RIA Novosti Announces Russia is Trying to Return to Africa

I found this quaint commentary-propaganda piece by RIA Novosti commentator Dina Lyakhovich, dated the 8th of October, 2007. There are others like it out there too. All by the same commentator and agency, trying to convince African countries that AFRICOM is a bad idea (who knows what US intent is) but what I find most interesting is a comment late in the text, and I quote.....

.... "In fact, what the United States wants in Africa is oil, which will soon account for 25% of American oil imports. It needs to protect and guarantee future deliveries, because competition is growing in Africa at breakneck speed. Apart from traditional rivals - France and Britain - it may have to compete with Russia, which is trying to return to Africa."[emphasis added by Shimron]...........

RIA Novositi, the international propaganda news of Putin-controlled Russia, may have made an announcement here.

Look into

Gazprom - is the world's biggest gas exploration and production company Contact: , Phone: (+709) 57 19 30 01, Fax: (+709) 57 19 83 33Moscow, RUSSIA, Europe(North)www.gazprom.ru
Gazflot - russian exploration and ship owning company
Gazprombank - services to enterprises and employees of other sectors (chemical, engineering, defence, nuclear etc.)
Geobyte ltd - geological exploring of resources of potential regions of oil and gas resources and condensate
Lukoil - is Russia's leading oil company
MNP Group incorporates - engaged in shipbuilding, offshore units design and construction.
Morneftegazproekt - provide integrated development of project documentation for offshore field development
Murmansk Shipping Company - crude oil transshipment and icebreaking services in Russian frozen ports and along the Northern Sea Route in Arctic waters
Polar Marine Geosurvey Expedition - complex geological and geophysical research in Arctic, the world ocean and Antarctica, in inland reservoirs
Rosneft - russian oil and gas exploration company
Sakhalin Energy - commercially develop, operate and market the hydrocarbon resources
Sea Soft Packages and Tehcnologies Ltd - developing software for realtime video integration with heterogeneous digital data
Sevmorgeo - Marine geological, geophysical and geoecological research of Russian offshore and the world ocean
an
Russian oil expansion activities in Africa have exanded significantly last few years, showing that this announced policy is well under way. But make no mistake, it is Putin himself, not private companies that are directing the activites of these companies. The state has taken over enormous private companies, like Gazprom (oil) and Alrosa (diamonds) and wields them as Arms of Russian government policy. Russia is not alone. In fact China has done he same thing with its largest oil companies, like the Chinese National offshore Oil Company
and Chinese National Petroleum Corporation, but that is a story for another day.

Africa, understand this: when you read any propaganda - US, Russian, Chinese, or Arab states, understand it for what it is, and make the best decisions for all your people.....and make it together, or we will be divided...as we have in the past, by our own choices.

-Shimron Issachar

SOCO

SOCO International plc is "an international oil and gas exploration and production company headquartered in London and listed on the London Stock Exchange.

• Although the Company has designated core areas in the Far East / Southeast Asia and Middle East / North Africa regions,
• it employs a strategy for building shareholder value through a portfolio of oil and gas assets." [1]

05-11-01 Oilinvest and SOCO announce the formation of a specific purpose upstream joint venture, ODEX Exploration

• To identify, develop, produce and market hydrocarbon opportunities in Libya and the surrounding countries in northern, central and western Africa.
• The joint venture is held 57 % by Oilinvest and 43 % by SOCO North Africa, a subsidiary of SOCO.
• Mutually beneficial, the JV provides Oilinvest with an entry into the upstream oil and gas industry and provides SOCO with an entry into areas where it wishes to establish new core business opportunities.

ODEX is expected to be a strong regional contender in the upstream hydrocarbon sector.

Oilinvest brings its specialized financial knowledge and management strength of its downstream petroleum operations.

SOCO has special expertise and success in identifying and exploiting complex upstream petroleum opportunities and accessing international financial networks. SOCO's financial strength and its status as a publicly listed company provide access to public financing.

ODEX has been formed to capitalize on the strengths of Oilinvest and the SOCO group to identify and secure delineated oil and gas projects, which by reason of size, complexity, economic or other reasons are available for development. ODEX will then pursue oil and gas exploration opportunities in previously identified prospective regions, which, again by reason of size, complexity, economic or other reasons are not subject to extensive competition.

Source: Rigzone

Wikipedai

SOCO -What are they doing?

SOCO International plc (LSE: SIA) is an international oil and gas exploration and production company, headquartered in London traded on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. It is currently valued by the market around £900m. The Company has continuing interests in Vietnam, Yemen, Thailand and the Republic of Congo with ongoing production operations in Yemen.

Soco was formed around 1991 to exploit international opportunities as a subsidiary of Snyder Oil Corporation of the USA. Ed Story ran operations as Vice-President International and director of Snyder Oil. Roger Cagle was its CFO. Story/Cagle had worked together for 15 years beforehand at Conquest, Superior and Exxon. Soco acquired interests in Russia and Mongolia.

1 History - Pre-IPO 2 Company History 3 Key personnel 4 Current Interests 4.1 Vietnam 5 References 6 External links

The Rest at Wikipedia

TAMOIL is Oilinvest

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Oilinvest trades under the Tamoil brand in several European and African countries, such as at this filling station in Pijnacker in the Netherlands.
Tamoil is a trading name of the Oilinvest B.V. Group, an oil company based in the Netherlands and set up by the Libyan state. Oilinvest's activities under the Tamoil brand, mainly in Europe and Africa, include the supply, trading and refinement of crude oil and the sale of refined oil products. In 2004 Tamoil operated almost 3000 petrol stations in Europe and over 150 in Africa. [1]

from Wikipedia

Mohammed Taher Yousef

Mohammed was recently released from Oilinvest....

I am not yet sure why....

-Shimron

LIBYA - Profile - Mohammed Taher Yousef.
Publication: APS Review Downstream Trends Date: Monday, July 28 2003Subject: Natural gas, Gas industry, Petroleum industry, PetroleumCompany: Oilinvest, Tamoil Italia S.p.A., Shell International Trading Co.Product: Crude Petroleum & Natural GasLocation: Libya, Italy, United States

The man in charge of the Oilinvest group's day-to-day business, Yousef is executive vice president of Oilinvest International N.V. and vice chairman and CEO of Tamoil Italia SpA, positions he has held since 1988. Bold and dynamic, he has been a leading expert in oil marketing with a background

The rest @ Allbusiness

Gazprom & Odex Compete for Libyan Oil Development

Originally Posted in October of 05, but of note today

-Shimron

The successful Mitsubishi-Teikoku bid for two concessions in Ghadamès basin Area 82, offering production shares of 7.5 per cent and $6 million signature bonuses, frustrated another relatively aggressive bidder.

Russia's state-owned gas giant Gazprom narrowly missed all three of the Ghadamès basin licences it bid for, in what was overall a bad result for the Russians, Tatneft excepted. It had been hoping to use EPSA-IV as a means of substantially increasing the reach of its overseas E&P.

Gazprom had been very keen on acquiring Libyan acreage, and is likely to pursue other options as a result of its failure in this round, such as an asset swap with Libya's Oilinvest. Gazprom's banking arm is a shareholder in Odex, a subsidiary of Oilinvest established three years ago with UK-based Soco International, and negotiations for Libyan-Russian asset swaps between the three parties are reportedly underway.

Soco's interest in Libya arose through the relationships between some of its non-executive directors and larger shareholders such as Pontoil Intertrade, owned by the family of Mario Contini, which has an Italian refinery among its other interests. Pontoil has a 20.55 per cent interest in Soco and Ettore Contini is a non-executive director. Mario Contini, chairman Patrick Maugein and another non-executive director, Rui de Sousa, all have a background in the downstream sector and were instrumental in bringing Soco into Libya. Gazprombank now has 20 per cent of Odex, alongside Oilinvest (46 per cent) and Soco (34 per cent).

So far, Odex has not found either upstream or downstream opportunity, partly because the government has been focused on open bidding rounds. According to Soco's Roger Cagle, "We can't compete at the levels bid in the last bid round." Rather, "our intention is to partner with Libyan companies and look for some sort of exploitation/development project. [But] with the government focusing on open bid rounds this concept takes a back seat."

Menas Associates 27-Oct-05