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Global relocating derrick lay barge to West Africa
The Hercules.
(10/19/2006 - OGI: Houston) Global Industries today revealed it has decided to relocate its dynamically positioned, deepwater combination derrick/pipelay barge Hercules from Asia Pacific to West Africa.
Global said the vessel recently mobilized from its Batam, Indonesia base and is scheduled to arrive in West Africa in mid-November. The Hercules is notable in the industry for its extraordinary versatility for performing diverse projects in deepwater, intermediate, and relatively shallow water depths. The vessel is able to install various size pipelines in water depths to 10,000 ft. (3,000 meters) and trunklines up to 60 inches in diameter. The vessel is capable of installing pipelines utilizing conventional or reeled methods of pipelay. It is also equipped with a 2,000-ton capacity derrick crane for installation of large subsea components, conventional platforms, and large modules.
Global said it made the strategic decision to mobilize the Hercules to West Africa, one of the world's most active deepwater markets, to market it for heavy lift and pipelay projects for 2007 and beyond. Shortly after arrival, the vessel will be used to install platforms and pipelines offshore Angola and will then be available for other projects after the first of the year.
OGI Homepage I Contact Us
Well, if we are gonna get all nostalgic here, I remember on RB back in the day when we were lucky to get even a few posts. Oh how I miss the loneliness.
I think you are joking. I hope so anyway. If not, then whatever. eom
Because he's that sort a man!! Thats why. Keep posting sortman. eom
Sortman-I think the real point trying to be made is that Blk 4 is worth many multiples of .21. The Chinese purchase of 45% of the Apko fiels for $2.5 Billion is probably a better comp to be used.
Loneguardian-EEZ, erhc has 2 free 100% blks and 2 paid 15% blks. eom
EEZ is going to be a battle. Thats for sure. IMO, even if there is a buy-out of some sort at some point in time, I bet the sale won't include the EEZ and erhc might even survive with that as its remaining asset. Or not. lol
Hi Spec--JDZ as opposed to what? JDZ only thing erhc related in play now. Obviously EEZ way down the rd.
And there chocolate tastes like crap. eom
Belgian chocolate always seems to give me a "Bulge". eom
I'll go with blk 4. eom
Because these reports are only discussing blk 1. Seems obvious enough, right?
Oil platform off Angolan waters testifies to Africa's growing importance
The Associated Press
Published: October 12, 2006
ABOARD THE BENGUELA BELIZE PLATFORM, Angola The behemoth rises from the Atlantic Ocean seabed, testament to Africa's growing importance to an energy-hungry world fearful of its dependence on the explosive Middle East, and to Angola's growing importance within Africa.
Chevron Corp.'s US$2.3 billion Benguela Belize platform, dwarfing the Statue of Liberty at 1,680 feet (512 meters), is the third such tower built in the world. It is the first outside of the Gulf of Mexico, and an innovation in Africa's Gulf of Guinea, where floating platforms long have held sway. Drilling some months ago drew the first crude into the structure.
"Within a few years, analysts reckon Nigeria (Africa's biggest oil producer) will be playing catch-up with Angola" in deep-water production, Petroleum Economist magazine says in its latest edition.
Angola's oil output is projected to surpass 2 million barrels a day next year and increase by 90 percent from 2005 levels by 2010, according to conservative estimates of the International Monetary Fund. It says that would double Angolan government revenues, even allowing for a price drop. Chevron produces just over 500,000 barrels a day and plans to double production in the next five years.
Angola offers stability despite a 30-year civil war and a continuing low-level conflict by separatists in the Cabinda enclave, where the vast majority of its oil is produced. The recent signing of a peace pact with one separatist faction coincided with deployments of more government troops in the enclave, where human rights activists say the government is trying to suppress them.
The Gulf of Guinea — if you look at a map of the continent picture a face, it's the area at the back of the neck — encompasses waters from all of sub-Saharan Africa's oil producers except South Africa and is a magnet for investment where competition for influence is fierce between European, U.S., Chinese, Indian and other Asian interests.
This year, Angola overtook Saudi Arabia as the leading source of crude oil for China. China's president and prime minister visited Africa this year, as did the leaders of Russia, Iran, Bolivia and Venezuela.
In just a matter of years, said Jim Blackwell, the Angola-based managing director of Chevron's southern Africa operations, "Africa has become an important part of the world's oil supply, drawing more focus from governments like the United States and China."
Chevron was the first company to produce oil in Angola, starting in 1957. Production grew despite the civil war that erupted after independence from Portugal in 1975 and ended in 2002.
Today, Chevron's sprawling seaside operation at Malongo, a fenced enclave within the enclave of Cabinda that includes massive oil storage tanks, an aging dock, staff housing and greenhouses, is protected by land mines. Alan A. Kleier, an American who is general manager of Chevron operations for Southern Africa, said Chevron was negotiating with the government, which laid the mines, to find other means to protect the property. Cabinda is hedged in between the two Congos and shares no border with Angola.
While Nigerian militants and others in Africa complain that oil companies import staff to do work that could be given to locals, in Angola Chevron boasts that 88 percent of its 6,000 employees are nationals — a percentage the company surpasses only in the United States and Europe.
"Of all the places I have worked in around the world, this is one of the most stable settings," said Blackwell, who's worked in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Nigeria. Angolan officials "drive a hard bargain but once you strike a deal with them, they do stick to it," he said.
That would give Angola points over Chad, Africa's newest oil producer, which last month threatened to expel Chevron and Exxon Mobil Corp. in a dispute over payments that led to renegotiating a contract drawn up in 2000.
Still, the World Economic Forum last month put Angola at the bottom of a list of 125 countries in a poll measuring business competitiveness. It examined issues such as judicial independence, property rights, government favoritism and corruption. Angola ended up below corrupt and crime-riddled Nigeria, which ranked 101.
Human rights groups charge Angolan officials are hiding oil revenues, making it impossible to know whether money is being stolen or wasted. Opposition politicians complained last month when the government announced it was revising its budget calculations, based on the price it receives for a barrel of oil, from $45 to $56, which they said was way below what oil companies actually are paying. Oil has been hovering around US$60 a barrel, and producers are considering cutting output because they see prices as depressed.
Chevron officials said their contracts prohibit them from saying how much they pay the government — a restriction that has hampered years of efforts to bring oil revenues out into the open in countries like Angola and Nigeria, which earn billions from petroleum but whose people live in misery.
Angolan officials argue that they are struggling to turn around a nation nearly destroyed by war. One in four Angolan children does not live beyond five years, and those who survive die by 40. Most Angolans live on less than $2 a day.
By conservative estimates, Angola earned US$8 billion from oil last year and has a population of just 14.5 million in an area twice the size of Texas and five times the size of the United Kingdom.
"The government is getting huge windfalls. Though no one really knows how much they are getting, it's a huge amount that properly dealt with would pay for a proper poverty reduction program," said Sarah Wilkes of Global Witness, which is campaigning for transparency about oil revenues around the world.
The government says it is reforming. A Chevron official pointed a reporter to the Ministry of Finance Web site, where oil figures supposedly are published, but it had outdated material and a link promising a diagnostic study of the oil sector came up blank.
Back at the new platform, at a US$300-million console equipped with two joysticks, a young man who looks like he'd be more at home playing video games controls the drilling.
With parts constructed in Angola, Korea, Europe and the United States, the platform was put together on site in just six weeks — ahead of schedule and under budget at a saving of $230 million compared to building a floating rig.
The cutting-edge technology could be transforming the way oil is produced in Africa — but is unimaginable to the majority of Angolans.
___
On the Net:
http://www.chevron.com/operations/africa/angola.asp Chevron's operations in Angola
http://www.nexus.ao/angola/index.cfm Official Angolan news and information
http://www.minfin.gv.ao Angola's Finance Ministry site
ABOARD THE BENGUELA BELIZE PLATFORM, Angola The behemoth rises from the Atlantic Ocean seabed, testament to Africa's growing importance to an energy-hungry world fearful of its dependence on the explosive Middle East, and to Angola's growing importance within Africa.
Chevron Corp.'s US$2.3 billion Benguela Belize platform, dwarfing the Statue of Liberty at 1,680 feet (512 meters), is the third such tower built in the world. It is the first outside of the Gulf of Mexico, and an innovation in Africa's Gulf of Guinea, where floating platforms long have held sway. Drilling some months ago drew the first crude into the structure.
"Within a few years, analysts reckon Nigeria (Africa's biggest oil producer) will be playing catch-up with Angola" in deep-water production, Petroleum Economist magazine says in its latest edition.
Angola's oil output is projected to surpass 2 million barrels a day next year and increase by 90 percent from 2005 levels by 2010, according to conservative estimates of the International Monetary Fund. It says that would double Angolan government revenues, even allowing for a price drop. Chevron produces just over 500,000 barrels a day and plans to double production in the next five years.
Angola offers stability despite a 30-year civil war and a continuing low-level conflict by separatists in the Cabinda enclave, where the vast majority of its oil is produced. The recent signing of a peace pact with one separatist faction coincided with deployments of more government troops in the enclave, where human rights activists say the government is trying to suppress them.
The Gulf of Guinea — if you look at a map of the continent picture a face, it's the area at the back of the neck — encompasses waters from all of sub-Saharan Africa's oil producers except South Africa and is a magnet for investment where competition for influence is fierce between European, U.S., Chinese, Indian and other Asian interests.
This year, Angola overtook Saudi Arabia as the leading source of crude oil for China. China's president and prime minister visited Africa this year, as did the leaders of Russia, Iran, Bolivia and Venezuela.
In just a matter of years, said Jim Blackwell, the Angola-based managing director of Chevron's southern Africa operations, "Africa has become an important part of the world's oil supply, drawing more focus from governments like the United States and China."
Chevron was the first company to produce oil in Angola, starting in 1957. Production grew despite the civil war that erupted after independence from Portugal in 1975 and ended in 2002.
Today, Chevron's sprawling seaside operation at Malongo, a fenced enclave within the enclave of Cabinda that includes massive oil storage tanks, an aging dock, staff housing and greenhouses, is protected by land mines. Alan A. Kleier, an American who is general manager of Chevron operations for Southern Africa, said Chevron was negotiating with the government, which laid the mines, to find other means to protect the property. Cabinda is hedged in between the two Congos and shares no border with Angola.
While Nigerian militants and others in Africa complain that oil companies import staff to do work that could be given to locals, in Angola Chevron boasts that 88 percent of its 6,000 employees are nationals — a percentage the company surpasses only in the United States and Europe.
"Of all the places I have worked in around the world, this is one of the most stable settings," said Blackwell, who's worked in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Nigeria. Angolan officials "drive a hard bargain but once you strike a deal with them, they do stick to it," he said.
That would give Angola points over Chad, Africa's newest oil producer, which last month threatened to expel Chevron and Exxon Mobil Corp. in a dispute over payments that led to renegotiating a contract drawn up in 2000.
Still, the World Economic Forum last month put Angola at the bottom of a list of 125 countries in a poll measuring business competitiveness. It examined issues such as judicial independence, property rights, government favoritism and corruption. Angola ended up below corrupt and crime-riddled Nigeria, which ranked 101.
Human rights groups charge Angolan officials are hiding oil revenues, making it impossible to know whether money is being stolen or wasted. Opposition politicians complained last month when the government announced it was revising its budget calculations, based on the price it receives for a barrel of oil, from $45 to $56, which they said was way below what oil companies actually are paying. Oil has been hovering around US$60 a barrel, and producers are considering cutting output because they see prices as depressed.
Chevron officials said their contracts prohibit them from saying how much they pay the government — a restriction that has hampered years of efforts to bring oil revenues out into the open in countries like Angola and Nigeria, which earn billions from petroleum but whose people live in misery.
Angolan officials argue that they are struggling to turn around a nation nearly destroyed by war. One in four Angolan children does not live beyond five years, and those who survive die by 40. Most Angolans live on less than $2 a day.
By conservative estimates, Angola earned US$8 billion from oil last year and has a population of just 14.5 million in an area twice the size of Texas and five times the size of the United Kingdom.
"The government is getting huge windfalls. Though no one really knows how much they are getting, it's a huge amount that properly dealt with would pay for a proper poverty reduction program," said Sarah Wilkes of Global Witness, which is campaigning for transparency about oil revenues around the world.
The government says it is reforming. A Chevron official pointed a reporter to the Ministry of Finance Web site, where oil figures supposedly are published, but it had outdated material and a link promising a diagnostic study of the oil sector came up blank.
Back at the new platform, at a US$300-million console equipped with two joysticks, a young man who looks like he'd be more at home playing video games controls the drilling.
With parts constructed in Angola, Korea, Europe and the United States, the platform was put together on site in just six weeks — ahead of schedule and under budget at a saving of $230 million compared to building a floating rig.
The cutting-edge technology could be transforming the way oil is produced in Africa — but is unimaginable to the majority of Angolans.
___
On the Net:
NO Art-Not concluded within 5 yrs. Action only must commence within 5 yrs. eom
NWTF--I think you are so off base on your description. Certainly Offor isn't perfect, but how can you not give him credit for getting this tiny co this far? So what if he is giving himself a great deal-doesn't he deserve it? And come on, you don'y think erhc has been a minnow swimming in the water with sharks? Of course he stood up to the majors. Come on-give atleast SOME credit where credit is due.
Thanks Dig-I still should have paid more attention in school. eom
So cvx or doj is the scorpion and the other is the frog? Meaning cvx and the doj will destroy rachother and erhc will survive? I really should have paid more attention in school.
Not posted yet Rocky. Good one. Thanks!!! EOM
Oilphant-the "ides" is SUNDAY.
OT-They don't hang you until the fine is paid. I hear the penalties and interest alone can kill you.
Trytoy-makes sense-but Offor in negotiating a buy-in/out w/thos partners who gave us a free carry, would most certainly factor all that in to the equation in coming up with a price.
Johnny-Inside transactions must be reported to SEC. Check out Edgar I would suggest.
Fishdog--You could always share some of your evidence, even if it might br hearsay. LOL
Art-no. eom
Hi Kobi-over at PT if you get a chance. eom
Good job Hoehne888 eom.
lmao. eom
Agree Spec and very gracious of you but there was a bit more to it than that. A lot of venting going on. Pressure on peoples psychi's (never had to try to spell that word before)is reaching critical mass.
Mark-with all due repect, your response is ridiculous. I was responding to why some are so nervous and what has been expressed to me. I don't believe it to be the case!! Please try to contain your self from the need to respond-its not necessary.
Texas-Thank you for your post. I think there is a fear among many of the shareholders of ERHC that they can some how get pushed out of the picture and lose their investment. Some people have verbalized it better than others but some are simply worried that SEO somehow will take adavantage of the commoners for his own benefit. I also think that many feel that the big boys who want ERHC care even less about the regular shareholders of ERHC (and this is probably true).
Aside from a lack of info given to us, I really haven't seen any truth to this but I know it is in the back of many peoples minds. There-I said it.
scary stuff, but even if true could just be an exercise or something. Doubt anything bad happening as things would be a bit more tense and there would be more news if something bad was going on.
Littlebit-where did you hear that? eom
you and a few hundred other people. lol eom
Never Mind. saw you have been here since 2005
Hey Paul. Are you a new investor to ERHC?eom
We really don't even know if they met this past weekend. eom
Or a Boston Whaler. lol eom
TRYOTY: Did you read the last line of my post? "...so long as shareholder value is maximized"
He already stated, I think, that he was intro'd to the stock by PN.
Fascinating Captain. Fascinating. EOM