Turkmenistan: Saudi and Israeli partnerships

The drive by foreign companies to grab a piece of the action in gas-rich Turkmenistan is reported to be producing some strange bedfellows. In particular, PetroSaudi, owned by the son of King Abdallah, and Merhav, an Israeli conglomerate run by former Mossad intelligence officer Yosef Maiman.

According to Intelligence Online, a Paris-based Web site that covers global security issues, the companies from these longtime Middle Eastern adversaries are negotiating a partnership "through intermediaries" to explore the Serdar field that straddles the border between Turkmenistan and oil-rich Azerbaijan.

It is reported to contain the equivalent of at least 1 billion barrels of recoverable oil.

Turkmenistan is the world's 10th-largest gas producer. The United States, Europe, China, Russia and Iran are all clamoring for access to its vast gas fields.

These contain an estimated 20 trillion cubic meters of natural gas -- enough to supply Europe for 66 years.

Maiman once worked for the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence service, and is reputedly linked to a network of companies owned by the agency.

He has been moving into Central Asia for some time, spearheading an Israeli effort to secure influence -- and a significant intelligence presence -- in the energy-rich Caspian Sea basin, the economic center of the five former Soviet republics that make up the Muslim region.

The Merhav Group has been involved in Turkmenistan's natural gas industry for years. In 2004 The Jerusalem Post described Maiman, a familiar figure in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat, as a "leading figure" in Central Asia's gas sector.

According to some reports, Maiman was made a citizen of Turkmenistan by decree of the country's eccentric and authoritarian president, Saparmurad Niyazov, who died of heart disease Dec. 21, 2006.

According to Intelligence Online, Maiman was behind the appointment of Israel's first ambassador to Turkmenistan, Reuven Dinia, by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman recently. Dinai is another ex-Mossad officer, who once ran its Moscow station until he was expelled in 1996.

Merhav has reportedly dominated foreign business in Turkmenistan, including brokering energy projects in the country.

Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are closely linked to Israeli commercial interests -- not to mention Israeli intelligence -- and Maiman appears to be well-placed to broker an agreement between them over the disputed Serdar field, which Ashgabat and Baku both claim, and secure a contract.

The German-born entrepreneur, who became an Israeli citizen in 1971 and founded Merhav five years later, also has longstanding business links with Saudi Arabia.

These connections may well expand as Israel and Saudi Arabia both find themselves in confrontation with nuclear-wannabe Iran.

Maiman has traveled to Riyadh several times in recent years on his collection of non-Israeli passports.

PetroSaudi, headed by Turki bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, one of the sons of the Saudi monarch, thus may be a front-runner in Turkmenistan if it cements its partnership with Merhav.

Oil prices increase following concerns for weak dollar and Iran

World oil prices surged for the second straight day Tuesday as a weaker dollar lifted commodities and the market fretted about geopolitical tensions over Iran's nuclear program.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for January delivery, closed at 78.37 dollars a barrel, up 1.09 dollars from Monday.

In London, Brent North Sea crude for January delivery gained 88 cents to settle at 79.35 dollars a barrel.

Exploitation of oil off the Falklands Islands, is imminent

Falklands' oil quest takes off

Stanley, Falkland Islands (UPI) Nov 30, 2009
The Falkland Islands' quest for potentially vast quantities of hydrocarbons offshore has taken off with an exploratory drilling season after operators raised enough cash to lease a rig from Scotland.

The semisubmersible Ocean Guardian rig, in operation in the North Sea for well over 20 years, was leased by Desire Petroleum as part of an ambitious plan to explore reserves in the North Falkland Basin. Experts have said the basin could have very large reserves that could transform the Falkland Islands, a British overseas territory that was the scene of a 1982 war between Britain and Argentina, into an oil-rich nation.

Industry sources said a tug boat, Maersk Traveler, is hauling the rig from its Scottish Highlands deepwater home to the Falklands. Current estimates said the rig could be in place within two months, or slightly longer if it faced rough weather on its trans-Atlantic journey.

U.K.-based Desire Petroleum said it had launched the exploratory operation on the basis of expert estimates the basin floor may be holding more than 3.5 billion barrels of oil and more than 9 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Although no commercial discoveries have been made in the Falklands, exploration ventures go back to 1998, when six wells were drilled to the north of the islands. The drilling revealed the presence of a rich organic source rock that, estimates then said, could hold up to 60 billion barrels of oil. Although that estimate has not been scaled down, recovery of those quantities of oil may require huge investments over a long period, analysts said.

The Falklands government has put in place new environmental legislation in response to protests from campaigners who believe the arrival of oil could ruin the islands. The Falklands have a thriving tourism industry

, mainly because of their main attraction -- penguins -- but officials point out the earnings from foreign travelers do not compare with a potential oil bonanza.

China Buys Further into African Economy with Cheap Loans

BEIJING — China offered African governments a multibillion-dollar package of financial and technical assistance on Sunday, stepping up a courtship that already has gained Beijing wide access to oil and minerals across perhaps the most resource-rich continent in the world.

ChinaPrime Minister Wen Jiabao pledged to grant African countries $10 billion in low-interest development loans over the next three years, to establish a $1 billion loan program for small and medium-size businesses, and to forgive the remaining debt on certain interest-free loans that China previously granted less-developed African nations.

Mr. Wen made the pledge in an address to the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, held in the Egyptian city of Sharm el Sheik. The $10 billion in new loans is double the amount China pledged at the last meeting in 2006. The debt forgiveness continues a series of annual loan cancellations that extends to 2006.

Mr. Wen told officials of the 49 African nations in attendance that this year’s session “represents a new stage of development in relations with Africa.”

Besides the financial assistance, Mr. Wen also promised to form a partnership to address climate change in Africa, including the building of 100 clean-energy projects across the continent. Beijing will also remove tariffs on most exports to China from the least-developed African nations that do not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, and sponsor an array of other programs in health, education, culture and agriculture.

The gestures are likely to further cement China’s good relations with many African nations, and may help address rising concern in some quarters that China is merely replacing Europe as a colonial power.

China’s focus on extracting oil and minerals from Africa has drawn some criticism from African scholars, and labor and safety conditions at some Chinese-run mines and smelters have set off outcries by African workers. Some critics say that the flood of low-cost Chinese goods into African cities has displaced products once made by local workers.

China has long offered low-interest loans to African nations, usually on the condition that governments spend the money on Chinese-made goods or on projects built by Chinese companies. African governments have eagerly accepted the loans, in part because they are free of conditions that international and Western lenders often attach to loans, like improvements in governance.

One result is that China has become a major builder of Africa’s infrastructure, including railroads, highways and canals.

The loans and other overtures have turned China into one of Africa’s largest trading partners. Trade has soared to $106.8 billion last year from about $10 billion in 2000; Chinese direct investment in Africa leaped 81 percent in the first six months of this year, to $552 million, according to the Commerce Ministry.

Amazon Rainforest victim in bribery battle between Chevron and Ecuador Officials

CARACAS, Venezuela — The oil giant Chevron said Monday that it had obtained video recordings of meetings in Ecuador this year that appear to reveal a bribery scheme connected to a $27 billion lawsuit the company faces over environmental damage at oil fields it operated in remote areas of the Amazon forest in Ecuador.

The undercover videos, together with audio recordings, obtained by businessmen using watches and pens implanted with bugging devices, appear to implicate Ecuadoran officials and political operatives, including possibly Juan Núñez, the judge overseeing the lawsuit, and Pierina Correa, the sister of Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa.

The recordings indicate that an Ecuadoran political operative was working to obtain $3 million in bribes related to environmental cleanup contracts to be awarded in the event of a ruling against Chevron.