Over the last couple of days there's been speculation that the timeout asked by STP to "harmonize" its position on the JMC PSCs meet could be hinged on CVX's B-1 drilling timetable. I know very little about the oil industry dynamic, so I prefer to focus on what I know best (tho not well, at all) - STP politics.
The above view, imo, most likely would require concert between archrivals Pres Menezes and the MLSTP Govt. And there's been nono sign of concert between them on anything for ages - to the contrary.
My read of Menezes' Jan. 9 comments on AG Pereira's Awards Probe and on ERHC (and his May 31 precedent in signing the awards against the Govt's wishes) lead me to believe that the President is ready to move forward with the PSCs, fill the country's coffers and head into the upcoming elections blaming his opponents for their "shameful sell-out" agreements with ERHC (1997, 2001) and JDZ treaty with Nigeria (2001).
So we're waiting for whom/what to be "harmonized?"
The MLSTP may very well be split over what to do - somebody's got to eat crow. And there may well be divisions between it and the Trovoadas' ADI party on which the MLSTP depends for a narrow majority in parliament. Internal divisions within the Govt clique may well be the snag holding up the process.
Does that make any sense?
G'nite,
Homeport
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