHP said. The project is only 3 miles from Anadarko's Marco Polo oil platform, which is excluded from the deal.
BHP didn't provide any details on the breakdown between oil and gas reserves, or how much it will cost to fully develop the acquisition.
The company is already spending more than US$3.3 billion (euro2.57 billion) on its share of the Atlantis, Shenzi and Neptune developments in the Atwater Fold Belt, a deep water region that also houses Genghis Khan.
BHP shares closed down 3.9 percent at Australian dollars $26.84, pressured by falls over the weekend in commodity prices, while the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.3 percent.
Unfortunately, Joe's Father passed away a couple of months ago..... So I'm sure he has had other priorities than the blog.
ND9
Dest_golf, you said in your post "i know enough to know that oly is dead wrong...sorry that's all I can provide at this time...but I do know there is no XOM offer nor will there be..IMO oly has crossed the line with this latest bull and I can't stand for it."
No back and look at your recent posts. It was you who posted: "Sorry to disappoint many here but I would be absolutely surprised if anyone posting here has any insight into what's really happening. this board is helpful for conjecture, etc. but I would take anything said here as nothing more then someone's hope's of something positive...IMO, you really have to wonder why someone who might know something would be posting on a message board....it just doesn't happen..all this "deal is done", "dotted line", "we'll hear something by friday", "buyout underway" is just wishful thinking by those that are not truely "in the know"....remember this is a message board for a bb stock...it is fun isn't it..."
Yes, I agree with your last post. It also applies to you.
ND9
Markgovols - ok, understand - thanks. EOM.
Mark - a real oil company? Even if SEO gives up control, we get a new BOD, a new CEO, and a new Chairman as you're hoping for......., that won't make us a "real oil company". It will take much more to make us a "real oil company".
A holding company maybe, but a real oil company, not even close.
Yes, I'm long and strong on ERHE.
ND9
Oily - Humble Pie = Exxon Pie?
EXXON COMPANY, U.S.A. Exxon Company, U.S.A., a division of Exxon Corporation, manages the corporation's oil and gas interests in the United States. Exxon U.S.A. traces its descent from the Humble Oil Company, which was chartered in Texas in February 1911 with a capital of $150,000 (raised to $300,000 in 1912). The company was reorganized in 1917 and incorporated on June 21 as the Humble Oil and Refining Company with a capitalization of $1 million based on 40,000 shares at $100 par value.
ND9
Addax expected to generate robust reserve growth by the end of the current year
Addax Petroleum "buy," target price raised
Tuesday, November 14, 2006 8:56:19 AM ET
UBS
NEW YORK, November 14 (newratings.com) - Analyst Memet Kont of UBS maintains his "buy" rating on Addax Petroleum (ticker: AXC), while revising his estimates for the company. The target price has been raised from C$31 to C$36.
In a research note published this morning, the analyst mentions that the company has reported 3Q EPS in-line with the estimates. Addax Petroleum's production during the quarter was ahead of the estimates, the analyst says. Addax Petroleum is expected to generate robust organic reserve and NAV growth by the end of the current year and there is significant visibility into the company's growth until 2008, UBS adds. The EPS estimates for 2006 and 2007 have been raised from $1.86 to $1.93 and from $4.02 to $4.04, respectively. The EPS estimate for 2008 has been reduced from $4.31 to $3.78.
Addax expected to generate robust reserve growth by the end of the current year
Addax Petroleum "buy," target price raised
Tuesday, November 14, 2006 8:56:19 AM ET
UBS
NEW YORK, November 14 (newratings.com) - Analyst Memet Kont of UBS maintains his "buy" rating on Addax Petroleum (ticker: AXC), while revising his estimates for the company. The target price has been raised from C$31 to C$36.
In a research note published this morning, the analyst mentions that the company has reported 3Q EPS in-line with the estimates. Addax Petroleum's production during the quarter was ahead of the estimates, the analyst says. Addax Petroleum is expected to generate robust organic reserve and NAV growth by the end of the current year and there is significant visibility into the company's growth until 2008, UBS adds. The EPS estimates for 2006 and 2007 have been raised from $1.86 to $1.93 and from $4.02 to $4.04, respectively. The EPS estimate for 2008 has been reduced from $4.31 to $3.78.
"Third World discount for companies in volatile regions may have evaporated........"
Also, another quote from below: "I think the market has gone overboard in discounting non-North Sea and non-North American reserves," said Martin Molyneaux of FirstEnergy Capital.
Let's hope this is true....
ND9
*********************************************************
Centurion Energy stock up 8% on deal to be acquired by UAE firm for C$1.25B
18:45:57 EST Nov 13, 2006
Canadian Press: JUDY MONCHUK
CALGARY (CP) - The C$1.25-billion purchase of Centurion Energy International Inc. (TSX:CUX), a Canadian company operating in North Africa, suggests the so-called Third World discount for companies in volatile regions may have evaporated.
Little-known Dana Gas PJSC of the United Arab Emirates acquired the Calgary-based natural gas producer and its substantial Egyptian assets Sunday in a pact signed in Cairo. Under the deal, a subsidiary of Dana will pay $12 cash for each share of Centurion and assume $99 million of the company's debt.
"We've set a new high-water mark in what they're paying," Warren Verbona of Octagon Capital Corp. said Monday. "There doesn't appear to be the same Third World discount that there used to be."
A few years ago, shares of Calgary-based Talisman Energy Inc. (TSX:TLM) traded at a discount on the stock market because of the company's operations in war-torn Sudan, where Talisman was a partner in a major oil extraction and pipeline project and came under fire from church groups and other critics.
However, the company sold its stake in the Sudanese development in late 2003 and has since focused its operations on North America, the North Sea, Asia and elsewhere.
Today, with energy reserves in short supply, some of the biggest discoveries are coming in some of the world's poorest countries. And prices for those assets are rapidly approaching amounts paid in richer, more stable regions - a move that's long overdue, says another analyst.
"I think the market has gone overboard in discounting non-North Sea and non-North American reserves," said Martin Molyneaux of FirstEnergy Capital.
While some break for political risk is justified, "there's too much of a discount out there," Molyneaux said.
In trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Monday, Centurion shares jumped 89 cents to close at $11.97, a gain of more than eight per cent, on the sale of more then 22 million shares.
The deal, which has been endorsed by a special board comittee set up by Centurion, is slated to close in early January. The agreement allows for a C$34.75 million break fee if Centurion accepts a rival bid.
Molyneaux says he expects other major players operating in the wider Middle East will be closely studying the deal.
"There's no way of replicating the Centurion assets, so everybody who is a player in that region will have to have a really good look to see if they can beat that bid," said Molyneaux.
"What will be very interesting to see in the next few weeks, now that a big chunk of undeveloped acreage in the Nile Delta is essentially for sale, is if someone else comes out of the woodwork: if there's a topping bid," he said.
Centurion announced Oct. 30 that it was in talks on a possible corporate transaction, but many in the industry were expecting the suitor would be a supermajor in liquified natural gas such as Royal Dutch Shell Group or Italy's ENI.
The transaction gives pipeline company Dana Gas, based in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and established in 2005, access to a Centurion's gas production and exploration in Eygpt, Tunisia and off the coast of Nigeria.
Besides its current pipeline and processing operations and expansion into exploration and production, Dana wants to grow into liquefied natural gas trading and petrochemicals.
The Egyptian government has been pressuring the majors to become more than just the shippers of gas and develop exploration and production in the so-called upstream side of the business.
The Centurion deal could make other Calgary-based companies operating in the Third World ripe for takeover. First Calgary Petroleums Ltd. (TSX:FCP) struck a long-term deal last week with Algeria's national oil company - a major move towards developing its natural has fields in North Africa. The company failed to find a deep-pocketed larger partner two years ago to help develop its Algerian fields and is trying to operate on its own after a major financing earlier this year fattened its treasury.
Verbona says both TransGlobe Energy Corp. (TSX:TGL), and Rally Energy Corp. (TSX:RAL) are also potential targets if their Egyptian operations bear fruit.
TransGlobe is about to begin drilling for oil in the Nuqra Block in the Komombo Basin, while Rally has a 100 per cent operating interest in the Issaran Oilfield, an 8,000-hectare site on the west shore of the Gulf of Suez, which is considered to have strong growth potential.
Last year, PetroKazakhstan, with key operations in Asia, was sold to China National Petroleum Corp. for US$4.2 billion. PetroKazakhstan was formerly known as Hurricane Hydrocarbons and had been based in Calgary, although its main operations were in Kazakhstan, an energy-rich former Soviet republic in central Asia.
© The Canadian Press, 2006
Addax Petroleum profit falls as tax losses are used up
Canadian Press
CALGARY — Addax Petroleum Corp. reported Monday a 12-per-cent drop in third-quarter profits to $75.2-million (U.S.) from a year-earlier $85.6-million, as it booked tax losses in the prior-year quarter that were not available this year.
The profit amounted to 51 cents per share, versus a year-ago 73 cents per share.
Addax, which operates oil and gas exploration and production assets in Africa and the Middle East, said petroleum sales before royalties for the quarter were 583.9-million, up 51 per cent from a year-earlier $385.7-million.
“Our Nigeria operations continued to deliver excellent performance including the successful change-out of the OML123 FPSO (licence) and surpassing, for the first time in Addax Petroleum's history, the production milestone of 100,000 barrels in one day,” president and chief executive Jean Claude Gandur said in a statement.
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Addax Petroleum
In early September, Addax completed its purchase of the major assets of Pan-Ocean Energy Corp. Ltd. for $1.61-billion, creating one of the largest exploration and production companies in oil-rich West Africa.
“There has been minimal operating and financial contribution to our third quarter results, however, we anticipate an ever growing contribution from the Gabon operations,” Mr. Gandur said.
Shares in Addax were ahead 17 cents at $27.47 in morning trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Addax: An Oily Acquisition
11.12.2006
It is ironic that it is the very ministry of petroleum that the corruption-fighting President Obasanjo assigned to himself that seems to record the greatest number of periodic scandals. The latest is a report that Addax Petroleum, a Swiss-based, Canadian-listed company has found a way to acquire a lucrative oil acreage behind closed doors despite a regime of open bidding now in place.
The news came into the open when Addax itself announced late last month that it had agreed to pay $90 million to take control of Oil Processing License (OPL) 291, an oil block that was not bidded for in the open auction of May. According to Addax, it was acquiring its interest in the block from Starcrest, an obscure Nigerian company, whose only claim to oil prospecting would appear to be the well-heeled politicians behind it.
How did Starcrest come by OPL 291 in the first place? Since oil blocks that receive no bid in open auctions are reserved for the next round, it is obvious that the company must have taken control of the oil block in private negotiations after the close of the 2006 bid round in May. If that were the case, it means that Starcrest, selling its interest in OPL 291 to Addax for $90 million, is the oil sector equivalent of round-tripping.
Without doubt, this is an oily business capable of staining the president's anti-corruption credentials. The significance of the Starcrest blot can best be appreciated when it is noted that the president is not just the minister of petroleum, but it was under his administration that Nigeria was the first country to sign up for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in 2003.
With that sign up, Nigeria's version of EITI (NEITI) started the open bidding for oil blocks in 2004. What that meant was the outright cancellation of the president's discretionary powers to award oil blocks, a practice that was notoriously and roundly abused by past presidents. As a matter of fact, the Obasanjo administration went beyond just discarding presidential discretionary powers to cancelling the more egregious awards of oil blocks by previous administrations.
Against this background, the Addax-Starcrest deal would seem to indicate that in just two years of open bidding, we are back to the old bad days. What seems to fuel this thinking is the fact that uptil now, the comprehensive list and details of the dozen or so winners of the 2005 bids are yet to be published.
This is not the way to enthrone a regime of transparency in the extractive industry sector. We would think that if the government desires transparency in this vital sector and is confident of what it has done, the best way to serve the cause of openness is to publish the list of those who won last year's bids and why they won. That such openness has not been displayed amounts to giving a sinister hue to the Addax-Starcrest revelations.
In the face of the revelations, the president has a moral, if not statutory, duty to institute investigations to unearth not just the Addax-Starcrest deal but other similar ones that might have taken place since the open bidding started in 2004. In this investigations, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has a critical role to play. After all, deals such as round-tripping of oil blocks constitute the backbone of economic and financial crimes capable of administering the greatest damage to Nigeria's well-being.
On the whole, the presidency needs to appreciate the fact that his own petroleum ministry ought to set the standard for all other ministries.
But if gold rust, what do we expect
of iron?
http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=63090
Oilphant - not sure of your position and thus, if you're able to trade this stock, however, assuming you could trade this stock on Monday, would you be a buyer, seller, or holder of ERHE?
I'm a long term holder but struggle daily with buying more vs buy no more because of the risk associated with this Nigerian controlled stock...... Any thoughts would appreciated.
thanks,
ND9
South Korea and Nigeria negotiate an oil-rail deal
By Choe Sang-Hun / International Herald TribunePublished: November 6, 2006
SEOUL: South Korea signed a preliminary $10 billion contract Monday to build a railroad in Nigeria in return for a stake in the African country's oil fields, officials said.
The deal is the latest in a trend among energy-hungry Asian investors' signing deals to build roads, power plants and other industrial infrastructure in Africa to win better access to energy sources.
The minister of commerce, industry and energy of South Korea, Chung Sye Kyun, and Oil Minister Edmund Daukoru of Nigeria signed a memorandum of understanding shortly after Presidents Roh Moo Hyun of South Korea and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria met here.
Under the deal, South Korea would provide long-term, low-interest loans to help Nigeria cover part of the estimated $10 billion necessary to rebuild the railroad, the South Korean Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said. The tracks would cover 1,500 kilometers, or 930 miles, and connect Port Harcourt, on Nigeria's west coast, to Maiduguri, in the east, the ministry added.
A Web guided by common sense?In return, South Korea, which imports all of its oil, was promised an advantage in buying an unspecified stake in Nigerian oil fields. Posco Engineering & Construction and Korea National Oil formed a consortium to carry out the South Korean side of the deal. Construction may begin as early as in the first half of 2007 after the two countries sort out details, including the size of the oil blocks for South Korea and the terms for commercial loans for Nigeria.
The South Korean government said of the deal, "This is a win-win project where South Korea's technology and Nigeria's resources are swapped."
A spokesman said: "President Roh asked the Nigerian government to help South Korean firms participating in Nigeria's petroleum and gas field development. President Obasanjo asked our government to urge South Korean companies to participate in Nigerian projects to build hydroelectric dams, railroads and other infrastructure"
Roh visited Nigeria in March seeking a share in Nigeria's oil and natural gas development. Obasanjo plans to attend the opening of the first Korea-Africa Forum in Seoul on Tuesday. Among other African leaders expected to attend are Denis Sassou-Nguesso, president of the Congo Republic; Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, president of Tanzania; John Agyekum Kufuor, president of Ghana; and Thomas Boni Yayi, president of Benin.
The forum takes place as South Korea seeks closer cooperation with African countries for their natural resources and potential markets for South Korean goods. South Korea started exploring oil reserves in Benin in 2004. In March, Korea National Oil won the exploration rights for two offshore blocks in Nigeria.
Nigeria sold 16 oil licenses in May in return for promises by mostly Asian investors, largely Chinese and Indian companies, of $20 billion of investment in refining, power and other projects. Nigeria is to hold bidding for 60 blocks that will be the last by Obasanjo's government before he steps down next year.
Red - thanks. EOM.
Dana Gas PJSC is a "gas" company, not oil company. Hmmmmm.
ND9
Red, it's always hard for me to interpret your posts. This one seems like a contradiction......
First you say, "let's roll the dice", then you say "we're in the catbird seat"...
In my mind, those are two different things. Rolling the dice to me is a big gamble because the odds aren't very good. Whereas being in the catbird seat is much much better..... So which is it?
Also, back in August, you posted that "one of your good sources said the deal was inked subject to approvals". Whatever happened to that - have you talked to sources since then?
ND9
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Wed Aug 9, 2006 6:27 pm
dat
90 days ago, one of my good sources said the deal was inked, subject
to approvals. A buyin. Timing - mid-August or sooner. Yet, this was
before the DOJ and SEC came to light.
Roll the dice,
red
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Godsonic Oil and Gas Directors
ND9
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Is Sinopec in action? Read this reply by Kuxe0.
Posted by: kuxe0
In reply to: Nightdaytrader who wrote msg# 2143 Date:11/9/2006 6:39:07 PM
Post #of 2179
Is Sinopec in action ?
Two stones of the big puzzle seems to hint to silent action of Sinopec.
Read the following two news in context. First one was posted by Nightdaytrader, thanks.
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Stone 1:
Egypt, China to jointly build 3 oil rigs by 2007
11:21 AM ET Oct 22, 2006
CAIRO (Zawya Dow Jones) -- Egypt signed three agreements with China involving cooperation in the oil and gas sectors, largely through building oil rigs, Al-Hayat newspaper reported Sunday.
The pan-Arab daily said Egyptian Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmy signed an agreement creating a joint Egyptian-Chinese company with China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, specializing in building oil rigs.
The company, named Sino-Tharwa, is set to deliver three rigs by 2007, another seven by 2008 and aims at raising production to 20 rigs by 2010.
The rigs will help boost exploration activities in Egypt, in light of an increased demand for rigs and the rising cost of hiring rigs, Fahmy was quoted as saying.
A second agreement signed during Fahmy's recent visit to China was with China's Sinoc to cooperate in international tenders that Egypt announces for exploration and discovery.
The third agreement was signed with Sinopec to increase the firm's activities in Egypt and raise the number of its oil rigs from two to seven in two years' time.
-By Maha El Dahan, Dow Jones Newswires, +20122267850, mahaeldahan@yahoo.com
Copyright (c) 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
-Contact: 201-938-5400
--------------------------------
Stone 2:
Centurion says in talks on possible transaction
Tue Oct 31, 4:56 PM
By Jeffrey Jones
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Centurion Energy International Inc. , a small oil firm operating in Egypt and West Africa, said on Tuesday it is in talks with an unnamed company about a possible transaction, sending its shares up nearly 5 percent.
Calgary-based Centurion, whose stock had already jumped by about 20 percent in the past week, gave no assurances a deal would result from the discussions. Nor would it predict what form a transaction might take.
The company said talks began with an unsolicited approach from the third party.
Centurion Vice-President Paul McDougall said he could add nothing to the brief statement that was issued by the company in response to queries from Toronto Stock Exchange officials about brisk trading activity in its stock in recent days.
"We'll keep everybody informed through press releases as things go on," McDougall said.
The shares jumped 41 Canadian cents to C$9.21 in Toronto, putting a market value on the company of more than C$830 million ($740 million).
Centurion's London-listed stock ended the session 10.4 percent higher at 449-1/2 pence.
The company produces about 32,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day and aims to pump 38,000 by the end of this year.
Earlier this year, the stock was under pressure following disappointing drilling results in Centurion's Egyptian operations.
Investors had been closely watching the fifth of a five-well drilling program as part of a joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell Plc , and had wondered if Shell would continue, said Warren Verbonac, an analyst with Octagon Capital in Calgary.
"The observation I would make is that Centurion's asset value at the end of last year was C$5.30 a share, so it would be a very, very expensive transaction for somebody to make if they're going to pay a premium to the current price," Verbonac said.
He said it was possible that Centurion could use its own stock to make an acquisition.
Fraser Mackenzie analyst Vic Vallance said he believes the company is in play, regardless of whether the current talks yield a deal, and that a buyer will have to give "significant consideration for the potential of the joint venture lands in Egypt."
"We would suggest that at a minimum C$12 per share would be acceptable for buyer to pay up for the risk-adjusted potential today," he wrote in a research note.
($1=$1.12 Canadian)
------------------
Aha..., Centurion would be of interest for Sinopec in both ways: Sinopec recently published Egypt interest + the JDZ interest. Centurion owns 9,5 % on bloc 4 and posts fantastic figures about bloc 4 reserves on their Centurion Webpage.
BTW: imho there is even a 3. stone in the puzzle which points to Sinopec and that ERHC might be involved ...
Maybe Oily posts in riddles because he wants to make sure he can't be accused of insider trading - not sure, just wondering if that could a possibility.
ND9
Deep Venture to Work Offshore West Africa for ExxonMobil
Petrolia Drilling Thursday, November 02, 2006
Larsen Oil and Gas Ltd (Aberdeen), as drilling contractor for the drillship Deep Venture, has on behalf of Venture Drilling AS, agreed to a drilling contract with ExxonMobil.
Operations are to be offshore West Africa in water depths of up to 4000' and in various country locations.
The contract duration is for 18 months with a commencement date anticipated in the first quarter of 2007. The contract has a potential gross value in the range of US $200 million - $220 million (excluding direct tax in the various countries where the drillship will operate). The last 12 months of the contract is subject to approval by the relevant government authority in the area of operation.
The Deep Venture will mobilize from Argentina to Cape Town for drydocking in order to carry out a 5 year survey.
Venture Drilling AS is a company owned 50/50 by Sinvest ASA and Petrolia Drilling ASA.
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Nigeria to Offer 56 Oil Blocks in Next Bidding Round
by Jun Yang Dow Jones Newswires Monday, November 06, 2006
SEOUL, Nov 6, 2006 (Dow Jones Newswires)
Nigeria will offer 56 crude oil blocks in its next round of bidding, Nigerian Oil Minister Edmund Daukoru said Monday.
The country will make an announcement on the blocks "very soon," Daukoru said during his visit to Seoul.
Nigeria had been expected to hold a bidding round for 60 crude oil blocks before President Olusegun Obasanjo steps down next year.
At least 10 blocks in the bidding will be allocated to preferred parties with right of first refusal, according to Nigeria-based sources.
Daukoru was visiting Seoul to sign a memorandum of understanding with South Korea on oil field developments and the modernization of a railway system in the African nation.
Under the memorandum of understanding that was signed, the South Korean government is to get rights to oil blocks under production in Nigeria in exchange for a long-term, low-interest commercial loan from South Korea that will fund a 1,500-kilometer-long railway project connecting Port Hartcourt-Abuja-Maiduguri, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said.
Copyright (c) 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Shipyard wins £300m rig contract
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NOTE a Cayman Islands company - ND9
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Hundreds of jobs will be created to work on the project
A disused shipyard on Teesside will be used to construct a £300m offshore drilling platform.
Hundreds of jobs will be created to work on the contract at Haverton Hill, near Billingham, after the site was chosen by SeaDragon Offshore.
It will be the biggest non-military marine fabrication project in the UK, said regeneration agency One NorthEast.
The contract was awarded to the Tees Alliance Group, with work expected to begin in 2007.
Once complete, the platform will be used to drill for oil and gas in depths of up to 10,000ft in locations such as the Gulf, West Africa and the North Sea.
SeaDragon Offshore, a Cayman Islands company, has also announced plans to build two more identical vessels with Tees Alliance Group.
Stephen Baird, the firm's chairman, said he recognised that Teesside offered the skills to create a world class vessel.
Significant jobs
Stockton North MP Frank Cook has been campaigning for the regeneration of the Haverton Hill yard.
He said: "For over 40 years I have used every possible opportunity to tell anyone who would listen about the superb industrial skills and facilities here on Teesside - and the opportunities available for those with the right managerial attitudes and outlooks.
"I am delighted the message I gave has helped to ensure the project is now set to become a reality - once again bringing Haverton Hill back to life."
The Tees Alliance Group, which includes firms Cleveland Bridge and Sarens Cranes, said a significant number of new jobs would be created, both directly and indirectly.
Sonsub to deploy new ROV intervention vessel in West Africa
Sonsub has entered into a long term charter with vessel specialist BOURBON for the provision of a newbuild vessel to be dedicated to deeepwater intervention in West Africa.
The vessel will be named Bourbon Trieste, in honour of the famous bathyscaphe that holds the world record for deepest dive and will be delivered in the 4th quarter of 2007.
The vessel will be 85m long by 18m wide with a DP Class 2 diesel-electric propulsion system. There will be a 100t AHC knuckle-boom crane and a 10t Auxiliary crane, both with fast deepwater deployment capabilities. Based on specific job requirements, Sonsub will install one or two Innovator Heavy Work Class ROV systems with full 3,000m water depth operating capacity.
The spread will be dedicated mainly to Light Subsea Construction and IRM activities in deepwater and Sonsub believes that the combination of BOURBON and Saipem's long established expertise in West African offshore operations will lead to a very successful partnership.
http://www.shephard.co.uk/UVOnline/default.aspx?Action=-187126550&ID=0d205379-523b-4419-bcad-25e...
South Korea and Nigeria negotiate an oil-rail deal
By Choe Sang-Hun / International Herald TribunePublished: November 6, 2006
SEOUL: South Korea signed a preliminary $10 billion contract Monday to build a railroad in Nigeria in return for a stake in the African country's oil fields, officials said.
The deal is the latest in a trend among energy-hungry Asian investors' signing deals to build roads, power plants and other industrial infrastructure in Africa to win better access to energy sources.
The minister of commerce, industry and energy of South Korea, Chung Sye Kyun, and Oil Minister Edmund Daukoru of Nigeria signed a memorandum of understanding shortly after Presidents Roh Moo Hyun of South Korea and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria met here.
Under the deal, South Korea would provide long-term, low-interest loans to help Nigeria cover part of the estimated $10 billion necessary to rebuild the railroad, the South Korean Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said. The tracks would cover 1,500 kilometers, or 930 miles, and connect Port Harcourt, on Nigeria's west coast, to Maiduguri, in the east, the ministry added.
South Korea, which imports all of its oil, was promised an advantage in buying an unspecified stake in Nigerian oil fields. Posco Engineering & Construction and Korea National Oil formed a consortium to carry out the South Korean side of the deal. Construction may begin as early as in the first half of 2007 after the two countries sort out details, including the size of the oil blocks for South Korea and the terms for commercial loans for Nigeria.
The South Korean government said of the deal, "This is a win-win project where South Korea's technology and Nigeria's resources are swapped."
A spokesman said: "President Roh asked the Nigerian government to help South Korean firms participating in Nigeria's petroleum and gas field development. President Obasanjo asked our government to urge South Korean companies to participate in Nigerian projects to build hydroelectric dams, railroads and other infrastructure"
Roh visited Nigeria in March seeking a share in Nigeria's oil and natural gas development. Obasanjo plans to attend the opening of the first Korea-Africa Forum in Seoul on Tuesday. Among other African leaders expected to attend are Denis Sassou-Nguesso, president of the Congo Republic; Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, president of Tanzania; John Agyekum Kufuor, president of Ghana; and Thomas Boni Yayi, president of Benin.
The forum takes place as South Korea seeks closer cooperation with African countries for their natural resources and potential markets for South Korean goods. South Korea started exploring oil reserves in Benin in 2004. In March, Korea National Oil won the exploration rights for two offshore blocks in Nigeria.
Nigeria sold 16 oil licenses in May in return for promises by mostly Asian investors, largely Chinese and Indian companies, of $20 billion of investment in refining, power and other projects. Nigeria is to hold bidding for 60 blocks that will be the last by Obasanjo's government before he steps down next year.
China to double African aid
04/11/2006 11:06 - (SA)
President Hu Jintao welcomes Benin President Yayi Boni to the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation at the Great Hall of the People. (Elizabeth Dalziel, AP)
Africa, China summit kicks off
Beijing - China would offer $5bn in loans and credits and double aid to Africa by 2009, said President Hu Jintao on Saturday, seeking to bolster his country's influence on the resource-rich continent.
Hu greeted visiting delegates from nearly 50 African nations one-by-one at the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
"Our meeting today will go down in history," Hu told the leaders. "China is the largest developing country, and Africa is home to the largest number of developing countries."
The weekend summit, which follows a dialogue and trade forum, underscores China's deepening ties with African countries.
But rights groups have expressed concerns about Chinese links to countries like Zimbabwe and Sudan.
But Hu said: "The combined population of China and Africa accounts for over a third of the world total. Without peace and development in China and Africa, there will be no global peace and development."
China to help fight malaria
Outlining aid plans, Hu said China would provide $3bn in preferential loans and $2bn in preferential buyer's credits to African countries.
China would also double its 2006 assistance to Africa by 2009 in an effort to forge a new strategic partnership and strengthen co-operation.
Hu also pledged China would train 15 000 African professionals, send 100 agricultural experts to Africa, set up 10 agricultural technology centres over the next three years, build 30 hospitals, provide 300 million yuan (about R250m) in grants to help fight malaria, and build 100 rural schools.
He also increased the number of Chinese government scholarships to African students from 2 000 a year to 4 000 a year by 2009.
Rights groups say China's policy of non-interference in domestic affairs means its engagement with Africa is bolstering governments in places like Sudan and Zimbabwe, with whom Western countries have curbed trade ties.
China, Liberia sigh oil deal
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Liu Jianchao dismissed accusations of a new form of colonialism in Africa.
"No African governments or people accuse China of practising neo-colonialism on the continent," he told a news conference. "The people who once suffered under colonialism in China and Africa know best what is colonialism."
China's trade with Africa is expected to top $50bn this year. While the summit is largely about handshakes and banquets, analysts also expect it to be an opportunity to cement trade and investment deals in the pipeline.
China and Liberia have signed a preliminary deal to allow China's second-largest state oil and gas firm, Sinopec Group, to explore for oil and gas.
Ghana is close to clinching a $600m deal with China's Sino Hydro Corporation to build a 400 megawatt hydroelectric dam in the north.
A Chinese consortium recently signed a $3bn iron ore deal in Gabon, which includes extending a railway and building a bulk commodities and container port.
CNPC studies best route to ship African oil home
Friday, November 03, 2006
China's thirst for foreign crude is driving its biggest oil company to examine several pipeline projects in northern and western Africa, said the chief executive of China National Petroleum Corp's exploration partner in Niger.
A strategy of offering soft loans and aid to poor nations has enabled China to muscle past Western rivals in the race for some of Africa's energy assets, but it has yet to work out the best way to move some of its equity oil back home.
To get its African oil on to tankers for the long haul to eastern Asia, China is considering which of three different pipeline projects to go ahead with.
One could link Sudan with Chad and Niger, another might go north through to Algeria's Mediterranean ports or a third option could be a link between Niger and Nigeria, as part of a Niger- Nigeria oil swap deal, according to Clifford James of Canada's TG World Energy.
The issue is pressing as China's oil imports are rising each year and domestic production cannot keep up.
Its oil imports hit a record high for any month of 3.29 million barrels per day in September.
At the same time, CNPC has kicked off drilling programs in Mauritania and Niger in recent weeks as it seeks to build on oil strikes in Chad and Sudan.
TG World is the junior partner of the CNPC-led Tenere concession in Niger with a 20 percent interest. It estimates there could be as many as 500 million barrels of crude beneath the sands there.
James was speaking as dozens of African leaders and delegations arrived in Beijing for a three-day summit to cement diplomatic and trade ties.
China's aggressive expansion in Africa has worried Western countries, which rely on light grades of crude for their refineries similar to oil produced in many parts of Africa where the Chinese have interests.
Also, independent oil companies that must answer to shareholders feel they struggle to compete with government-to-government deals favored by the Chinese.
Plans by CNPC to examine investments that bypass Western-built oil infrastructure are likely to exacerbate those concerns, although the Chinese have defended their actions in Africa as improving local living standards and opening up oil reserves that would otherwise have remained hidden for some time to come.
A typical tactic adopted by the Chinese is to plow money into non-oil infrastructure such as mobile phone networks or roads and later secure preferential treatment in auctions of oil blocks, often by getting the right of first refusal to match the top bid tabled by their competitors.
"One can look at it from a Machiavellian standpoint and say there's some method in their madness in the sense that what they are trying to do is get some leverage on those countries," James said.
"They do that by loaning money so that they can get into a position to use that leverage to get into some of the energy deals. That's quite different from the Western way."
US giant Exxon Mobil leads a consortium that invested US$3.5 billion (HK$27.3 billion) in a 225,000 bpd- pipeline and export facilities from Chad to Cameroon which would be most affected by competing installations built by the Chinese.
Exxon Mobil was embroiled in a row with the government of Chad this summer over unpaid taxes that saw it ordered to leave the country at one stage. This took place just three weeks after China and Chad established diplomatic relations.
One alternative to a Sudan-West Africa pipeline, James said, was CNPC looking at a crude-swap deal that would see oil pumped in Niger transported by a pipeline that it wants to build to a remote refinery in the northern part of neighboring Nigeria.
In May, CNPC agreed to invest US$2 billion in the Kaduna refinery in Nigeria after winning four blocks in a mini-bid round.
The 110,000-bpd facility has suffered fire damage and the Chinese side has not only pledged to refurbish it, but make it bigger as well, James said.
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
China Poised to Overtake World Bank as Biggest Lender in Africa
By Christopher Swann and William McQuillen
Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- China is poised to become the biggest lender to African nations, threatening to undermine efforts by World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz to use overseas aid as an incentive to clean up corruption on the continent.
China has committed $8.1 billion this year to Nigeria, Angola and Mozambique, according to World Bank figures. That compares with $2.3 billion pledged to sub-Saharan Africa by the Washington-based World Bank. China may announce more deals at a Sino-African forum starting today in Beijing, cementing its place as the top official source of finance to Africa, development experts say.
China is bucking the global aid establishment by refusing to impose conditions in return for financing projects that include airports, government buildings and power plants. That allows African governments to borrow overseas while avoiding strictures imposed by the World Bank, such as accounting safeguards and measures to protect workers and the environment.
``There is a risk that some governments in Africa may use Chinese money in the wrong way to avoid pressure from the West for good government,'' said Papa Kwesi Nduom, who heads the Ministry of Public Sector Reform in Ghana, which is seeking a $1.2 billion loan from China for a hydro-electric dam and rural electrification.
China has a more commercial agenda than the World Bank, the U.S. and France, the top Western donors, and terms of some of its loans are less favorable. The U.S. provided a net $3.5 billion in loans and grants to sub-Saharan Africa in 2004, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. France extended $3 billion.
Eximbank, China's overseas lending arm, has provided about $12.5 billion in infrastructure loans to Africa since 1994, a figure that excludes mining and oil projects, according to the World Bank.
Access to Resources
China is using loans, export credits and other sources of financing to secure access to resources it needs to fuel its economy, the world's fourth largest and among the fastest growing. China is the world's biggest consumer of zinc, nickel and copper, the second-largest user of crude oil and the top importer of tropical woods.
``The Chinese deals are very opaque but seem often to be long-term mortgages on Africa's resources or mineral deposits,'' says Dan Large, a China specialist at the Rift Valley Institute, a Nairobi-based think-tank that's financed in part by Unicef.
Angola, a nation of 14 million that's recovering from a 27- year civil war, is avoiding pressure to clean up corruption thanks to aid from China, Large says.
Money Disappears
The former Portuguese colony is ranked 151 of 158 countries on Transparency International's corruption index. Global Witness, a London-based human rights group, reckons that $8.5 billion of Angolan public money disappeared between 1997 and 2001.
In 2004, Angola received a $2 billion line of credit from China backed by oil revenue, an amount that was increased by $1 billion this year.
Laurinda Santos, press secretary at the Angolan embassy in Washington, didn't respond to requests for comment. The press office at the Chinese embassy in Washington didn't return telephone calls.
Nigeria, the continent's top oil producer, this year agreed to provide a drilling license to China in exchange for a $4 billion commitment to improve infrastructure. China this year also agreed to lend $2.6 billion to Mozambique to build a dam, a hydroelectric power plant and transmission lines.
Debt Crisis
Such loans raise the prospect of a renewed debt crisis in Africa, just a year after the world's rich nations agreed to forgive as much as $57 billion of debt, Wolfowitz told Chinese news agency Xinhua last week.
``Africans cannot afford to miss the growth opportunities offered by new sources of lending and investment,'' Harry Broadman, an economic adviser in the World Bank's Africa Department, said in a statement yesterday.
China and other new lenders ``will undoubtedly want to learn about the overall debt situation and coordinate with other sources of development finance to avoid some of the mistakes and problems that Western lending and aid has generated in the past.''
Wolfowitz has made his good-government drive a hallmark of his 16-month tenure at the World Bank, arguing that too much of the money intended for schools and clinics winds up in the pockets of corrupt politicians.
One result of his efforts: Chad in July agreed to set aside set aside 70 percent of its oil revenue for anti-poverty programs after the World Bank suspended $124 million in loans to the central African nation of 9 million.
Fight Against Poverty
``The effort to strengthen and improve governance is a key element in the fight against poverty,'' Wolfowitz, 62, said in a speech on Sept. 18.
Some African nations bristle at the World Bank campaign, calling it interference in domestic matters.
``The fact that a country gives you aid makes them think they have a license to tell you how to run your affairs,'' Robert Kabushenga, a spokesman for Uganda's government, said in an interview from Kampala. ``These conditions are probably well intentioned, but they are humiliating.''
To contact the reporters on this story: Christopher Swann in Washington at cswann1@bloomberg.net ; William McQuillen in Washington at bmcquillen@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: November 2, 2006 16:18 EST
Shell USA President visited China recently
Sinopec executives sign agreement for closer ties with Houston
5:02 AM ET Nov 1, 2006
HOUSTON (MarketWatch) -- Top China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (SNP) officials signed a cooperation agreement with Houston Mayor Bill White, vowing to strengthen ties between one of Asia's largest energy companies and the world's oil and gas capital.
"We're very willing to become closer or extend our relationship with the international oil and petrochemical companies," Vice President Zhou Yuan said during the signing ceremony at the Houston City Hall.
The company - also known as Sinopec - already trains many of its engineers in the Houston area, but as the center of the global oil and gas industry, the city could offer more, said Helen Chang, director of the Houston's International Affairs and Development office.
"We want them to set up an office in Houston," Chang said. The city also wants Sinopec to help sponsor an alternative energy conference next year.
White and several Houston business leaders - including Royal Dutch Shell PLC's (RDSB.LN) U.S. unit president John Hoffmeister - visited China for 10 days in July, hoping to boost Houston's economic and cultural standing in one of the world's fastest growing economies.
Sinopec is Asia's largest refiner, and one of China's largest producers of oil and natural gas.
-Contact: 201-938-5400
How China bought up Africa
31 October 2006 19:15 Home > News > World > Asia
Roar of the Asian tiger: How China bought up Africa
More than 40 African nations will be represented at a summit in Beijing this week, a very public indication of the huge investment one of the world's fastest-growing economies has made in the world's poorest continent. Clifford Coonan reports
Published: 01 November 2006
The Sphinx, a herd of elephants and the lions of the Serengeti look down from billboards overhung with construction cranes on to Beijing's ring roads, teeming with cars, cement mixers and other symbols of a booming economy. Sharp-suited African politicians discuss oil, timber and precious metals with equally well-tailored Chinese officials in the lobbies of Beijing's top hotels.
More than 40 African heads of state are in Beijing for this weekend's China-Africa forum to discuss the growing importance of trade between the world's fastest-growing economy and the world's poorest continent. China's trade with Africa is set to exceed £27bn this year and the intense discussions bear out the fact that this is a congress of real import.
The Sino-African summit is the biggest international gathering Beijing has hosted for many years. All told, 48 African countries will send delegations, most of them top leaders, for the ministerial summit which starts on Friday.
The forum marks an astonishing publicity coup for China, and is proof that in this modern-day "scramble for Africa" China is streets ahead when it comes to winning influence in the mineral-rich but often politically unstable continent.
"China is opening itself up to Africa, coming with assistance. We have nothing to lose but our imperialist chains," said Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who is attending the summit.
The Chinese have cleverly taken advantage of the fact that Africa has not been a diplomatic priority for leaders in Washington or the capitals of Europe for many years now. Beijing has actively wooed African nations to boost its diplomatic muscle on the continent, win contracts for Chinese companies and help to meet its ever-growing energy needs.
Traditionally these meetings are "cultural" events, marked by people wearing traditional dress sitting around banqueting tables discussing poetry in regional dialect. But this summit has an edge as sharp as the delegates' suits.
Africa is rich in oil and other natural resources, while China is the world's second-biggest consumer of oil and petrol after the United States. Its factories need iron ore and copper to keep churning out the industrial goods fuelling the country's economic boom, and China has been unstinting in its efforts to maintain good relations, investing £3bn in Africa this year alone.
The giant billboards welcoming the African delegates are written in English, French and Chinese. One sign seems to feature a tribesman from Papua New Guinea, but let's not quibble about details. Beggars have been taken off the streets, the airport touts offering overpriced taxis are gone, and the schools are being let out early to keep traffic moving. Police leave has been cancelled, and commuters are being told to take the bus instead of driving. Beijing city authorities view the congress as a dry run for hosting the 2008 Olympics.
In many ways, the congress marks the culmination of China's 21st-century quest for influence in Africa, which is reminiscent of the undignified scramble in the 19th century when leading European colonial nations fought for their places on the continent. The current scramble is one in which China has played a strong diplomatic hand, backed by its growing economic clout and its increased political flexibility.
China has been busy in recent years wooing African nations to boost its influence on the continent. But Beijing has been criticised for ignoring human rights and environmental standards and failing to attach demands for transparency and accountability to offers of aid, loans and investment to Africa.
Chairman Mao Zedong always dreamt of China leading a Third World alliance of non-aligned nations in a crusade against the capitalist running dogs. But where the poverty of Maoism failed to deliver that sought-after role, socialism with Chinese characteristics, which translates as Chinese capitalism, may yet deliver this alliance.
Back during the Cold War, when everything was simpler, China and Soviet Russia fought for influence among African states. China has steadily built up its influence in Africa since the 1960s and 1970s when it offered its support to newly independent African states, especially Communist ones, and backed independence movements. Beijing has always operated a "no strings attached" policy of economic aid, unlike Western donors, which demand that African countries pledge to fight corruption and improve human rights.
Its enthusiasm for building economic ties with some of the worst human rights offenders in Africa, such as Sudan, has earned it widespread international criticism. However, increasingly reliant on Africa's resources, China defends its economic links with governments accused of civil rights abuses.
"Chinese investment has promoted economic growth in African countries, increased job opportunities, brought technical applications to African countries and improved living standards for African people," the deputy commerce minister, Wei Jianguo, has said.
China has diplomatic relations with 49 African nations, and in the 10 years between 1995 and 2005 trade between China and Africa has multiplied tenfold, from £2bn to nearly £20bn.
With oil from Nigeria, Angola and Sudan, iron ore and platinum from South Africa, timber from Cameroon, Congo-Brazzaville and Gabon, China's shopping list in Africa is a long one.
This week's meeting will focus on trade and economic development rather than more contentious issues such as arms sales to Angola.
"China is the biggest developing country and Africa is a continent where the most developing countries are situated," said He Wenping, an Africa expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "They need each other."
China has been generous with its aid. Last year the country lent Angola £1bn to repair infrastructure wrecked during the civil war. The following month, China gave Kenya more than £20m in aid to modernise its state-run utilities.
Africa's trade with China accounts for some 10 per cent of its total trade, but the figure is growing as trade with the European Union decreases.
The human rights group Amnesty International says China's secret arms exports to Sudan are fuelling human rights violations and helping to sustain conflict there.
The World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz, has accused China and its banks of ignoring human rights and environmental standards when lending to developing countries in Africa. He was referring to the Equator Principles, which have been adopted by Western banks in an attempt to ensure lending is ethical, sustainable and in accord with environmental and human rights principles, but which Mr Wolfowitz believes may be disregarded by Chinese banks.
Mr Wei said he had not heard of cases of Chinese firms destroying the environment in Africa, but promised tough action if they do. "We will mete out severe punishment ... and revoke their licence to operate anywhere outside China," he said. "The Chinese government attaches great importance to the responsibility of Chinese enterprises when they operate in Africa. When approving possible projects, we would not agree to those projects which have the potential to have these effects on the environment."
Popular resentment in Africa has been building, with some countries complaining about the flood of cheap manufactured goods from China, which they say is damaging local industry. There has also been unrest over labour standards at Chinese-invested companies. Zambia has been an ally for many years, but China became an issue in the September presidential election, when the opposition candidate questioned the benefit from Chinese investment, prompting a miffed reaction from Beijing. In July, scores of African workers at a Chinese-owned Zambian mine rioted over low wages.
Analysts say that a combination of China's hunger for raw materials and its manufacturing strength could choke efforts by African nations to diversify from being commodity exporters. Chinese clothing and textiles, plastics and electronics are flooding the markets in Africa and local companies have little chance of competing.
Angola overtook Saudi Arabia this year to become China's largest supplier of crude oil, and the Chinese state energy company Sinopec has offered big bonuses for oil exploration and production contracts in Africa.
On a tour of Egypt, Ghana, Congo, Angola, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda earlier this year, the Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, offered Luanda a £1bn credit line.
China has also come under fire for investing in oil-rich Sudan, whose President, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, was expected to attend the summit. The assistant foreign minister, Zhai Jun, said Mr Bashir and Chinese leaders would discuss the situation in Darfur, where three years of fighting has killed more than 200,000 and forced 2.5 million from their homes. "We believe the humanitarian situation should be improved and we support an active role for the UN in this," Mr Zhai said.
However, he also intoned the long-held Chinese mantra that human rights issues were a domestic problem and not for foreign governments to meddle in. "It is never our view that a country should interfere in another country's internal affairs and human rights," he said.
Many African nations like the Chinese model of single-party rule with a firm grip on key industries and companies.
This summit is all about showcasing Beijing, which has undergone a remarkable transformation in the past few years as it gears up for the Olympics. The world's leading architects have been brought in to help bring about a metamorphosis. Whole swaths of the city have been demolished, with ancient courtyard houses replaced by shiny glass skyscrapers and huge dual carriageways criss-crossing the medieval city.
It is not just about oil and aid. A conference for 1,500 entrepreneurs from both sides will be held on the sidelines, which will examine co-operation on agriculture, water projects, construction, energy, transportation and pharmaceuticals. There will also be an African product exhibition.
China also invited rival Taiwan's diplomatic allies in Africa - Burkina Faso, Swaziland, Malawi, Gambia, and São Tomé and Principe - to attend, although it is not clear whether they have taken up the offer or not.
China has also said it wants to strengthen its ties with Africa by promoting high-level military exchanges between the two sides.
Beijing's Communist Party Secretary, Liu Qi, has called for "all-out efforts to create a seriously friendly atmosphere for Sino-African relations". The grass around the airport and the conference venues is being painted green. But don't make the mistake of thinking this summit is just for show.
The Sphinx, a herd of elephants and the lions of the Serengeti look down from billboards overhung with construction cranes on to Beijing's ring roads, teeming with cars, cement mixers and other symbols of a booming economy. Sharp-suited African politicians discuss oil, timber and precious metals with equally well-tailored Chinese officials in the lobbies of Beijing's top hotels.
More than 40 African heads of state are in Beijing for this weekend's China-Africa forum to discuss the growing importance of trade between the world's fastest-growing economy and the world's poorest continent. China's trade with Africa is set to exceed £27bn this year and the intense discussions bear out the fact that this is a congress of real import.
The Sino-African summit is the biggest international gathering Beijing has hosted for many years. All told, 48 African countries will send delegations, most of them top leaders, for the ministerial summit which starts on Friday.
The forum marks an astonishing publicity coup for China, and is proof that in this modern-day "scramble for Africa" China is streets ahead when it comes to winning influence in the mineral-rich but often politically unstable continent.
"China is opening itself up to Africa, coming with assistance. We have nothing to lose but our imperialist chains," said Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who is attending the summit.
The Chinese have cleverly taken advantage of the fact that Africa has not been a diplomatic priority for leaders in Washington or the capitals of Europe for many years now. Beijing has actively wooed African nations to boost its diplomatic muscle on the continent, win contracts for Chinese companies and help to meet its ever-growing energy needs.
Traditionally these meetings are "cultural" events, marked by people wearing traditional dress sitting around banqueting tables discussing poetry in regional dialect. But this summit has an edge as sharp as the delegates' suits.
Africa is rich in oil and other natural resources, while China is the world's second-biggest consumer of oil and petrol after the United States. Its factories need iron ore and copper to keep churning out the industrial goods fuelling the country's economic boom, and China has been unstinting in its efforts to maintain good relations, investing £3bn in Africa this year alone.
The giant billboards welcoming the African delegates are written in English, French and Chinese. One sign seems to feature a tribesman from Papua New Guinea, but let's not quibble about details. Beggars have been taken off the streets, the airport touts offering overpriced taxis are gone, and the schools are being let out early to keep traffic moving. Police leave has been cancelled, and commuters are being told to take the bus instead of driving. Beijing city authorities view the congress as a dry run for hosting the 2008 Olympics.
In many ways, the congress marks the culmination of China's 21st-century quest for influence in Africa, which is reminiscent of the undignified scramble in the 19th century when leading European colonial nations fought for their places on the continent. The current scramble is one in which China has played a strong diplomatic hand, backed by its growing economic clout and its increased political flexibility.
China has been busy in recent years wooing African nations to boost its influence on the continent. But Beijing has been criticised for ignoring human rights and environmental standards and failing to attach demands for transparency and accountability to offers of aid, loans and investment to Africa.
Chairman Mao Zedong always dreamt of China leading a Third World alliance of non-aligned nations in a crusade against the capitalist running dogs. But where the poverty of Maoism failed to deliver that sought-after role, socialism with Chinese characteristics, which translates as Chinese capitalism, may yet deliver this alliance.
Back during the Cold War, when everything was simpler, China and Soviet Russia fought for influence among African states. China has steadily built up its influence in Africa since the 1960s and 1970s when it offered its support to newly independent African states, especially Communist ones, and backed independence movements. Beijing has always operated a "no strings attached" policy of economic aid, unlike Western donors, which demand that African countries pledge to fight corruption and improve human rights.
Its enthusiasm for building economic ties with some of the worst human rights offenders in Africa, such as Sudan, has earned it widespread international criticism. However, increasingly reliant on Africa's resources, China defends its economic links with governments accused of civil rights abuses.
"Chinese investment has promoted economic growth in African countries, increased job opportunities, brought technical applications to African countries and improved living standards for African people," the deputy commerce minister, Wei Jianguo, has said.
China has diplomatic relations with 49 African nations, and in the 10 years between 1995 and 2005 trade between China and Africa has multiplied tenfold, from £2bn to nearly £20bn.
With oil from Nigeria, Angola and Sudan, iron ore and platinum from South Africa, timber from Cameroon, Congo-Brazzaville and Gabon, China's shopping list in Africa is a long one.
This week's meeting will focus on trade and economic development rather than more contentious issues such as arms sales to Angola.
"China is the biggest developing country and Africa is a continent where the most developing countries are situated," said He Wenping, an Africa expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "They need each other."
China has been generous with its aid. Last year the country lent Angola £1bn to repair infrastructure wrecked during the civil war. The following month, China gave Kenya more than £20m in aid to modernise its state-run utilities.
Africa's trade with China accounts for some 10 per cent of its total trade, but the figure is growing as trade with the European Union decreases.
The human rights group Amnesty International says China's secret arms exports to Sudan are fuelling human rights violations and helping to sustain conflict there.
The World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz, has accused China and its banks of ignoring human rights and environmental standards when lending to developing countries in Africa. He was referring to the Equator Principles, which have been adopted by Western banks in an attempt to ensure lending is ethical, sustainable and in accord with environmental and human rights principles, but which Mr Wolfowitz believes may be disregarded by Chinese banks.
Mr Wei said he had not heard of cases of Chinese firms destroying the environment in Africa, but promised tough action if they do. "We will mete out severe punishment ... and revoke their licence to operate anywhere outside China," he said. "The Chinese government attaches great importance to the responsibility of Chinese enterprises when they operate in Africa. When approving possible projects, we would not agree to those projects which have the potential to have these effects on the environment."
Popular resentment in Africa has been building, with some countries complaining about the flood of cheap manufactured goods from China, which they say is damaging local industry. There has also been unrest over labour standards at Chinese-invested companies. Zambia has been an ally for many years, but China became an issue in the September presidential election, when the opposition candidate questioned the benefit from Chinese investment, prompting a miffed reaction from Beijing. In July, scores of African workers at a Chinese-owned Zambian mine rioted over low wages.
Analysts say that a combination of China's hunger for raw materials and its manufacturing strength could choke efforts by African nations to diversify from being commodity exporters. Chinese clothing and textiles, plastics and electronics are flooding the markets in Africa and local companies have little chance of competing.
Angola overtook Saudi Arabia this year to become China's largest supplier of crude oil, and the Chinese state energy company Sinopec has offered big bonuses for oil exploration and production contracts in Africa.
On a tour of Egypt, Ghana, Congo, Angola, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda earlier this year, the Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, offered Luanda a £1bn credit line.
China has also come under fire for investing in oil-rich Sudan, whose President, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, was expected to attend the summit. The assistant foreign minister, Zhai Jun, said Mr Bashir and Chinese leaders would discuss the situation in Darfur, where three years of fighting has killed more than 200,000 and forced 2.5 million from their homes. "We believe the humanitarian situation should be improved and we support an active role for the UN in this," Mr Zhai said.
However, he also intoned the long-held Chinese mantra that human rights issues were a domestic problem and not for foreign governments to meddle in. "It is never our view that a country should interfere in another country's internal affairs and human rights," he said.
Many African nations like the Chinese model of single-party rule with a firm grip on key industries and companies.
This summit is all about showcasing Beijing, which has undergone a remarkable transformation in the past few years as it gears up for the Olympics. The world's leading architects have been brought in to help bring about a metamorphosis. Whole swaths of the city have been demolished, with ancient courtyard houses replaced by shiny glass skyscrapers and huge dual carriageways criss-crossing the medieval city.
It is not just about oil and aid. A conference for 1,500 entrepreneurs from both sides will be held on the sidelines, which will examine co-operation on agriculture, water projects, construction, energy, transportation and pharmaceuticals. There will also be an African product exhibition.
China also invited rival Taiwan's diplomatic allies in Africa - Burkina Faso, Swaziland, Malawi, Gambia, and São Tomé and Principe - to attend, although it is not clear whether they have taken up the offer or not.
China has also said it wants to strengthen its ties with Africa by promoting high-level military exchanges between the two sides.
Beijing's Communist Party Secretary, Liu Qi, has called for "all-out efforts to create a seriously friendly atmosphere for Sino-African relations". The grass around the airport and the conference venues is being painted green. But don't make the mistake of thinking this summit is just for show.
How China bought up Africa
31 October 2006 19:15 Home > News > World > Asia
Roar of the Asian tiger: How China bought up Africa
More than 40 African nations will be represented at a summit in Beijing this week, a very public indication of the huge investment one of the world's fastest-growing economies has made in the world's poorest continent. Clifford Coonan reports
Published: 01 November 2006
The Sphinx, a herd of elephants and the lions of the Serengeti look down from billboards overhung with construction cranes on to Beijing's ring roads, teeming with cars, cement mixers and other symbols of a booming economy. Sharp-suited African politicians discuss oil, timber and precious metals with equally well-tailored Chinese officials in the lobbies of Beijing's top hotels.
More than 40 African heads of state are in Beijing for this weekend's China-Africa forum to discuss the growing importance of trade between the world's fastest-growing economy and the world's poorest continent. China's trade with Africa is set to exceed £27bn this year and the intense discussions bear out the fact that this is a congress of real import.
The Sino-African summit is the biggest international gathering Beijing has hosted for many years. All told, 48 African countries will send delegations, most of them top leaders, for the ministerial summit which starts on Friday.
The forum marks an astonishing publicity coup for China, and is proof that in this modern-day "scramble for Africa" China is streets ahead when it comes to winning influence in the mineral-rich but often politically unstable continent.
"China is opening itself up to Africa, coming with assistance. We have nothing to lose but our imperialist chains," said Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who is attending the summit.
The Chinese have cleverly taken advantage of the fact that Africa has not been a diplomatic priority for leaders in Washington or the capitals of Europe for many years now. Beijing has actively wooed African nations to boost its diplomatic muscle on the continent, win contracts for Chinese companies and help to meet its ever-growing energy needs.
Traditionally these meetings are "cultural" events, marked by people wearing traditional dress sitting around banqueting tables discussing poetry in regional dialect. But this summit has an edge as sharp as the delegates' suits.
Africa is rich in oil and other natural resources, while China is the world's second-biggest consumer of oil and petrol after the United States. Its factories need iron ore and copper to keep churning out the industrial goods fuelling the country's economic boom, and China has been unstinting in its efforts to maintain good relations, investing £3bn in Africa this year alone.
The giant billboards welcoming the African delegates are written in English, French and Chinese. One sign seems to feature a tribesman from Papua New Guinea, but let's not quibble about details. Beggars have been taken off the streets, the airport touts offering overpriced taxis are gone, and the schools are being let out early to keep traffic moving. Police leave has been cancelled, and commuters are being told to take the bus instead of driving. Beijing city authorities view the congress as a dry run for hosting the 2008 Olympics.
In many ways, the congress marks the culmination of China's 21st-century quest for influence in Africa, which is reminiscent of the undignified scramble in the 19th century when leading European colonial nations fought for their places on the continent. The current scramble is one in which China has played a strong diplomatic hand, backed by its growing economic clout and its increased political flexibility.
China has been busy in recent years wooing African nations to boost its influence on the continent. But Beijing has been criticised for ignoring human rights and environmental standards and failing to attach demands for transparency and accountability to offers of aid, loans and investment to Africa.
Chairman Mao Zedong always dreamt of China leading a Third World alliance of non-aligned nations in a crusade against the capitalist running dogs. But where the poverty of Maoism failed to deliver that sought-after role, socialism with Chinese characteristics, which translates as Chinese capitalism, may yet deliver this alliance.
Back during the Cold War, when everything was simpler, China and Soviet Russia fought for influence among African states. China has steadily built up its influence in Africa since the 1960s and 1970s when it offered its support to newly independent African states, especially Communist ones, and backed independence movements. Beijing has always operated a "no strings attached" policy of economic aid, unlike Western donors, which demand that African countries pledge to fight corruption and improve human rights.
Its enthusiasm for building economic ties with some of the worst human rights offenders in Africa, such as Sudan, has earned it widespread international criticism. However, increasingly reliant on Africa's resources, China defends its economic links with governments accused of civil rights abuses.
"Chinese investment has promoted economic growth in African countries, increased job opportunities, brought technical applications to African countries and improved living standards for African people," the deputy commerce minister, Wei Jianguo, has said.
China has diplomatic relations with 49 African nations, and in the 10 years between 1995 and 2005 trade between China and Africa has multiplied tenfold, from £2bn to nearly £20bn.
With oil from Nigeria, Angola and Sudan, iron ore and platinum from South Africa, timber from Cameroon, Congo-Brazzaville and Gabon, China's shopping list in Africa is a long one.
This week's meeting will focus on trade and economic development rather than more contentious issues such as arms sales to Angola.
"China is the biggest developing country and Africa is a continent where the most developing countries are situated," said He Wenping, an Africa expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "They need each other."
China has been generous with its aid. Last year the country lent Angola £1bn to repair infrastructure wrecked during the civil war. The following month, China gave Kenya more than £20m in aid to modernise its state-run utilities.
Africa's trade with China accounts for some 10 per cent of its total trade, but the figure is growing as trade with the European Union decreases.
The human rights group Amnesty International says China's secret arms exports to Sudan are fuelling human rights violations and helping to sustain conflict there.
The World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz, has accused China and its banks of ignoring human rights and environmental standards when lending to developing countries in Africa. He was referring to the Equator Principles, which have been adopted by Western banks in an attempt to ensure lending is ethical, sustainable and in accord with environmental and human rights principles, but which Mr Wolfowitz believes may be disregarded by Chinese banks.
Mr Wei said he had not heard of cases of Chinese firms destroying the environment in Africa, but promised tough action if they do. "We will mete out severe punishment ... and revoke their licence to operate anywhere outside China," he said. "The Chinese government attaches great importance to the responsibility of Chinese enterprises when they operate in Africa. When approving possible projects, we would not agree to those projects which have the potential to have these effects on the environment."
Popular resentment in Africa has been building, with some countries complaining about the flood of cheap manufactured goods from China, which they say is damaging local industry. There has also been unrest over labour standards at Chinese-invested companies. Zambia has been an ally for many years, but China became an issue in the September presidential election, when the opposition candidate questioned the benefit from Chinese investment, prompting a miffed reaction from Beijing. In July, scores of African workers at a Chinese-owned Zambian mine rioted over low wages.
Analysts say that a combination of China's hunger for raw materials and its manufacturing strength could choke efforts by African nations to diversify from being commodity exporters. Chinese clothing and textiles, plastics and electronics are flooding the markets in Africa and local companies have little chance of competing.
Angola overtook Saudi Arabia this year to become China's largest supplier of crude oil, and the Chinese state energy company Sinopec has offered big bonuses for oil exploration and production contracts in Africa.
On a tour of Egypt, Ghana, Congo, Angola, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda earlier this year, the Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, offered Luanda a £1bn credit line.
China has also come under fire for investing in oil-rich Sudan, whose President, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, was expected to attend the summit. The assistant foreign minister, Zhai Jun, said Mr Bashir and Chinese leaders would discuss the situation in Darfur, where three years of fighting has killed more than 200,000 and forced 2.5 million from their homes. "We believe the humanitarian situation should be improved and we support an active role for the UN in this," Mr Zhai said.
However, he also intoned the long-held Chinese mantra that human rights issues were a domestic problem and not for foreign governments to meddle in. "It is never our view that a country should interfere in another country's internal affairs and human rights," he said.
Many African nations like the Chinese model of single-party rule with a firm grip on key industries and companies.
This summit is all about showcasing Beijing, which has undergone a remarkable transformation in the past few years as it gears up for the Olympics. The world's leading architects have been brought in to help bring about a metamorphosis. Whole swaths of the city have been demolished, with ancient courtyard houses replaced by shiny glass skyscrapers and huge dual carriageways criss-crossing the medieval city.
It is not just about oil and aid. A conference for 1,500 entrepreneurs from both sides will be held on the sidelines, which will examine co-operation on agriculture, water projects, construction, energy, transportation and pharmaceuticals. There will also be an African product exhibition.
China also invited rival Taiwan's diplomatic allies in Africa - Burkina Faso, Swaziland, Malawi, Gambia, and São Tomé and Principe - to attend, although it is not clear whether they have taken up the offer or not.
China has also said it wants to strengthen its ties with Africa by promoting high-level military exchanges between the two sides.
Beijing's Communist Party Secretary, Liu Qi, has called for "all-out efforts to create a seriously friendly atmosphere for Sino-African relations". The grass around the airport and the conference venues is being painted green. But don't make the mistake of thinking this summit is just for show.
The Sphinx, a herd of elephants and the lions of the Serengeti look down from billboards overhung with construction cranes on to Beijing's ring roads, teeming with cars, cement mixers and other symbols of a booming economy. Sharp-suited African politicians discuss oil, timber and precious metals with equally well-tailored Chinese officials in the lobbies of Beijing's top hotels.
More than 40 African heads of state are in Beijing for this weekend's China-Africa forum to discuss the growing importance of trade between the world's fastest-growing economy and the world's poorest continent. China's trade with Africa is set to exceed £27bn this year and the intense discussions bear out the fact that this is a congress of real import.
The Sino-African summit is the biggest international gathering Beijing has hosted for many years. All told, 48 African countries will send delegations, most of them top leaders, for the ministerial summit which starts on Friday.
The forum marks an astonishing publicity coup for China, and is proof that in this modern-day "scramble for Africa" China is streets ahead when it comes to winning influence in the mineral-rich but often politically unstable continent.
"China is opening itself up to Africa, coming with assistance. We have nothing to lose but our imperialist chains," said Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who is attending the summit.
The Chinese have cleverly taken advantage of the fact that Africa has not been a diplomatic priority for leaders in Washington or the capitals of Europe for many years now. Beijing has actively wooed African nations to boost its diplomatic muscle on the continent, win contracts for Chinese companies and help to meet its ever-growing energy needs.
Traditionally these meetings are "cultural" events, marked by people wearing traditional dress sitting around banqueting tables discussing poetry in regional dialect. But this summit has an edge as sharp as the delegates' suits.
Africa is rich in oil and other natural resources, while China is the world's second-biggest consumer of oil and petrol after the United States. Its factories need iron ore and copper to keep churning out the industrial goods fuelling the country's economic boom, and China has been unstinting in its efforts to maintain good relations, investing £3bn in Africa this year alone.
The giant billboards welcoming the African delegates are written in English, French and Chinese. One sign seems to feature a tribesman from Papua New Guinea, but let's not quibble about details. Beggars have been taken off the streets, the airport touts offering overpriced taxis are gone, and the schools are being let out early to keep traffic moving. Police leave has been cancelled, and commuters are being told to take the bus instead of driving. Beijing city authorities view the congress as a dry run for hosting the 2008 Olympics.
In many ways, the congress marks the culmination of China's 21st-century quest for influence in Africa, which is reminiscent of the undignified scramble in the 19th century when leading European colonial nations fought for their places on the continent. The current scramble is one in which China has played a strong diplomatic hand, backed by its growing economic clout and its increased political flexibility.
China has been busy in recent years wooing African nations to boost its influence on the continent. But Beijing has been criticised for ignoring human rights and environmental standards and failing to attach demands for transparency and accountability to offers of aid, loans and investment to Africa.
Chairman Mao Zedong always dreamt of China leading a Third World alliance of non-aligned nations in a crusade against the capitalist running dogs. But where the poverty of Maoism failed to deliver that sought-after role, socialism with Chinese characteristics, which translates as Chinese capitalism, may yet deliver this alliance.
Back during the Cold War, when everything was simpler, China and Soviet Russia fought for influence among African states. China has steadily built up its influence in Africa since the 1960s and 1970s when it offered its support to newly independent African states, especially Communist ones, and backed independence movements. Beijing has always operated a "no strings attached" policy of economic aid, unlike Western donors, which demand that African countries pledge to fight corruption and improve human rights.
Its enthusiasm for building economic ties with some of the worst human rights offenders in Africa, such as Sudan, has earned it widespread international criticism. However, increasingly reliant on Africa's resources, China defends its economic links with governments accused of civil rights abuses.
"Chinese investment has promoted economic growth in African countries, increased job opportunities, brought technical applications to African countries and improved living standards for African people," the deputy commerce minister, Wei Jianguo, has said.
China has diplomatic relations with 49 African nations, and in the 10 years between 1995 and 2005 trade between China and Africa has multiplied tenfold, from £2bn to nearly £20bn.
With oil from Nigeria, Angola and Sudan, iron ore and platinum from South Africa, timber from Cameroon, Congo-Brazzaville and Gabon, China's shopping list in Africa is a long one.
This week's meeting will focus on trade and economic development rather than more contentious issues such as arms sales to Angola.
"China is the biggest developing country and Africa is a continent where the most developing countries are situated," said He Wenping, an Africa expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "They need each other."
China has been generous with its aid. Last year the country lent Angola £1bn to repair infrastructure wrecked during the civil war. The following month, China gave Kenya more than £20m in aid to modernise its state-run utilities.
Africa's trade with China accounts for some 10 per cent of its total trade, but the figure is growing as trade with the European Union decreases.
The human rights group Amnesty International says China's secret arms exports to Sudan are fuelling human rights violations and helping to sustain conflict there.
The World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz, has accused China and its banks of ignoring human rights and environmental standards when lending to developing countries in Africa. He was referring to the Equator Principles, which have been adopted by Western banks in an attempt to ensure lending is ethical, sustainable and in accord with environmental and human rights principles, but which Mr Wolfowitz believes may be disregarded by Chinese banks.
Mr Wei said he had not heard of cases of Chinese firms destroying the environment in Africa, but promised tough action if they do. "We will mete out severe punishment ... and revoke their licence to operate anywhere outside China," he said. "The Chinese government attaches great importance to the responsibility of Chinese enterprises when they operate in Africa. When approving possible projects, we would not agree to those projects which have the potential to have these effects on the environment."
Popular resentment in Africa has been building, with some countries complaining about the flood of cheap manufactured goods from China, which they say is damaging local industry. There has also been unrest over labour standards at Chinese-invested companies. Zambia has been an ally for many years, but China became an issue in the September presidential election, when the opposition candidate questioned the benefit from Chinese investment, prompting a miffed reaction from Beijing. In July, scores of African workers at a Chinese-owned Zambian mine rioted over low wages.
Analysts say that a combination of China's hunger for raw materials and its manufacturing strength could choke efforts by African nations to diversify from being commodity exporters. Chinese clothing and textiles, plastics and electronics are flooding the markets in Africa and local companies have little chance of competing.
Angola overtook Saudi Arabia this year to become China's largest supplier of crude oil, and the Chinese state energy company Sinopec has offered big bonuses for oil exploration and production contracts in Africa.
On a tour of Egypt, Ghana, Congo, Angola, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda earlier this year, the Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, offered Luanda a £1bn credit line.
China has also come under fire for investing in oil-rich Sudan, whose President, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, was expected to attend the summit. The assistant foreign minister, Zhai Jun, said Mr Bashir and Chinese leaders would discuss the situation in Darfur, where three years of fighting has killed more than 200,000 and forced 2.5 million from their homes. "We believe the humanitarian situation should be improved and we support an active role for the UN in this," Mr Zhai said.
However, he also intoned the long-held Chinese mantra that human rights issues were a domestic problem and not for foreign governments to meddle in. "It is never our view that a country should interfere in another country's internal affairs and human rights," he said.
Many African nations like the Chinese model of single-party rule with a firm grip on key industries and companies.
This summit is all about showcasing Beijing, which has undergone a remarkable transformation in the past few years as it gears up for the Olympics. The world's leading architects have been brought in to help bring about a metamorphosis. Whole swaths of the city have been demolished, with ancient courtyard houses replaced by shiny glass skyscrapers and huge dual carriageways criss-crossing the medieval city.
It is not just about oil and aid. A conference for 1,500 entrepreneurs from both sides will be held on the sidelines, which will examine co-operation on agriculture, water projects, construction, energy, transportation and pharmaceuticals. There will also be an African product exhibition.
China also invited rival Taiwan's diplomatic allies in Africa - Burkina Faso, Swaziland, Malawi, Gambia, and São Tomé and Principe - to attend, although it is not clear whether they have taken up the offer or not.
China has also said it wants to strengthen its ties with Africa by promoting high-level military exchanges between the two sides.
Beijing's Communist Party Secretary, Liu Qi, has called for "all-out efforts to create a seriously friendly atmosphere for Sino-African relations". The grass around the airport and the conference venues is being painted green. But don't make the mistake of thinking this summit is just for show.
Angola to explore São Tomé oil
afrol News, 31 October - It is now official that Angola will take part in oil exploration in the São Tomé and Príncipe's economic exclusive area after the two countries' companies signed a partnership agreement. This was announced by the Prime Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe, Tome Vera Cruz.
"We have signed a protocol for the oil sector and there is a memorandum between our national oil agency and Sonangol, but we want to go further so that by forming partnerships we can work together on oil exploration," 'Macauhub' quoted Mr Vera Cruz as saying.
This development came after Mr Vera Cruz had concluded a three-day official visit to Angola. He used the trip to boost bilateral cooperation with Angolan authorities.
He said soon technical teams in the oil sector from both countries would find ways of developing partnerships and bring them to fruition.
Prime Minister Vera Cruz added that his country has two pending debts with Angola, the recent being the result of good relationship between the two countries.
In relation to the other debt, which is older and bilateral, PM Vera Cruz said that he had discussed the issue with the Angolan authorities, "within the framework of the debt pardon to be negotiated with the Paris Club."
A commission involving members from both countries is scheduled to meet in December to analyse new forms of bilateral cooperation between the two countries.
Earlier, São Tomé and Príncipe invited investors from booming Angola to enter his country, which would expedite partnerships between the two countries in various fields. He made the appeal during a visit to Angola upon receiving invitation from his counterpart, President Fernando Dias dos Santos.
In his meeting with Angolan investors in Luanda, Prime Minister Vera Cruz called for greater dynamics among investors and pledged fiscal incentives on investments in his country.
Prime Minister Vera Cruz said there are several business opportunities in his country in addition to the oil sector, which propitiate a public-private partnership among people from both countries.
The government of São Tomé earlier has focused on getting fellow Portuguese speaking nations to invest in its promising oil sector, but failed so far. An agreement of intentions with Brazilian President Lula da Silva failed to materialise in an engagement by Brazil's large state-owned oil company Petrobras.
By staff writer
© afrol News
Angola to explore São Tomé oil
afrol News, 31 October - It is now official that Angola will take part in oil exploration in the São Tomé and Príncipe's economic exclusive area after the two countries' companies signed a partnership agreement. This was announced by the Prime Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe, Tome Vera Cruz.
"We have signed a protocol for the oil sector and there is a memorandum between our national oil agency and Sonangol, but we want to go further so that by forming partnerships we can work together on oil exploration," 'Macauhub' quoted Mr Vera Cruz as saying.
This development came after Mr Vera Cruz had concluded a three-day official visit to Angola. He used the trip to boost bilateral cooperation with Angolan authorities.
He said soon technical teams in the oil sector from both countries would find ways of developing partnerships and bring them to fruition.
Prime Minister Vera Cruz added that his country has two pending debts with Angola, the recent being the result of good relationship between the two countries.
In relation to the other debt, which is older and bilateral, PM Vera Cruz said that he had discussed the issue with the Angolan authorities, "within the framework of the debt pardon to be negotiated with the Paris Club."
A commission involving members from both countries is scheduled to meet in December to analyse new forms of bilateral cooperation between the two countries.
Earlier, São Tomé and Príncipe invited investors from booming Angola to enter his country, which would expedite partnerships between the two countries in various fields. He made the appeal during a visit to Angola upon receiving invitation from his counterpart, President Fernando Dias dos Santos.
In his meeting with Angolan investors in Luanda, Prime Minister Vera Cruz called for greater dynamics among investors and pledged fiscal incentives on investments in his country.
Prime Minister Vera Cruz said there are several business opportunities in his country in addition to the oil sector, which propitiate a public-private partnership among people from both countries.
The government of São Tomé earlier has focused on getting fellow Portuguese speaking nations to invest in its promising oil sector, but failed so far. An agreement of intentions with Brazilian President Lula da Silva failed to materialise in an engagement by Brazil's large state-owned oil company Petrobras.
By staff writer
© afrol News
Addax Petroleum Presents at the Merrill Lynch Global Energy Conference
Calgary, Alberta, October 26th, 2006 – Addax Petroleum Corporation (TSX: AXC) (“Addax Petroleum” or the “Corporation”) announces that James Pearce, Chief Operating Officer, will be presenting at the Merrill Lynch Global Energy Conference on Wednesday, November 1, 2006 at approximately 10:05 a.m. Eastern Time. The presentation will include information detailing the company’s performance, strategy and outlook.
Investors are invited to listen to the live, audio-only webcast via the following link: http://www.corporate-ir.net/ireye/conflobby.zhtml?ticker=AXC.TO&item_id=1404378
The presentation slides will be available prior to the presentation on Addax Petroleum’s website at www.addaxpetroleum.com.
About Addax Petroleum: