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I have not really kept up with this board in quite a while. I have received my proxies for the upcoming meeting. Is there any reason to vote, and if so does this board have a position? I have owned this stock for about 7 years. I am amazed that the price is what it is now considering that the price has been higher in the past when the company seemed to have far less potential.
I haven't been in touch with this board for quite a while so am not very up to date. I have briefly scanned the last couple of days and see that some of you are going to the shareholders meeting. If there is someone who is going and would like to vote my shares, I would be willing to let one of you who is more in tune with what is going on have my proxies.
Even if EO gives up control, it would seem that he should still be interested in making "doors open" in Nigeria if he wants to see his SP increase. This could be the best of both worlds for us.
Dane, thanks. Fidelity is now showing the same. Just a glitch I guess. Good luck to all today!!!
Fidelity is showing bid at 38.5, ask at .455. Is this correct?
Mrogop, Why do you think the mm's are doing this?
NY-I think,for some, the frustration is the amount of time that intelligent people spend on the riddles, etc. IMHO, any way you cut it, if Oily has good info, there is no obvious reason he cannot post it in a manner everyone can understand. He may have good info. I don't know. He has been wrong a lot. What I do know is that he is jerking everyone's chain when he posts in riddles. I guess as long as I don't personally feel the jerk, I am okay with it. It is however fascinating to watch.
From Transocean March 10-K: We have begun the reactivation of two previously idle semisubmersibles, the Transocean Prospect and Transocean Winner, both supported by multi-year contracts, which are expected to commence by June 2006 and October 2006, respectively. We continue to evaluate contract opportunities that could result in the reactivation of our idle rigs, the semisubmersible rigs C. Kirk Rhein, Jr. and Transocean Wildcat. Should a decision be made to reactivate any of the idle units, they are not expected to be operational before the third quarter of 2006.
IF THIS HAS BEEN PREVIOUSLY POSTED "AD NAUSEUM", PLEASE GIVE ME CREDIT FOR CONTINUING TO ATTEMPT TO CONTRIBUTE SOMETHING TO YOU GUYS THAT CONTRIBUTE SO MUCH!
The last that I heard, our moderators are not being paid for their time here. If you don't like the way they are doing their job, the next time there is a shortage of moderators, offer to help. If you don't want to do that, you might take the time and effort of starting a new board.
Crazy, I just want to hear good news like we all do. I was doing searches this morning looking for anything new. I came across these articles that I have never seen before. Is it your opinion these articles are bs and have no truth. I had never heard of some of this stuff before.
Another: And think again if you don't think Offer has been indispensible
The Big Oil Scam: Obasanjo, Anenih, Emeke Offor, Others Implicated In Explosive Scandal!
BY Sunny Ofili
DATE : Sunday, 22 January 2006
President Obasanjo and some of his top political cronies have been implicated in the corruption laden oil deal between Nigeria and the small island country of Sao Tome. TON, in this exclusive report, brings you the details of corruption, bribery and intimidation. This TON exclusive rubbishes the President’s anti corruption campaign will call the credibility of the EFCC to question.
When President Olusegun Obasanjo persuaded the government of Sao Tome and Principe to settle a protracted dispute with ERHC, a little known US oil company, the Saotomean government was oblivious of the fact that ERHC was a front for highly placed Nigerian government officials including the President Obasanjo himself and of the lingering trouble that would unfold thereafter.
In May 2001, as part of an agreement mediated by the Nigerian government, Sao Tome
settled it conflict with ERHC that had just been taken over by the Houston-based Nigerian company Chrome Energy Corporation headed by self styled, Sir Ekeka Offor. The new owner, who had taken a 56% stake in ERHC, and on the advice of President Olusegun Obasanjo, withdrew the request for arbitration at the International
Chamber of Commerce, Paris, lodged by the company’s previous owners in late 1999.
ERHC contract dispute was brought to the attention of President Olusegun Obasanjo during negotiations with the government of Sao Tome and Principe on the disputed maritime boundary between both countries. President Trovoada of Sao Tome was at the leader of the negotiating team on the Sao Tome side.
Emeka Offor and Chrome reportedly had to pay millions of dollars to creditors to avoid ERHC’s bankruptcy. Consequently, ERHC/Chrome made a mysterious payment of $550,000 to Procura Financial Consultants and one STP Energy Corporation, registered in the British Virgin Islands. Chrome Energy is part of the Chrome Group, a private holding company owned by Sir Emeka Offor. Offor was a well-known ally of the late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha.
Sao Tome and Principe, a country of slightly over 130,000 inhabitants had very little to no experience in the area of oil exploration and politics. But STP was aware of the importance of reaching maritime border agreements with its neighbors in the Gulf of Guinea. After having filed its maritime boundary claims with the United Nation’s Law of the Sea Commission in New York, the respective maps were sent to the neighboring countries.
Negotiations with Equatorial Guinea commenced in October 1998. Nine months later the Presidents Trovoada and Teodoro Obiang Nguema signed an agreement on the delimitation on their countries’ maritime borders. Five of STP’s 22 deepwater blocks surveyed by Geco/Prokla were located alongside Equatorial Guinea’s territorial waters. A similar agreement with Gabon on the delimitation of the common maritime borders, based on the principle of equidistance between the two countries, was reached in April 2001.
Almost two years earlier in August 1999, a STP government delegation protested in Abuja against the Nigerian government’s decision the previous month to sell deep-sea oil blocks situated in an area claimed by Sao Tome and Principe, STP, as part of its own Exclusive Explorative Zone, EEZ. This development prompted the both countries to commence formal maritime boundary talks four months later. In April 2000 the negotiations ended without an agreement on the maritime boundaries between the two countries.
The main obstacle to reaching an agreement was Nigeria’s refusal to accept Sao Tome’s proposal that based the boundary on equidistance between the continent and the islands. However, faced with the possibility of a prolonged legal conflict with Nigeria, the Santomeans sought a viable compromise settlement.
It was this desire by the government of Sao Tome and Principe to avoid a lengthy legal process to could end up costing the country a lot of money that the government decided to reach an amicable settlement with Nigeria on terms deemed by third parties as completely detrimental to Sao Tome and Principe and very favorable to Nigeria.
Also, it was during this period that Nigeria’s President Obasanjo introduced Sir Emeka Offor to the President of Sao Tome as “The man who will help the country settle its dispute with ERHC.” Obasanjo new that the ERHC was in financial trouble and, was facing possible bankruptcy, based on information provided by the government of Sao Tome and Principe. Emeka Offor was asked to approach officials at ERHC through his oil concern, Chrome, which was already doing very lucrative contracts in the downstream section of the Nigerian Oil industry. Offor won the lucrative contract Turn Around Maintenance, TAM, contract to service Nigeria’s refineries which were almost in unserviceable state when President Obasanjo took over power from Abdulsalami Abubakar in 1999.
Under the agreement, Nigeria received 60% of the profit of the common zone and STP 40%, and they shared the costs of operation in the same proportions. Following several other negotiation rounds, Foreign Ministers Rafael Branco of STP and Dubem Onyia of Nigeria finally signed a 45-year treaty on 21 February 2001 that created a 28,000 sq. km large Joint Development Zone (JDZ) that was to be managed by a Joint Development Authority (JDA) based in Abuja. The Authority’s board consists of four executive directors, two from each country, to be appointed by the respective head of state for a renewable period of six years.
The JDA reports to a Joint Ministerial Council (JMC) comprised of four ministers from each country. The JMC has the overall responsibility for all matters concerning the JDZ. In January 2002 Presidents Obasanjo Nigeria and Menezes of STP inaugurated the JDA office in Abuja. Flávio Pires Dos Santos, former chairman of STP’s National Oil Commission became executive director of the JDA’s Non-Hydrocarbon Resources Department, while Luís Alberto Prazeres, the country’s first minister of National Resources (1999-2001) was appointed executive director of the Commercial and Investment Department.
The Nigerian Taju Umar became executive director of the Monitoring and Inspections Department and Chairman of the JDA, and Carlos Gomes, the former head of STPetro, became deputy director of Monitoring and Inspections. Nigeria advanced $8 million for the first year of operations. Only in February 2004, however, did the JDA officially open a local branch office in São Tomé.
Although lawyers advised against a settlement, because they thought that STP could
win the arbitration, President Obasanjo persuaded the government of Sao Tome and Principe to settle the case privately by withdrawing the arbitration The Santomean negotiation team included Foreign Minister Rafael Branco and Trovoada’s son Patrice, the president’s economic advisor who was rumored to have many personal contacts in Nigeria.
In addition, Chrome had boasted that its president, Sir Emeka Offor would ask President Obasanjo not to ratify the treaty on the JDZ, and would resort to international law to confiscate STP’s assets abroad and impede oil exploration in STP for many years. STP subsequently abandoned arbitration and the government allowed ERHC/Chrome far-reaching financial advantages within the JDZ, including a 15% working interest in two blocks of ERHC/Chrome’s choice, a 5% share in signature bonuses and a 10% share of profit oil, and a 1.5% over-riding royalty interest in production.
In addition, ERHC/Chrome received two blocks of its choice in the EEZ without paying a signature bonus, and the option to acquire a 15% working interest in another two blocks of its choice. ERHC/Chrome assigned its 49% stake in STPetro to STP and, consequently, relinquished its rights to acquire, as STPetro, four blocks within the EEZ. This new 25-year agreement with ERHC/Chrome replaced the one signed in 1997 and was contingent on the ratification of the treaty on the JDZ by the National Assembly in São Tomé. The Nigerian Foreign Minister Dubem Onyia witnessed the signing of the agreement in May 2001.
Emeka Offor’s threat to block the country from signing a treaty with Nigeria thereby scuttling the country’s ability to start oil exploration was not an empty threat. Indeed, in a meeting the president of Sao Tome in 2001, Chief Dubem Oyia, Nigeria’s then foreign minister, made it very clear during negotiations that Nigeria signing a treaty with Sao Tome was “Contingent on an amicable settlement” with Emeka Offor’s ERHC/Chrome. “Your officials made it very clear that they will not sign a deal with us without Chrome. President Obasanjo came here several times in the company of Offor.” A highly placed government functionary who was part of the negotiating team from Sao Tome told TheTimesOfNigeria.com.
President Menezes of Sao Tome having been told blankly that he has no choice but to deal with Emeka Offor and his Chrome Oil, resigned himself and his tiny country to fate. However, things took a different trend when the United States began to show interest in the treaty signed by Nigeria and Sao Tome. Under the prompting of the United States, the government of the President Menezes contacted a United States law firm and asked it to help investigate the contract.
In May 2002, While President Menezes was in the United States to participate in the UN Children’s Summit, he received a copy of the American lawyers’ analysis of the oil agreements. Back in Sao Tome, on the 24th of May, during a press conference, Menezes
publicly demanded the renegotiation of all oil agreements signed by various governments with ERHC/Chrome, Exxon Mobil, Nigeria, and PGS. Based on the lawyers’ analysis, the head of state argued that the agreements contained grave errors and their terms were extremely unfavorable to his country. He also blamed the STP advisors and lawyers who had participated in the negotiations for the prejudicial terms of the contracts.
Menezes attributed the anomalies detected by American the lawyers to a lack of experience of the country’s negotiators. This critique was also directed at former president Miguel Trovoada and his son Patrice, Rafael Branco and Posser da Costa, who had negotiated or signed the contracts, though at the time Menezes had been a deputy for the ADI in parliament and did not raise any doubts about the treaties. Menezes had also reacted in response to demands by the IMF, who in February 2002 had urged the government of Sao Tome to take action following the results of the analysis of the agreement signed with EHRC/Chrome.
The Nigerian government was baffled at the turn of events and threatened that it will make difficult for Sao Tome to start oil exploration should the Island country renege on its agreements with Nigeria and Chrome. With the support of the United States government solidly behind him, President Menezes called Nigeria’s bluff and demanded that the contracts be renegotiated. President Obasanjo was said to have been incensed.
As a way to sweeten the deal and pacify President Menezes, President Obasanjo had made some concessions to Sao Tome. Nigeria had promised to supply 60,000 barrels of oil daily to Sao Tome. Nigeria also promised scholarships to citizens of Sao Tome to study in the United States and the United Kingdom. This concession was added as a memorandum to the JDZ treaty between both countries. The official reason given for the amendment t was the need to compensate Sao Tome for Nigeria’s sole exploration of block 246 which Sao Tome insisted is part of the JDZ but, Nigeria wants sole rights of this block because of the large amount of deposits on it. TheTimesOfNigeria.com has it on good authority that these concession was done to placate the Sao Tomean government on Nigeria’s insistence on Chrome and Emeka Offor as major players in the JDZ.
When the promised 60,000 barrels of daily oil supply and scholarships failed to materialize in good time, President Menezes sent a Santomean delegation to Abuja headed by Rafael Branco, the minister of natural resources for talks with Abuja. On his return from Nigeria, Branco told President Menezes that that before defining the quantity of crude, the modalities of supply had to be discussed. With regard to the promised scholarships, he declared that in September the first students could leave for Nigerian and other universities abroad. This was the commitment he was able to pry way from Abuja.
However, President Menezes refused to by pacified by the concessions. Again, he publicly demanded that the contracts and treaty be renegotiated with particular reference to Chrome’s sweet deal.
President Obasanjo was enraged. He summoned his inner caucus and officials at the Nigerian National Petroleum Commission and instructed them to look into ways out of the quagmire.
In June 3, 2002, President Obasanjo flew to Sao Tome along with his trusted officials for a three-hour discussion aimed at reconciling the parties. Sir Emeka Offor of Chrome was present at the meeting. President Menezes’ protocol officials were reportedly angry when Offor arrived with Obasanjo because the meeting supposed to be a private one between the two presidents. After some bickering, Emeka Offor was allowed into the meeting. A highly placed government official who was present at the meeting told TheTimesOfNigeria.com that President Menezes restated his country’s position on the need to renegotiate all the oil contracts and the treaty between both countries.
Again, President Obasanjo sought to make additional concessions to Sao Tome. He promised the advance payment of $5 million for signature bonuses, at the time estimated at $120 million and to help solve the question concerning the daily supply of 60,000 barrels. In July, Nigeria paid the sum $5 million to Sao Tome, however, the question of crude supplies remained unsolved.
Again, President Obasanjo’s promise went unfulfilled.
In September of that year, at the UN Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg, President Obasanjo again promised President Menezes 10,000 barrels of crude per day in compensation for Block 246, only 1/6 of the quantity initially promised. The following month, the Nigerian ambassador to São Tomé, Saidu Pindar, confirmed to Menezes that the supply would be 10,000 barrels per day. The diplomat asserted that this quantity had been fixed in a Memorandum of Understanding signed by both countries on September 25, 2002. Yet two weeks later Minister Branco complained that Nigeria had not fulfilled any provision of the memorandum, although the first oil supplies had been promised for mid-January 2002 when the JDA office was inaugurated.
In early November Menezes assured Obasanjo in a letter that, despite certain misinformation, his country was fully committed to the implementation of the JDZ treaty in every detail. Then he asked if Nigeria was equally committed to the implementation of the treaty including the
promises of the memorandum that he described as an integral part of the agreement.
Unknown to President Obasanjo and the Nigerian officials involved in the negotiation is the fact that President Menezes has made up his mind not to go on with the contracts. To help scuttle the contract, he had invited two high-profile American lawyers Greg Craig and Michael O’Connor of the Washington, D.C. based firm William & Connolly visited São Tomé for two weeks at the invitation of President Menezes, to check all oil agreements. While on the island they met regularly with Menezes to discuss their assessment.
The two lawyers came to the same conclusion as their colleagues: the agreements were detrimental to the country’s national interests. Former US congressman Joseph P.Kennedy, the head of Citizens Energy Corporation, had got Craig, who had been President Clinton’s lawyer during the Monica Lewinsky affair, in touch with Menezes.18 At the same time, in an attempt to polish up their image, ERHC/Chrome hired former Chevron Texaco vice-president Richard Matzke as a special advisor.
In September 2002, President Menezes met with President Bush and then attended the annually UN General Assembly in New York. Officials’ privy to the outcome of the meeting told TheTimesOfNigeria.com that President Bush promised to support Sao Tome in the event of any dispute with Nigeria over the disputed oil contracts. He even promised to establish a military base in the Island country. When Nigeria learned of the intention of the United States government to establish a military base in Sao Tome, when President Bush inadvertently mentioned it in an unwritten speech, President Obasanjo saw it a slide on Nigeria and protested to the United States. The military base has been on hold since then. The initial plan was to have the troops and equipment on the ground announcing it to the public.
While in New York, and encouraged by the conclusions of the American lawyers,
President Menezes wrote to ERHC/Chrome owned by Emeka Offor that his country would not go ahead with the agreement of May 2001 since it was ‘so terribly one-sided as to be unconscionable and unenforceable’. Nevertheless, Menezes indicated that he was open to renegotiation of the agreement. Four days later the company replied by disputing Menezes’ statement and claimed that as head of state he had no legal authority to cancel any contract since he was non-executive under his country’s semi-presidential Constitution.
ERHC/Chrome stressed that its rights in the JDZ could only be discussed by the JDA and vowed to vigorously defend its rights in the agreement in all international jurisdictions. The following month, ERHC/Chrome filed brief in Washington requesting a US commitment to support the company in any such dispute. At the same time, ERHC/Chrome president Chude Mba arranged to meet President Menezes to discuss a possible compromise. Meanwhile, Menezes threatened that his country would resort to the International courts if the renegotiations with the Nigerian should fail.
In November of 2002, exactly one week after Menezes’s letter to Obasanjo demanding the promised compensations for Block 246, the Nigerian government decided to suspend
the long scheduled licensing round for the first nine blocks in the JDZ until Sao Tome clarified the contentious issues with third parties. The third party of interest to Nigeria was mainly Emeka Offor and his Chrome. Nigeria insisted that only after a resolution of these problems would the licensing round go ahead.
Finally, in March of 2003, Emeka Offor’s ERHC/Chrome relinquished its earlier rights to an over-riding royalty interest, a share of signature bonuses and a share of profit in the JDZ. Under the new agreement, ERHC/Chrome increased its rights to participate in the JDZ from a total of a 30% working interest in two blocks to a total of 125% working interest spread over six blocks, ranging from 15% to 30% each. In addition, Chrome was freed from paying signature bonuses on four of the blocks. Although the previous agreement remained essentially intact, the government saw no alternative, since the Nigerian government had threatened to paralyze the licensing round if the agreement with Emeka Offor’s ERHC/Chrome was not respected.
The Chrome justified the excessively favorable terms on the grounds of the $12 million it had invested in the development of STP’s oil sector. STP’s chief negotiator was Rafael Branco, then minister of natural resources, who had been involved in the previous deal with the Nigerians. STP’s National Oil Commission (CNP) had an advisory role in the negotiations. One of the CNP’s members was the Foreign Minister Mateus Meira Rita, a former ERHC consultant who owned 500,000 company shares.
He had received the shares instead of his salary when ERHC had run out of cash. Two other commissions’ members had also been on ERHC’s payroll at STPetro. On April 10, 2003, the new Agreement was officially signed. Analysts also considered the new deal excessively generous to ERHC/Chrome and out of line with international oil industry practices.Potential investors criticized the deal since it compelled them to co-operate with a partner with a limited record of accomplishment in the oil industry.
To request for a copy of the full version of Attorney General’s report, send an email to editor@thetimesofnigeria.com with “Request Report” on the subject line.
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 11 April 2006 )
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Another:
http://www.africananews.com/cover/200512/emeka_offor.htm
Emeka Offor: Whose Front is He?
Written by Jonathan Elendu and Sowore Omoyele
Thursday, 01 December 2005
If he were American or European, he would be on the Forbes list of the 400 richest people in the world. He estimates his net worth at three billion dollars ($3 billion), although a recent report obtained by Elendureports.com, puts his net worth at about six billion dollars ($6 billion). This former “Julius Berger truck driver” claims to have been a former petty contractor until fortune smiled at him. He reportedly was given a nineteen million naira contract in 1983, and thus opened the gates to unimaginable wealth.
Emeka Offor
According to documents obtained by Elendureports.com, business tycoon Emeka Offor is being investigated by a branch of the American government. Another business mogul, Wahab Folawiyo, may also be under investigation. What do these two men have in common besides stupendous wealth? They are both friends of Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo. And they are both oil men.
Emeka Offor is one of the major financiers of the President’s party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In the last election cycle, he donated two hundred million naira to the Obasanjo re-election campaign. He is also reputed to have sponsored the former Governor Mbadinuju of Anambra State, some members of the National Assembly and Anambra State House of Assembly for elections in 1999. He allegedly parted ways with Gov. Mbadinuju because the Governor refused him unimpeded access to the State’s Treasury. This parting with Offor led to Mbadinuju losing the nomination of his party for re-election in 2003.
Offor owns a chain of companies including, Chrome Oil Services, African Express Bank (Afex Bank), Chrome Radio Station, Chrome Air, and Environmental Remediation Holding Company (ERHC). Chrome Air is on retainer with the Central Bank of Nigeria. Offor also sits on the board of several companies, including Niger Insurance.
Documents obtained by Elendureports.com indicate that the bulk of Offor’s business is with the Nigerian Government. These documents show that Emeka Offor may have made most of his wealth from inflated contracts and speculate that he may be laundering money for some highly-placed government officials. Existing records show that Offor was a front for the late Gen. Sanni Abacha. His first major government contracts came from the Abacha regime.
Offor’s company, Chrome Oil Services, handled the Turn-Around Maintenance (TAM) on two federal government owned refineries in Port Harcourt. Claims have been made that Nigeria may have been fleeced of at least one hundred million U.S. dollars by Chrome Oil Services. Even with all the money invested in the Turn-Around Maintenance, the two refineries have yet to perform at optimal levels. On November 23, 2004, Offor appeared before the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (downstream sector) to explain the non-completion of the TAM. He was rude and disrespectful to the committee members. They have yet to summon him since then.
The documents in our possession accuse Offor of being involved in “about 20 other serious cases of corruption, influence peddling, abuse of office, involvement in illegal acts and cover-ups, harassment and intimidation of political and business opponents, procuring law enforcement agents to act unlawfully, infringement of transparency rules and regulations of government.”
A document prepared by one of the Nigerian security agencies credits Emeka Offor, his business partner, Gidado Idris, and some others as being the people who destroyed the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) through their business practices. Their imprints are also found on the struggling National Fertilizer Company of Nigeria (NAFCON), as well as Eleme Petro-Chemical Company.
There are allegations that Offor used his closeness to Vice-President Atiku to ‘corner’ the multi-billion dollar Yola/Bauchi NEPA transmission line. He has already been paid a significant part of the contract fees as mobilization fees. Offor, in a published report, denied Atiku’s involvement in the deal. Sources at the Vice-President’s office, who spoke to Elendureports.com, told us that Atiku and Offor were not, and have never been, close friends, “Although the Vice-President introduced Offor to the President, Offor is closer to the President than Atiku. In fact I can tell you that Offor has not been close to the Vice-President since 2001, except for during the campaigns when the entire people in the VP’s campaign entourage spent a night at Offor’s country home.” The Vice-President denied having any business dealings with Offor. According to the source, “The Vice-President swore that he has never done any oil business since becoming the Vice-President.”
The said documents in Elendureports.com’s possession state that Emeka Offor and Vice President Atiku were also implicated in a recent revelation about a mysterious Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) signature fee deposit from the sale of OPL 245. Malabu Oil and Gas, a Dan Etete company, were the original owners of OPL 245, but it was later revoked by the Obasanjo Government, and later sold to SPDC. The entire OPL 245 transaction is tainted by controversy as Malabu and Etete sued the Obasanjo Government in a U.S. court for two-and-a-half billion dollars ($2.5 billion). Some interest accruing from the signature fee paid by SPDC is said to have been paid to some U.S. Congressional contacts. Emeka Offor is said to have recapitalized his bank, the Apex bank, with some of the money.
Sources also told Elendureports.com that Offor is very close to the former Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) chief, Jackson Gaius-Obaseki. Sources told us that Offor and the Vice-President met last at the President’s office. The Vice-President had gone to present documents to the President concerning Jackson Gaius-Obaseki. The said documents show that Obaseki had salted away about six hundred million dollars ($600 million) in various bank accounts. This revelation led to the President’s firing of Obaseki. However, the President refused to release the file with the documents that show the details of Obaseki’s bank accounts.
The reason the U.S. Government is investigating Offor is for a company he acquired—the Environmental Remediation Holding Corporation (ERHC); it was registered in 1986 by some Americans in Colorado. Chrome Energy, LLC (registered in Houston, TX) owns about 51.1% of ERHC. There are many allegations swirling around Offor’s involvement with this company. There have been claims by some foreign organizations that Offor’s shares in this company were donated to him as a way of enticing Nigeria into a deal with Sao Tome and Principe. Another report speculates that Offor’s shares may actually belong to the Vice-President. As stated earlier, the Vice-President denies any business involvement with Offor.
Another allegation is that the Federal Government of Nigeria arm-twisted the original owners of ERHC and Sao Tome into giving Offor the controlling shares in the company. One thing is certain: Offor’s ownership of ERHC makes him the number one player in the emerging oil industry of Sao Tome and Principe. The Offor-ERHC-Obasanjo deal was said to have incensed U.S. oil giant, ExxonMobil, as they were still carrying out seismic studies in Sao Tome.
According to documents in Elendureports.com’s possession, ERHC’s “sole asset is an oil and gas exploration concession in Sao Tome received pursuant to an agreement which became effective in July 2002. The company's focus is to exploit its only asset. The agreement with the Government of the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome & Principe concerns oil and gas exploration in Sao Tome, an island nation located in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of central West Africa, as well as in a joint development zone between Sao Tome and the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The agreement was embodied in a consent award issued by the arbitrator as a result of the satisfaction of several conditions, including the ratification of a treaty between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome & Principe.”
The company’s statement of accounts indicates that until 2003, ERHC did not have any assets, but had a debt portfolio in the millions of dollars. How did a company that is in debt up to the tune of about thirty million dollars ($30 million) and with one staff member acquire a lucrative oil deal in Sao Tome and Principe? Why did Offor buy this company and end up paying more than seventy-five percent of the company’s debts? The company’s statement of accounts for the year ended 2004 indicate that ERHC lost about four million dollars ($4,000,000.00) during the accounting period. Why did the Federal Government of Nigeria not use the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for this deal?
Perhaps the information excerpted from the documents in our possession will shed some light on this matter, “About 4 billion barrels of crude are believed to lie beneath those waters. Without a drilling rig to its name, ERHC could reap hundreds of millions of dollars from its holdings. The company was formed and run by a number of minor U.S players and was able to pay the Sao Tomeans a small sum for the contract. The contract ran into trouble when it was realized that these prospective oil leases would have no value until an international treaty was made between Nigeria and Sao Tome, delineating the territorial boundaries between the two countries. A visit to Sao Tome by the American head of the company proved useless. The U.S. owners were persuaded by Offor that he could arrange that Nigeria set out such a treaty, using his friends Obasanjo and Atiku. The company agreed to sell its shares to Offor, while retaining a number of shares in their own name. They didn’t so much sell the shares as donated them in exchange for Offor agreeing to be liable for the debt. In mid-2001 Offor acquitted a 75% stake in EHRC. A few weeks later the Government of Nigeria and the Government of Sao Tome signed a treaty delineating their borders. Now the oil leases (which promised a 5% of the revenue stream to Chrome) now had a putative value.
This ability to start to sell the oil leases attracted other players. Obasanjo was pushing two companies for the Joint Development Zone (JDZ). These were the Nigerian branch of Norwegian PGS, headed by Otunba Onabanjo (father-in-law of Obasanjo’s second son) and Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum, run by Wahab Folawiyo (close friend of Obasanjo). Atiku was happy with Chrome as it was widely believed that he actually owned the Chrome shares and Offor was his nominee.”
Howard F. Jeter, a former ambassador, retired U.S. State Department official and friend of Pres. Obasanjo, is on the board of ERHC. Jeter also serves as an executive of Goodworks International, LLC, a lobbying firm owned by Amb. Andrew Young and Carlton Masters. Goodworks International lobbies the American Government on behalf of Nigeria.
The last coup d’etat in Sao Tome was both a diplomatic and business opportunity for President Obasanjo. The President intervened and brokered a peace deal between the coupists and the ousted Sao Tomean President. There are reports that the ousted President was accompanied from Libreville by two plane loads of military men to retake power in Sao Tome. This singular act re-established Pres. Obasanjo and Nigeria as indispensable in Sao Tome’s march to petro-wealth. Emeka Offor is reputed to have sponsored Pres. Meneze’s for the Sao Tomean presidential election in 2001.
Elendureports.com contacted ERHC at their Texas office. We were informed by a receptionist, who gave her name as Jane, that Emeka Offor did not maintain an office there. She refused to give us information as to how to contact Emeka Offor. She refused to answer more questions and abruptly hung up the phone. The Securities and Exchange Commission refused to confirm or deny that ERHC is under investigation.
Emeka Offor’s deals have astounded many investigators as he seems to operate in almost all of Nigeria’s economic nerve centers. It is widely believed that Chris Uba, the self-acclaimed political godfather of Anambra State, is playing from Offor’s playbook. Their influence on the Obasanjo Administration makes them members of the elite class of ‘sacred cows’ in Nigeria today.
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Last modified: 09/25/06
Old article I have never seen posted. Sorry if it is a repost.
http://www.elendureports.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=167&Itemid=33
Changes at Emeka Offor’s Oil Company
Written by Jonathan Elendu
Thursday, 26 January 2006
Emeka Offor
Emeka Offor’s oil concern, ERHC Energy Inc., took the market by surprise yesterday when it announced the appointment of Walter Brandhuber as new the President, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Director of the company. The former President, CEO and Director, Ali Memon, resigned his appointment on January 20th, 2005. ERHC has also been in the news recently following revelations by the Sao Tome Attorney General that there were flaws in the way the company was awarded its oil exploration contracts.
According to Attorney-General Adelino Pereira, “The procedures used to select the companies which received concessions contained serious flaws and did not satisfy the minimum standards required for the award of such licenses.” There had been protests in certain quarters “that some of the Nigerian companies that were awarded exploration rights were investment vehicles of financial speculators with no track record of achievement in oil production or exploration.” Emeka Offor’s ERHC was named as one of those companies.
ERHC Energy Inc. was described in a recent newspaper article as “a little more than a paper company with no operations and just one favorable contract in its portfolio.” Industry insiders believe that ERHC is financed entirely by loans from Emeka Offor. Elendureports.com had reported last year that the company was being investigated by the SEC and some other United States Government agencies. In an informal chat with Elendureports.com, Emeka Offor disputed this claim. But in published reports last year, the Sao Tome Attorney-General had called on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Justice Department to investigate ERHC Energy Inc.’s acquisition of oil blocks in the tiny Island nation. Adelino Pereira, the Sao Tome Attorney-General, had also accused ERHC Energy Inc. of bribery stating that the company was involved in “providing benefits to the families of key decision makers,” in Sao Tome’s oil industry.
According to Reuters, a report prepared by Attorney-General Pereira, had declared that “the conditions of ERHC's agreement were so favorable they might violate Sao Tomean law by ‘alienating’—signing away control over—its natural resources. Apart from fraud, Sao Tome and Principe should again re-examine whether there are grounds for terminating the contract."
There appears to be an uncanny pattern with the way associates and partners of the ERHC Energy Inc. part ways with the company: They depart for no apparent reason. In what came as a surprise to industry watchers, Ali Memon, who for a long time was the only full time staff of ERHC Energy Inc., resigned from his position as President of the company without any explanation. Noble Energy Inc., an American independent oil company had withdrawn from its partnership with ERHC Energy Inc. at the end of October last year. The company had been engaged to carry out drilling and exploration for the oil blocks won by ERHC. No explanations were given for Noble’s disengagement. Devon Energy Corp. another U.S. independent oil company also withdrew from two other groups that had a partnership with ERHC Energy Corp. No explanations were given.
However, there are speculations by oil industry experts that the hasty departures of these reputable companies may have been to forestall their being drawn into some impending situations with ERHC Energy Inc. that could tarnish the reputations of these conglomerates. According to a source, “No American company wants to be in a situation where they are investigated by the SEC, or the Justice Department, for things they had no prior knowledge of but which may end up causing them serious legal problems and may be embarrassments. The oil industry in Nigeria is not the most transparent, and add the agitation by Sao Tome and Principe and you have a recipe for catastrophe. Besides Emeka Offor’s ties to top Nigerian Government officials make a lot of these people uncomfortable.”
Last November, Pannell Kerr Forster of Texas, P.C. suddenly resigned as auditors to ERHC Energy Inc. without an explanation. The company quickly replaced them with Malone and Bailey, P.C. ERHC Energy Inc. earned eleven thousand, two hundred and seventy dollars ($11,270.00) as net income last year. This is a significant improvement from its net income of three thousand, five hundred and ninety-three dollars ($3,593.00) in 2004. The company stock ended trading yesterday at thirty cents a share. As at the time of going to press, ERHC stocks are selling at thirty-one cents a share.
Email: jonathan@elendureports.comThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
It's hard to tell if you are propping the price up or pushing it down. I'm just glad you were able to buy at such a bargain price. Good luck.
It took 300 shares to take it back down to .365. What an exercise it must be to keep up with that kind of paperwork!
The last price was .37 with 800 shares traded..to put things in perspective it was a $296.00 trade.
Just curious. Does anyone know whether EO travels with security? If I were in his shoes, I would.
If we collectively have 125M shares, shouldn't that mean something other than: "Owners of a lot of shares are in the dark and have no clue what is happening"?
amj,What would you guess is the total figure?
Well, I guess that puts that theory to rest. I think I will check back in a week or so from now and meanwhile join the real world with a risk reward ratio that is more on the level of "I pay $2.49 at the McDonald's drive thru and I get a "Happy Meal" missing only the mustard and ketchup"....only a little disappointment.
How many shares do you think we have here?
Is that not enough shares to rattle some cages?
Spec: Perhaps we should designate you as our IHub spokesman to the potential "buyers" of ERHE shares. I imagine there are many of us that would sell part or all of our shares for $3.00/share. It has been posted here that this board only holds 2%(approx 1.5M?)of all outstanding shares. I think that amount might increase if the question of "how many" was posed correctly. I suspect there are many of us that have not posted ownership of our shares. I own something over 50000 shares(and I imagine that I am "small potatos") and have never responded to surveys here. I am sure that I am not the only one to decline the invitation to "chime in". There are at least 50 posters on ERHE IHub. If my ownership is the average of what posters own, then the Ihub board collectively owns more that 2%. Am I crazy to think that with the right spokesman, we can make a difference? It has been a long day, so I hope that you guys will be kind if this seems a stupid post.
Manti, my gut feeling is that you are closer to the mark than anyone. Expertise & rigs are the hammers.
I read your post. That has been my thinking also. USA is not going to let Offer run this show. USA is going to do whatever it takes to get this oil
Not sure what this means but Oily's posting are all on most actives list on IH home page today.
Active Stocks Today
1. Sulja Bros. Building Supplies, Ltd SLJB Quote
2. Blackout Media Corp BKMP Quote
3. Conversion Solutions Holdings Corp. CSHD Quote
4. ATWEC Technologies ATWT Quote
5. XECHEM INTERNATIONAL, INC XKEM Quote
6. GameZnflix GZFX Quote
7. SUMMUS WORKS SMMW Quote
8. ERHC Energy Inc. ERHE Quote
9. American Way Business Development Corp. AWYB Quote
10. Equitable Mining Corp. EQBM Quote
11. CyberKey Solutions CKYS Quote
12. Pearl Asian Mining Industries Inc. PAIM Quote
13. NeoMedia Technologies NEOM Quote
14. China Direct Trading Corp. CHDT Quote
15. Phoenix Associates Land Syndicate PBLS Quote
16. Produce Safety & Security International, Inc PDSC Quote
17. GlobeTel GTE Quote
18. Medify Solutions MDFY Quote
19. Motorsports Emporium, Inc. MSEP Quote
20. Augrid Corp AUGC
The prize is a luncheon with all the crazies on this board. Do you really want to get in a hurry to collect.
You get the prize!!!!
dest_golf, you seem pretty good with the word games.How about coming up with letter meaning of OLIPHANT: Offer Likes Investors would be a good beginning
Crazy, we are just having a little fun. Why don't you join in? Maybe you are just not a morning person?
If you read from the subject lines of Oily's profile from the bottom up (earliest time first) we have EOD .37 buys out erhc. What would .37 be on the AIM?
Tuneman, Where did the info about the "clippings" come from? I don't remember reading that before today.
BB-Hope you will consider doing future recaps. I think it would be especially beneficial to newbies and those of us who are sometimes not able to read all the posts. Thanks!
Then who pays for this?
Question to the board: Can we assume that ERHE management pays for the stockguru, market pulse, baby bulls, etc. news items?
WALLDOG, I'M WITH YOU. NO MATTER WHAT SEO HAS DONE IN THE PAST THAT MAY NOT HAVE BEEN ARMS LENGTHS TRANSACTIONS, THE SEC WAS NOT NECESSARILY WATCHING HIM AT THAT TIME. I WOULD THINK THAT HE HAS TO WALK A PRETTY STRAIGHT LINE AT THIS TIME. I WOULD THINK THAT SEC & DOJ ARE JUST WAITING TO SEE HIM MAKE ONE LITTLE SLIP.
Maestro: If you really want something to do, perhaps you can get in touch with Franklin.
White Pages has a Franklin Ihekwoaba (how many can there be?)listed as:
Ihekwoaba, Franklin
1007 Devere Dr
Silver Spring, MD 20903-1626
(301) 434-0338
Switchboard has 6 Ihekwoabas listed in Texas.
Intelius has other addresses for Franklin, but also has the names of his relatives. You might be able to get info from him.
1. FRANKLIN IHEKWOABA
SILVER SPRING, MD -
-
Available Available Background Check
2 FRANKLIN IHEKWOABA
HYATTSVILLE, MD -
-
Available Available Background Check
3 FRANKLIN IHEKWOABA
ACCOKEEK, MD -
-
GEORGE C IHEKWOABA (Age: 38)
G IHEKWOABA (Age: 38)
FRANK N IHEKWOABA Available Available Background Check
4 FRANKLIN N IHEKWOABA
SILVER SPRING, MD 42
Available
MICHELE J IHEKWOABA
ROBERT N IHEKWOABA (Age: 40)
FRANK N IHEKWOABA
F IHEKWOABA
GEORGE C IHEKWOABA (Age: 38) Available Available Background Check
5 FRANKLIN N IHEKWOABA
WASHINGTON, DC 42
Available
- Available Background Check
6 FRANKLIN N IHEKWOABA
HYATTSVILLE, MD 42
Available
GEORGE C IHEKWOABA (Age: 38) Available Available Background Check
My level 2 shows NITE on both the bid and the ask at .414/.42. Is this right?
Interamericatech I also saw Syrinia last night and you are right. There were eerie similarities
ftc88, If you have the names of those 8 consultants handy, would you mind posting them?