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I can't find an exact date, but First Alantic was one of four banks merged into the First Inland Bank. The timing is sometime in the late 2009 early 2010 time frame.
Thge bank enforcement activity hit the news in August of 2009, the news said it was a 2.6 billion niara or 1.6 british pound cleenup.
200 of the whos who in Nigeria had their names published, including Offor, as deadbeats who weren't paying their loans, many were bank directors, also like Offor. Their central bank regulator was taking all of them to court to force them to pay up.
First Alantic's shares were taken by the Nigerian version of the FDIC, maybe even the whole bank, several were at the same time. The had their own version of the banking crisis and the regulators stepped in on a half dozen to a dozen banks.
Krom, First Alantic lost the shares to the Nigerian version of the FDIC during the bank enforcement actions. If this Nigerian FDIC thinks the stock is going up they would be unwilling to sell it back to Offor at anything but a premium, I think the bank valued it at .40 when they took it from Offor. If Offor can convince them that he can hold the price down as long as he wants they may let their price drop.
We don't know, again what Offor is offering them for the shares or what they are asking, but if they want $1.00 instead of $.40 we would be talking 60m x .60 or a 36Mil difference. It may also be Offor wanting to get the best of someone who publically insulted him over the loan in the first place, I can only guess at his motivation.
Troy, what we see as incompetent may be exactly what Offor wants done. I, in my own opinion believe there is a reason to keep the share price down. The private placement may not have accidential but a planned push to keep the share price down. Just my tin foil hat wearing personality but I keep going back to the 8% of the stock Offor gave up to the bank, now held by the Nigerian version of the FDIC.
If Offor is trying to buy that back, he certainly does not want the share price to go up, till after he has completed his deal.
...but he has watched lots of football!
DG, I think you are correct in the "hurried through drilling" idea being off base. All the wells in block 3 & 4 were drilled by a state of the art drill ship with all the instrumentation any geologist could dream of. I believe the analysis of the data SNP recorded was more of a problem. SNP had not done any deep water wells before these, nor had Addax. Coupled with high pressure and tempature the analysis must have given SNP a chalange and sent them after new talent for their teams. Total took over Akpo from another company who did not have the expertise to develop it. SNP may want to access some of that talent now or may have already. They may also be playing games where SNP is telling Total we'll show you ours if you show us yours, about drilling results and plans for next phase.
Total has two drill ships at Egina and plans on a new FPSO for that development, they also have a gas pipeline to a LNG facility in OML 130 right next door to block 1 & 2, the value of these things to the JDZ may be part of what is being barganed & planned with the JDA.
JMHO, but anything other than SNP deciding to not go forward and voluntarialy releasing its position would cause major arbitration & tie up blocks 2, 3 & 4 for years.
DG, our reports were that SNP was willing to commit to phase 2 6 months ago, they just weren't ready to report phase 1 results. Maybe SNP does not want to release their block 2-4 info and help Total in block 1 until they reach some agreement.
Gandur talked of the whole JDZ being one development not separate. If so SNP may not be willing to give Total any of their pieces of the puzzel without some area wide development agreement.
There is also block 5 & 6 arbitration, maybe as part of the deal for phase 2 SNP wants the JDA to agree SNP has rights to 5 & 6 and award them operatorship - cheep
JMHO, but if SNP droped out as operator the whole agreement would have to be redone and there would be no gurantee of a "free carry" on exploration or development cost.
Does anyone else see differently?
BAZ, the way I understand it is the operator has to get all the minor players to agree with their plan then negoate with the JDA, which could cause some back and forth dicussions. We heard some were grumbeling about the third block 4 well in the phase I drilling. With the minimum commitment being 16 million there may be some discussion about doing some more seismic instead of a well in some of the blocks.
I may be missunderstanding this set up and someone should correct me if I am wrong.
TOB, the whole development seem to have been engineered, the FPSO was ordered in mid 2005 and delivered in January of 2007. The Deepwater Discovery started drilling wells in 2006, total planned on 2000 rig days of drilling and added the Jack Ryan drillship in 2007 for 44 wells. YThe materials casings, manifolds risers etc was staged to arrive as the wells were drilled.
AKPO was originally started with test wells in 2000. In 2005 they ordered the FSPO and developed the plan to get where they are today. So they spent at least four years figuring out how they were going to develop the field, another five years were necessary to get to production. they had two drill ships working on 42, maybe down to 41 production and injection wells from 2009 to 2010. I think they are now, in 2011 at planned production.
What we have going for us is that the high pressure and tempature reported about the JDZ is the same as AKPO, and Egina & Egina South. Total has done this before and is doing it now next to block 2 in the JDZ. Total is the operator in block one. They have infastructure at AKPO and being extended to Egina. It makes sense for them to buy into development of the JDZ. It just may take some time to make all the agreements necessary, AKPO is CNOOC not SNP and currently Total dosen't own any of block 2, 3 & 4. Lots of deals to work out.
emdyal, I do believe the stock price is being held down for someone's purpose. I think that Offor, according to rumor wants the 8% of the ERHE stock he used to pay the bank back. That 8% represents about 15% of Offors investment & eventual profits. By holding the stock price down he can convince the Nigerian version of the FDIC who has it now to sell to him and maybe at less than the price he traded it for.
I believe he will recover this stock before there are any buyouts or other deals. I believe Ntephe will do as many placements as necessary to keep the price down, untill they out last the Nigerian bank regulators
They may be, I have seen articles on Chrome and Seacrest that say who they think some/all of the silent partners are. I don't know that anyone knows for sure except SEO. Remember SEO had a pipeline subsidary that was banned by one of the Nigerian gov't agencies, it just disapeared without making any payback on the problem project, the same can happen with any other controled business. I think SEO keeps some of his entities without gray areas that might cause problems.
SEO is rumored to be the ultimate front man. There are suppose to be other owners in all his enterprises. The reason he would use ERHE is because the silent partners in Chrome, Godsonic or Seacrest are not involved in this investment. Also the entity involved would be protected from any direct effect of the transactions.
We have a "free cary" in block 2, 3 &4 Peter has never made a payment on our share of any development & as yet Peter has not closed on any diversification investments that might require our paying our share
Umbra, our problem is we assume we know what progress is. We don't know what SEO wants to accomplish & Peter does. Peter is accomplishing exactly what SEO wants - that's why he was rewarded with a board position and his salary. We just arn't party to the plan - someday it may all come clear to us and we'll say why didn't I see that before. SEO has something in mind & Peter is there to help him accomplish it
Seek, I believe that the SEC rules and exposure to legal liability in this case there would be a offer for all the shares, Offor's and the minority shareholders. Of course, if I were making a offer I would be sure it was something Offor would agree to before aproaching the Board with a formal offer.
Seek-the-lights posting about Tullows drilling program says that Royal Dutch Shell and Total are fronting most the exploration money - which could leave Tullow with more in their budget for EEZ participation.
JMHO, I think it might be the chinese - they have wanted to "buy" as much as half the nigerian production when it was up for lease renewal. With it being Offor's ERHE and Blair they have two entities they know. They could finance with cheap dollars and be paid off in oil, which is what they want anyway.
Lately, I have had the strange idea that the JDZ drilling is a test. The chinese have been testing ERHE to see how closely they follow instructions & how tightly they can keep their mouths closed when told to.
Ponzi, it took Total 4 1/2 years to design the development plan for Akpo after they decided it was a commercial discovery. We don't know what SNP has discovered in the JDZ because they haven't told us. So far only hints & no knowledge of what their plan is.
I don't think they would have taken eighteen months to decide to pull out. Phase 2 commitment is only $16,000,000 per block - a lot of money to me but not to SNP who payed 7.5 billion for Addax. If Total gets involved they have two drill ships working at Egina right next to block 2
My understanding is that the JDZ is goverened by a treaty for just the JDZ. It is not effected by the new nigerian law, which is effective for Nigeria and its controled costal waters.
Ponzi, I have read the filings and I don't find the word "duster" associated with any of the five wells drilled.
Ponzi, it doesn't take a year to determine a duster is a duster. The amount of effort and the extensions show they found more that dust. They just haven't shared the knowledge of what was found with us.
I have been an investor in a duster on land and they knew the day after they completed drilling it was a duster, no need to study it for more than a year to know what we got.
rigmyster, please inform the board how any stalling will recover money the chinese used to drill test wells. Also, I am very interested in how ERHE lost any money and is going to get it back from us shareholders - are we talking the 4,000,000 in admin money they burn through each year? If so how are they getting it back from us.
Offor has other partners and investors in many, if not all of his investments. Keeping who's money is who's, especially when you are not admitting who the other investors are, or if they even exist must be a omplex task. multiple entities with separate books and interests would make a lot of sence.
majic, JMHO, I have seen several news stories that have said Offor is fronting for different people in Nigeria, Starquest is one example, he is suppose to have two silent partners in it. There is suppose to be someone else involved in Chrome. I think these other companies are set up because of different ownership & partners in different deals. I think we see what they want the public to.
I also think , if we knew what was going on behind the scene, this whole setup would make more sence. Of course I believe in all the conspiracy theories related to this investment, thats why I wear my tin-foil hat.
I think the problem is we don't know Offors plan. Everything may be working exactly as he wants it to. We just don't know where he is headed and why somethings are done like they are, if he wern't happy with the way things have gone you can bet Peter would be on the chopping block, we just don't know what he is doing or why.
Also, remember the loan the Chinese made to Brazil. That loan is being paid back in oil. They might be willing to finance OML 40 purchase for gurantee they will be able to buy the oil produced. They did try and buy about 1/3 of nigeria's production about 1.5 years ago and were unsucessful. This would be a way to lock in the oil with a partner who had already proven they would follow any instructions they are given.
duplicate post
Isn't the ERHE office in Ajubia(sp?) and Port Harcort located in of ajacent to Chrome facilities?
Chrome has a Lagos office
I agree, when the SEC is watching inocent comments are taken in a new light - one with a very suspecious viewer
sometimes admitting you can't answer is also a answer
Check me Yankee Mike but isn't the phase two commitment 16,000,000 per block?
I believe that the operator has to give up acreage when they either go to phase two or finish phase two. I am not sure which is correct. I would want to be sure before I gave up any acreage that I was keeping the best prospects & the most oil.
Badog, there was a report fron Chevrons Nigeria manager several months ago where he stated that the reason OBO-1 was non comercial was the infastructural costs of getting one blocks oil to market.
Total has already built the infastructure for getting Akpo and Eugina to market, using this infastructre for the JDZ makes the return on all investments higher & more likely to be expanded by the current OML 130 partners.
Total recently anounced new technology that makes it easier to unite several widely spread developments into one structure, sounds like the JDZ/OML 130 area to me.
I also believe in phase 2, they have to give up acreage, check me on this Yankee Mike. SNP does not want to release any acreage that might make someone else wealthy, or more important have oil.
Remember in all this that SNP is not a normal oil company. Exxon wants to find oil as cheap as possiable , develop it also as cheaply as possiable and sell it to the highest bidder.
Snp wants to find oil to take home to China, also a cheap as possiable but they must have it & having it is more important than margin per barrell.
No one in France is freezing if Total dosen't find more oil. Two or three years ago China had a unusually harsh winter and had to shut down factories and public transit to divert the natural gas to keep peoples homes heated. The government controls energy prices and can raise them as necessary, if there is oil and gas to buy. If they put some money into Totals pocket is OK as long as they get the oil and gas.
Offor is said to be worth 6 billion, he has admitted to being worth 3 billion. This backs up the story that Offor, in Chrome is not the only player, that he is fronting for some high ranking figure & someday we may find out who for sure.
If Chrome is not his completely he may not want to put the OML 40 deal into it, just like Starcrest there may be other parties involved who have to get their share. There are two other rumored officials who have some interes/ownership of Starcrest.
I believe we will see what we are supose to see and never know the whole truth about who we may be dealing with. There are multiple layers of plans and relations we may never unravel.