ExxonMobil-led consortium nets ’supergiant’ Iraq oil field

Group wins bid to develop west Qurna as baghdad signs up slew of big contracts

Reuters | Nov 6, 2009

by Ahmed Rasheed and Muhanad Mohammed

BAGHDAD: An ExxonMobil-led consortium has beaten rival Russian, French and Chinese groups to bag initial rights to develop Iraq’s West Qurna field, the Oil Ministry said, adding momentum to Iraq’s bid to unlock its oil riches. With reserves of 8.7 billion barrels, West Qurna is among the prized Iraqi fields eyed by Western oil majors as they face flat or lower output at home and stiff competition from Chinese and Indian oil companies in bidding for oilfields elsewhere.

“The consortium led by ExxonMobil, which includes Shell, won the contract to develop West Qurna Phase One oilfield,” Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said.

The initial deal was signed in Baghdad on Thursday but needs Cabinet approval before it can be finalized.

The 20-year contract is part of a raft of deals Iraq is close to formalizing in a bid to catapult itself to the world’s third largest oil producer after decades of war and economic decline.

There is no guarantee that Iraq’s next government – to be elected in January ­– will honor the deals, but it injects optimism into prospects for Iraq’s battered oil sector and a second oil bid-round in December, after a lacklustre June auction.

ExxonMobil, partnering Royal Dutch Shell, beat Russia’s LUKOIL – which had teamed up with US oil-major ConocoPhillips – and two other groups led by France’s Total and China’s CNPC.

ExxonMobil’s output target for West Qurna Phase One beat those of its rivals and allowed it to clinch the contract, said an Iraqi oil official, who was part of the negotiating team.

“This is better for us,” the Iraqi oil official said. “We need higher production. This is a supergiant field and it has the capacity to produce even more than the target set by Exxon.”

The group plans to raise the field’s output nearly five-fold to 2.325 million barrels per day (bpd) from less than 500,000 bpd at present, Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said.

He also said the consortium planed to spend as much as $50 billion in investment and operating costs for the project over six years, but there was no immediate confirmation of the figure from the companies.

The consortium would get a remuneration fee of $1.9 per barrel, the minister said.

The pact on West Qurna comes after British oil major BP Plc. and China’s CNPC on Tuesday signed an agreement for the Rumaila oil field: Iraq’s first major new oil deal since the 2003 US-led invasion.

A group led by Italian oil major Eni also signed an initial agreement on Monday to develop the Zubair oilfield, and Iraq said it also expected to ink an agreement with Nippon Oil Corp on Nassiriya in the coming days.

Analysts said the timing of the deals ahead of the January 16 poll in Iraq was convenient for both the Iraqi government and oil companies.

Nigerian speculators create artificial scarcity of petroleum products

DPR threatens to deal with culprits

businessdayonline.com | Nov 1, 2009

by Olusola Bello

Artificial scarcity of premium motor spirit, better known as petrol hit Lagos, Abuja and neighbouring areas yesterday leading build ups of long queues at filling stations.

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) says the cause is that some petroleum marketers are hoarding the product with a motive to profiteer from an unfounded anticipation of the deregulation of the nations petroleum downstream sector.

Billy Agha, the director of DPR warned today that petroleum marketers who were hoarding fuel would have themselves to blame if the continued to hoard the product.

Agha said some marketers and dealers were engaging in black marketpractices for the purpose of making undue and unofficial personal gain from petroleum product sales.

He said any marketer or distributor caught in the act would be severely dealt with.

Giant oil find by BP reopens debate about oil supplies

BP says it has made a giant oil find in the Gulf of Mexico. Photograph: Newscast

Discovery could be as large as Forties field in North Sea and comes hard on heels of 8.8bn barrel find by Iran

guardian.co.uk | Sep 2, 2009

by Terry Macalister

BP has reopened the debate on when the “peak oil” supply will be reached by announcing a big new discovery in the Gulf of Mexico which some believe could be as large as the Forties, the biggest field ever found in the North Sea.

The strike comes days after Iran unveiled an even larger find of 8.8bn barrels of crude oil, and the moves have encouraged sceptics of theories which say that peak production has been reached, or soon will be, to hail a new golden age of exploration and supply.

BP, already the largest producer of hydrocarbons in the US, said its “giant” Tiber discovery in 4,100ft (1,250m) of water was particularly exciting because it promised to open up a whole new area.

Shares in BP were up 4% to 539p in afternoon trading, making it the biggest riser in the FTSE 100 despite the company saying much more drilling appraisal work was needed before Tiber’s commerciality could be guaranteed.

“Tiber represents BP’s second material discovery in the emerging lower tertiary play in the Gulf of Mexico, following our earlier Kaskida discovery,” said Andy Inglis, chief executive of exploration and production. “These material discoveries, together with our industry-leading acreage position, support the continuing growth of our deepwater Gulf of Mexico business into the second half of the next decade.”

Analysts agreed that the find appeared to be very significant. “Any time an oil major uses the word ‘giant’ you have to sit up and take note. Kaskida confirmed the western limits of the lower tertiary play and this extends the limits even further,” said Matt Snyder, a Gulf of Mexico specialist at oil consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

Fadel Gheit, an equity analyst who follows the oil sector for the Oppenheimer brokerage in New York, said the discovery was a “big feather in BP’s cap and reaffirms their leading position in the deep water Gulf of Mexico”.

BP itself believes that Tiber is bigger than the prospect on the nearby Kaskida field found in 2006, which has around 3bn barrels of oil reserves in place, while industry experts said Tiber might be as large as Forties, which has 4bn barrels.

Excitement around Tiber comes amid a welter of new finds both in established oil producing areas such as Iran and in new areas such as Uganda and western Greenland. There has recently been an oil rush in the deep waters off Brazil and talk of large onshore volumes of new gas in Holland, although the UK’s North Sea fields have seen a slump in drilling levels.

“Its an amazing turnaround from the gloom of the last 10 years. All these finds will take a long time to bring on stream, but it shows the industry is capable of finding more oil than it uses and shows we have not come to any peak,” said Peter Odell, professor emeritus of international energy studies at Erasmus University in Rotterdam.

However, exponents of peak oil theories said the BP find would not fundamentally change the longer-term supply-and-demand picture. “The International Energy Agency said in its 2008 report that the world needed to find six new Saudi Arabias to meet the growing demand for oil in the future,” said Jeremy Leggett, chairman of the renewable power company Solarcentury, and a key peak energy specialist.

“This [BP] find is welcome but its not going to take concerns away at a time when existing fields are depleting faster than expected and the new discoveries have a very long lead time.”

Leggett pointed out that it would take many years for BP to bring any Tiber fields onstream, pointing out that the huge Kashagan find in the Caspian Sea, in which BP has sold its stake, was meant to produce its first oil in 2005 but is now targeting 2013 as a start-up date.

The oil company will be helped at Tiber by the light nature and high quality of the oil in a development that will cost billions of pounds.

The two discoveries, which are about 40 miles apart, make it much easier for BP, which owns 62% of the discovery alongside Petrobras of Brazil and ConocoPhillips of America, to justify building a platform and pipeline to shore. The companies will need to tackle very deep water – the well is one of the deepest ever drilled.

The oil has been found in lower tertiary soils which were created more than 30m years ago. Their commercial prospects will depend on what portion of the reserves at Tiber can be recovered: in the case of Forties it has risen to well over 70%, but can be as low as 30% in other parts of the industry.

Revealed: Lockerbie link to oil exploration deal

London Times | Aug 30, 2009

by Jason Allardyce

The British government decided it was “in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom” to make Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, eligible for return to Libya, leaked ministerial letters reveal.

Gordon Brown’s government made the decision after discussions between Libya and BP over a multi-million-pound oil exploration deal had hit difficulties. These were resolved soon afterwards.

The letters were sent two years ago by Jack Straw, the justice secretary, to Kenny MacAskill, his counterpart in Scotland, who has been widely criticised for taking the formal decision to permit Megrahi’s release.

The correspondence makes it plain that the key decision to include Megrahi in a deal with Libya to allow prisoners to return home was, in fact, taken in London for British national interests.

Edward Davey, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said: “This is the strongest evidence yet that the British government has been involved for a long time in talks over al-Megrahi in which commercial considerations have been central to their thinking.”

Two letters dated five months apart show that Straw initially intended to exclude Megrahi from a prisoner transfer agreement with Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, under which British and Libyan prisoners could serve out their sentences in their home country.

In a letter dated July 26, 2007, Straw said he favoured an option to leave out Megrahi by stipulating that any prisoners convicted before a specified date would not be considered for transfer.

Downing Street had also said Megrahi would not be included under the agreement.

Straw then switched his position as Libya used its deal with BP as a bargaining chip to insist the Lockerbie bomber was included.

The exploration deal for oil and gas, potentially worth up to £15 billion, was announced in May 2007. Six months later the agreement was still waiting to be ratified.

On December 19, 2007, Straw wrote to MacAskill announcing that the UK government was abandoning its attempt to exclude Megrahi from the prisoner transfer agreement, citing the national interest.

In a letter leaked by a Whitehall source, he wrote: “I had previously accepted the importance of the al-Megrahi issue to Scotland and said I would try to get an exclusion for him on the face of the agreement. I have not been able to secure an explicit exclusion.

“The wider negotiations with the Libyans are reaching a critical stage and, in view of the overwhelming interests for the United Kingdom, I have agreed that in this instance the [prisoner transfer agreement] should be in the standard form and not mention any individual.”

Within six weeks of the government climbdown, Libya had ratified the BP deal. The prisoner transfer agreement was finalised in May this year, leading to Libya formally applying for Megrahi to be transferred to its custody.

Saif Gadaffi, the colonel’s son, has insisted that negotiation over the release of Megrahi was linked with the BP oil deal: “The fight to get the [transfer] agreement lasted a long time and was very political, but I want to make clear that we didn’t mention Mr Megrahi.

“At all times we talked about the [prisoner transfer agreement]. It was obvious we were talking about him. We all knew that was what we were talking about.

“People should not get angry because we were talking about commerce or oil. We signed an oil deal at the same time. The commerce and oil deals were all with the [prisoner transfer agreement].”

His account is confirmed by other sources. Sir Richard Dalton, a former British ambassador to Libya and a board member of the Libyan British Business Council, said: “Nobody doubted Libya wanted BP and BP was confident its commitment would go through. But the timing of the final authority to spend real money was dependent on politics.”

Bob Monetti of New Jersey, whose son Rick was among the victims of the 1988 bombing, said: “It’s always been about business.”

BP denied that political factors were involved in the deal’s ratification or that it had stalled during negotiations over the prisoner transfer talks.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman denied there had been a U-turn, but said trade considerations had been a factor in negotiating the prisoner exchange deal. He said Straw had unsuccessfully tried to accommodate the wish of the Scottish government to exclude Megrahi from agreement.

The spokesman claimed the deal was ultimately “academic” because Megrahi had been released on compassionate grounds: “The negotiations on the [transfer agreement] were part of wider negotiations aimed at the normalisation of relations with Libya, which included a range of areas, including trade.

“The exclusion or inclusion of Megrahi would not serve any practical purpose because the Scottish executive always had a veto on whether to transfer him.”

A spokesman for Lord Mandelson said he had not changed his position that the release of Megrahi was not linked to trade deals.

Power-broker Nat Rothschild at the centre of a web of international intrigue

For years Nat Rothschild appeared destined to be yet another scion of the rich and famous who had it all and blew it all – mainly through partying. (Rex Features)

From Libya to London: the world of a wild child turned power-broker

The financier Nat Rothschild is at the centre of a web of international intrigue, reports Lewis Smith

Independent | Aug 24, 2009

Once again, the name of Nat Rothschild has emerged at the centre of web of intrigue, with questions over his links to Libya, his friendship with Peter Mandelson and his alleged role in the release of the Lockerbie bomber.

Indeed, his name seems to be linked with almost every influential, rich and powerful person on the globe, from billionaires to presidents and royalty. But it wasn’t always like that. For years Nat Rothschild appeared destined to be yet another scion of the rich and famous who had it all and blew it all – mainly through partying.

At some point in the mid-1990s he underwent an almost Damascene conversion into a responsible financier, who managed to channel his gambling instincts into money-making investments for a hedge fund.

As his skills in handling investments helped turn the Atticus hedge fund into a multibillion pound concern, so his personal stock rose – in the 13 years he has been with Atticus he has built up his own multimillion pound fortune, quite apart from the £500m he is expected to inherit one day from his father, Jacob, the fourth Baron Rothschild. He has also become an increasingly influential figure not just in the world of finance but in political circles.

Influence is something deeply familiar to the Rothschilds, whose banking concerns have been a force in Europe for two centuries, but for the member of the Bullingdon Club who once rolled an occupied portable loo down a slope, it seemed an unlikely future. Instead of partying with models and socialites, these days he is more likely to be found hob-nobbing with some of the world’s richest and most powerful people.

His sphere of influence, it has been revealed, now extends even into Libya, which during the 1980s and 1990s was reviled as a terrorist state. Seif Gaddafi, President Muammar Gaddafi’s son, was the guest of honour at a party held by the financier in New York in 2008 and this year he allowed his home in Corfu to be the venue for a meeting between the Libyan and Lord Mandelson.

The meeting took place earlier this month, just a week before it emerged that the Scottish executive was considering the release from prison of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi. Lord Mandelson has accepted that Megrahi came up in the discussions but he strongly denied any suggestion he interfered in the decision to release the prisoner.

Nat Rothschild’s interests are further thought to overlap with those of Seif Gaddafi in Montenegro, where he has been linked to investments in the £500m Porto Montenegro project, which is intended to give the country a leading marina. Gaddafi is thought to be keen, signing up to a range of deals in Montenegro to benefit Libya.

Prior to winning friends in Tripoli, the former wild child had built up enviable contacts and deals with Russian oligarchs. Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, is reported to be one of Rothschild’s closest friends and he has been appointed as an adviser to Oleg Deripaska, the owner of Rusal, which became the biggest aluminium company in the world as part of a merger deal with two other companies that Rothschild helped to put together.

Deripaska, described as Russia’s richest man and the Kremlin’s favourite oligarch, had a fortune estimated at more than £16bn in 2007 and is believed to be close to Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister. It was Deripaska whom George Osborne, the Conservative front-bencher, was said to have spoken to about a £50,000 donation to the Tory party. The MP admitted he discussed a donation but denied asking for or receiving any money.

The row blew up when Mr Rothschild accused Mr Osborne of approaching the oligarch for a donation. He is thought to have been prompted by a breach of etiquette on the MP’s part by leaking the story of Lord Mandelson meeting the oligarch on a yacht – the two politicians were Rothschild’s guests. The row soured a friendship between the MP and the financier which dated back to contemporary membership of the Bullingdon Club.

Mr Rothschild’s success in recent years has come as a surprise to many who knew him in his wilder days. Peter Munk, the founder and chairman of Barrick Gold, the world’s largest gold producer, recalled meeting the future fifth Baron Rothschild in the lobby of a London hotel in 2001.

The financier was hoping to persuade Mr Munk to invest in Atticus but failed to impress at first hearing. “He did not carry the halo of being the future of the family. I wanted to get rid of the boy,” said the gold producer who now has him on his own advisory board.

It is thought that as a young man Nat Rothschild was intimidated by the prospect of having to live up to the achievements of his father and ancestors. Now, he is seen as a man who may well set new high standards for his family. Mr Munk added: “This kid is special. It’s back to when they [the Rothschilds] were ruling the world.”

“He is one of the few sons of great men who has enhanced the family stature and created his own wealth,” said Charles Phillips, who supervised him when he worked at the investment firm Gleacher & Co.

___________

Spheres of influence: Rothschilds connections

Business associates

Oleg Deripaska

The Russian oligarch owns Rusal, the world’s biggest aluminium company. Rothschild has won a position as an adviser to Deripaska and one of his select inner circle.

Seif al-Islam Gaddafi

Investment interests thought to overlap in Montenegro. He recently hosted a party with guests including Rothschild Prince Albert of Monaco and steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal.

Roland Rudd

Atticus employed Finsbury, which is run by Rudd, as its PR firm. Rudd is a friend of Lord Mandelson and Oleg Deripaska is another of Finsbury’s clients.

Timothy Barakett

The founder of the hedge fund Atticus took on Rothchild in 1995. The two have never looked back. Atticus is now a multi-billion concern and its success has enabled Rothschild to make his own fortune instead of relying on his father’s money.

Friends

Roman Abramovich

The Russian oligarch and billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club is a close friend of Rothschild. It was through Abramovich that Rothschild met Deripaska.

Peter Mandelson

The depth of the friendship is uncertain but Lord Mandelson has been linked to Rothchild on several fronts, including as a guest at his Corfu home.

George Osborne

Having known each other for years relations soured when Rothschild accused him of seeking donations for the Conservative Party from a Russian oligarch.

Matthew Freud

Rothschild was a guest at the 40th birthday party that Freud, the PR guru, threw for his wife, Elisabeth, Daughter of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, in Corfu last year.

Love Interests

Annabelle Neilson

Rothschild married the model and friend of Kate Moss at a ceremony in Las Vagas after eloping. The marriage lasted less than three years, with a divorce being agreed in 1997.

Petrina Khashoggi

The daughter of Jonathan Aitken, Ivanka Trump, the socialite and businesswoman daughter of Ivana and Donald Trump, and the actress Natalie Portman are among the women Rothschild has dated.

Princess Florence von Preussen

The great great granddaughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the last German Emperor, is the latest women to be romantically linked to the financier.

The Libyan despot’s son, the Rothschilds and other questions for Lord Mandelson

Lord Mandelson with his host Jacob Rothschild in Corfu. The Business Secretary talked briefly about the Lockerbie bomber to the son of Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi, who was also staying at the Rothschilds’ villa. Photo: Evening Standard

The Rothschild villa on Corfu and the oligarch-rich coast of tiny Montenegro have once more hosted what could easily be mistaken as a Mandelson-orchestrated salon of mutual backscratching.

Daily Mail | Aug 24, 2009

ANALYSIS: The despot’s son, a Corfu soiree and yet more questions for the Fixer Supreme

By Richard Pendlebury

Mutual connections, ‘chance’ meetings and social back channels are often what make the diplomatic and economic worlds go round. But Lord Mandelson’s Adriatic vacations with his rich friends are in danger of becoming an annual cause celebre.

Last summer they resulted in ‘ Yachtgate’ – his vicious spat with Shadow Chancellor George Osborne over what was said on their high seas holiday in Corfu with controversial Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

This year the Business Secretary faces growing speculation over his part in the release last week of Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing which killed 270 people.

The backdrop to this fresh controversy is a very familiar matrix of exotic faces and locations.

We have the involvement of Mr Deripaska, the Russian oil and metals baron, and British financier Nat Rothschild – two Mandelson cronies who were also central to Yachtgate.

The Rothschild villa on Corfu and the oligarch-rich coast of tiny Montenegro have once more hosted what could easily be mistaken as a Mandelson-orchestrated salon of mutual backscratching.

But the crucial new figure this year is that of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, second son of Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, whom he is widely expected to succeed.

Lord Mandelson denies that he had any influence over Megrahi’s release and triumphal return home, which has so infuriated the United States.

But he has already had to admit that the matter was discussed at least once in private with the urbane Saif, who then declared on Libyan TV: ‘In all commercial contracts for oil and gas with Britain Megrahi was always on the negotiating table.’

It is worth remembering that last year it took some little time before Lord Mandelson admitted that he had known Mr Deripaska for at least two years longer than his office had previously let on.

Will the forgetful Business Secretary have to make similar admissions this time round? There is no doubt that Saif is the coming man on the Libyan scene and already an international player in both politics and business.

If his one-time pariah father has managed a remarkable rehabilitation in the West – thanks in no small part to the 44billion barrels of oil as yet untapped on Libyan territory – then the London School of Economics- educated Saif, who has exhibited as an artist, appears to be the regime’s more palatable future.

And it is a future which offers immensely lucrative trade deals for the UK – one hint of the emerging relationship between Libya and Britain came with the news this weekend that Saif has just purchased a £10million mansion in Hampstead, North London.

Saif’s official role is that of running a Tripoli-based family charitable foundation. Last year he foreswore any active part in Libyan public life.

He declared that democracy was the only way forward and that North African politics – Libya aside – was a ‘ forest of dictatorships’. Such noble utterances are greeted with scepticism by Libyan dissidents.

It is difficult to tell the truth about what Saif’s true politics and intentions are,’ says Ashour Shamis, a leading London-based Libyan opposition activist.

‘Saif says he wants a new beginning and for the country to be run with more freedom. We shall see. Do not forget that in Libya there is no opposition, only Gaddafi and his sons. They treat Libya as their own possession. Its assets belong to their family.

‘Saif is not rebelling against this regime. He is part of it. I place no credence in his saying that he has no interest in succeeding his father.’

Another Libyan exile was even more cynical: ‘Saif is his father’s son. The idea that anything dramatic will change under him is laughable. He is very good at presenting himself as a reformer and blaming the excesses for people around his father. But I for one do not believe him.’

Saif is not the only son of a head of state to appear in this circle of friends.

Our own Prince Andrew, the UK’s special trade envoy, is a friend of his, having met him on a number of occasions in private and public capacities. Saif has also been a guest at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.

The Gaddafi family are particularly keen to nuture this connectionit seems. Another boost for them on the global stage.

And what a small world it is. In March this year, Andrew went to Montenegro to open the new British embassy there.

During the trip he took time out to be shown round the £500million Porto Montenegro marina which is being developed on the coast near Tivat.

Two of the main investors in the project are Mr Deripaska and his financial adviser Mr Rothschild. Indeed, the former’s business interests make him the largest private employer in Montenegro.

Early last year, when he was still EU Trade Commissioner and not yet ennobled, Peter Mandelson announced that he had secured a bilateral agreement with the tiny Adriatic nation.

‘Today’s signature is an important milestone,’ he declared at the time. Montenegro’s progress toward becoming a reliable world trading partner had been ‘ remarkable’. Mr Deripaska must have been delighted.

It later emerged that during Lord Mandelson’s tenure as commissioner, there had also been two cuts in EU aluminium import tariffs, which has benefitted Mr Deripaska’s company Rusal – the EU’s biggest importer of the raw metal – by tens of millions of pounds a year.

In June this year what was described as the most lavish celebration ever held in the Adriatic took place near the Tivat marina.

Saif Gaddafi had chosen the Splendid hotel in Becici as the location for his 37th birthday party. Among the guests, who flew in on a fleet of a dozen or more private jets, were Prince Albert of Monaco, Mr Deripaska and Mr Rothschild.

Saif is said to be interested in investing in Montenegro. Presumably he and Mr Deripaska had plenty to talk about – the Russian also controls the oil company Russneft and Libya is looking for foreign investors in the energy industry. Business and pleasure combined in one ostentatious display.

August came and the Mandelson circus arrived back on Corfu. Displaying his trademark rhino hide, he brushed off the 2008 imbroglio and returned once again as a guest at the Rothschild villa.

No Mr Deripaska this time. But sharing the Rothschild hospitality for 24 hours of his holiday was someone with the potential to be equally if not more controversial: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi.

Lord Mandelson has admitted to having met the despot’s son at least once before, in May this year. On Corfu they chatted. And, inevitably, the subject of Megrahi came up.

Within the month the convicted mass murderer was free and being welcomed at Tripoli airport by a jubilant Saif.

There were no linked trade deals, we are asked to believe by the Foreign Office. And no input by Lord Mandelson, the man himself claims.

Unfortunately experience has taught us to be more than a little circumspect about the Business Secretary’s declarations.

His soiree with Saif on Corfu, at a time when the Megrahi affair was about to reach a crisis, leaves too many questions unanswered from the fixer supreme.

For the moment there is only one clear beneficiary of the affair: Saif’s father. ‘Gaddafi is reaching a crescendo of success as he approaches his 40th anniversary,’ says Mr Shamis.

‘He is the chairman of the African Union, has visited most of the European and world capitals that were once closed to him and now he has freed Megrahi. He has achieved most of the things he wanted to do.

‘Lord Mandelson and other politicians in the West have fallen completely into his lap.’

Lord Mandelson, his wealthy friends and the Libyan connection

Lord Mandelson, the Business Secreatry, is facing growing questions over his links with Saif Gaddafi, the son of Libyan leader Colonel Gadaffi, following the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi.

Telegraph | Aug 23, 2009

By Andrew Alderson and Alastair Jamieson

In a destination that developers predict will soon make the tax haven of Monaco look “second rate”, it was described as the most glamorous party ever seen in the Adriatic.

As the champagne flowed, fireworks lit up the night sky, a dozen private Lear jets were parked on a nearby runway and giant yachts were moored offshore.

The fabulously wealthy guests at the appropriately-named Splendid Hotel included Prince Albert of Monaco and Lakshmi Mittal, the steel magnate.

Also at the resort were Oleg Deripaska, the Russian entrepreneur, and Nat Rothschild, the British financier – both close allies of Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary. The billionaires held a business meeting the following morning.

And who hosted the 37th birthday party in June in one of the trendiest locations in Montenegro – a newly-independent nation whose cause Lord Mandelson has repeatedly championed?

The unlikely host – hundreds of miles from his African homeland – was Saif Gadaffi, the son of the Libyan leader, who, it emerged last week, has met Lord Mandelson twice in the past four months.

At at least one of those meetings, the fate of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, the only man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, was discussed.

It was Mr Gaddafi too who, much to the anger of the US and some victims’ relatives, stood alongside Megrahi and ensured he was given a “hero’s welcome” as his plane touched down in the Libyan capital of Tripoli late on Thursday night – just hours after he was released by the Scottish government from a life sentence handed down in 2001 for the terrorist attack that claimed 270 lives in December 1988.

Intriguingly, Mr Gaddafi has publicly thanked the British – as well as the Scottish – government for Megrahi’s release.

The celebrations in Libya, condemned by President Obama, appeared this weekend to be running the risk of provoking a backlash from Western governments.

Before gaining his freedom, Megrahi, who has always protested his innocence, dropped his second appeal against his conviction: indeed some suspect this was a secret condition of his release.

His second appeal began in 2007 after the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission uncovered six separate grounds for believing the conviction may have been a miscarriage of justice.

Under Scottish law, Megrahi’s family could have continued the appeal posthumously, raising the prospect of an acquittal that would cause embarrassment in Scotland over the handling of the original trial and raise fresh questions over who was really responsible for the bombing.

It was only last year, after being once again caught out misleading the British electorate, that Lord Mandelson, who has twice been forced to resign from Government, publicly pledged to choose his friends more carefully.

In October 2008, just days after his return to the Cabinet to shore up Gordon Brown’s ailing leadership, Lord Mandelson admitted that his links to Mr Deripaska, the billionaire Russian oligarch, stretched back years more than he had earlier admitted.

In a letter to a national newspaper, Lord Mandelson, the former EU Trade Commissioner, wrote: “I should point out that in managing my department’s business as Secretary of State I will, of course, in line with the Ministerial Code, ensure that no conflict of interest, or perception of such, arises from any of my past or indeed future contacts.”

On Saturday, however, just 48 hours after Megrahi was freed on compassionate grounds by Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Secretary, Lord Mandelson’s critics were again questioning his judgement, and his choice of foreign friends and acquaintances.

Lord Mandelson, who denies acting improperly or trying to influence Mr MacAskill’s decision, most recently met Mr Gaddafi “fleetingly” at the Rothschild’s family’s Greek £30 million estate on Corfu – just a week before it emerged that Megrahi was set to be freed because he is suffering from aggressive and terminal prostate cancer.

According to Lord Mandelson’s spokesman, the Business Secretary also met the met the man tipped to be the next leader of Libya at an official engagement in London in May this year.

Less than a decade ago Libya was a pariah nation that was not only blamed for Lockerbie but also had a long history of sponsoring international terrorism.

It had also committed another atrocity on British soil, the shooting of WPC Yvonne Fletcher in 1984.

However, Tony Blair and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the leaders of their respective nations, pragmatically put their mutual antagonism to one side six years ago. Britain and the West’s sanctions had worn Libya down economically and diplomatically, while Britain was eager to exploit Libya’s massive oil reserves.

So, shortly after Libya accepted responsibility for the Lockerbie attack in 2003 and agreed to compensate the families of the victims, Britain put down a resolution to remove the sanctions and, the following year, Mr Blair extended “the hand of friendship” to Colonel Gaddafi, who has now ruled Libya for 40 years. Huge trade deals followed for BP, Shell and others.

More recently, Britain has gone out of its way to embrace Libya. The Duke of York, Britain’s Special Representative for Trade and Investment, has forged close links, visiting the country three times in the last year alone.

Aides say Prince Andrew “quite possibly” discussed Megrahi’s case with Libyan officials in the past, but they deny the Queen’s son pushed for his release.

His plans for a further trip to Libya are in doubt following British anger at Megrahi’s joyful reception in Libya last week.

Saif Gadaffi, 37, the favoured of Colonel Gadaffi’s seven sons, is an architect, businessman and politician, who was educated at the London School of Economics.

Although he heads a substantial family-run charitable foundation, he has also inherited his father’s ruthless streak: two years ago he admitted that six Bulgarian medics who were imprisoned for allegedly deliberately infecting children with Aids had been tortured into giving “confessions” because they had previously told “lies”.

The medics, who later withdrew their admissions, were pardoned on their return to their homeland.

In recent years, however, Mr Gadaffi has forged a firm friendship with Mr Deripaska and Mr Rothschild, Lord Mandelson’s friends.

Mr Rothschild hosted a party Mr Gaddafi in New York late last year. More recently, Mr Gadaffi has developed personal links with the Business Secretary himself.

Indeed, Lord Mandelson’s spokesman said this weekend that he hopes to see more of the Libyan politician in the coming months.

What is not known is the extent of the personal business interests that Mr Gaddafi, who has a penchant for pet tigers, now has in Montenegro, a nation that Lord Mandelson has supported during its three years since gaining independence.

Libya has significant business links in Montenegro, and judging from his recent birthday party, Mr Gaddafi is clearly quite a “player” in the country.

Mr Deripaska and Mr Rothschild have invested heavily in the £500 million-plus Porto Montenegro project to make the country the “premier marina destination in the Mediterranean”.

Lord Mandelson, as EU Trade Commissioner, championed Montenegro’s entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) saying last year: “Montenegro has made remarkable progress in preparing for WTO entry…. The EU is a strong supporter of Montenegro’s entry into the WTO, and is proud to be the first partner to conclude bilateral accession talks.”

But, crucially, did Lord Mandelson, who in 2006 ended EU trade tariffs on aluminium thereby hugely benefiting Mr Deripaska’s business interests, lobby for Mr Megrahi’s release?

Definitely not, insists his spokesman: “Peter Mandelson had no input,” he said, stressing suggestions of a conflict of interest were “farcical”.

Yet Norman Baker, the Lib Dem MP, feared Lord Mandelson had been guilty of “back-channel diplomacy” and The Sunlight Centre for Open Politics, a campaigning group, has reported the Business Secretary to Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, for an alleged conflict of interest contrary to the Ministerial Code.

A spokesman for the group said: “Ministers must ensure that no conflict arise, or could reasonably be perceived to arise, between their public duties and their private interests, financial or otherwise.”

He added that with such an emotive subject as Lockerbie many Britons would see Lord Mandelson as interfering in an issue that was best left to diplomats.

Tory MPs are also concerned by the Business Secretary’s actions. Douglas Carswell, the Conservative MP for Harwich and Clacton, said: “It looks like Lord Mandelson’s array of rich and powerful friends involved with this project have all benefited from decisions he made when he was Trade Commissioner.

“People will rightly ask what decisions he has made as Business Secretary and whether he has once again allowed his private life to mix with controversial political decisions.”

Lockerbie bomber release ‘would free BP’ to join the rush for Libya’s oil

Al-Megrahi’s release ‘would free BP’ to join the rush for Libya’s oil

London Times | Aug 15, 2009

by Robin Pagnamenta

The release of the Lockerbie bomber from prison would liberate Britain’s largest industrial company from a string of problems hampering its $900 million (£546 million) Libyan gas projects, industry sources claimed last night.

BP, the oil giant, signed a deal with Libya in 2007 to explore for gas in the west of the country and offshore. But since then it has faced a string of bureaucratic obstacles, including delays securing official permits and approvals to import equipment through Libyan customs, the sources said.

They added that BP’s work programme, conducting geological studies on the Sitre basin, an offshore block the size of Belgium, had been hit by delays securing official paperwork for the next scheduled phase of work. “Now that al-Megrahi is released, BP expects to get the go-ahead,” said one source in Libya.

Dr Bassam Fattouh, an expert on the Libyan oil industry at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, added that Libya, which was opened up to foreign companies after sanctions were lifted in 2003, had proved to be a “difficult business environment” for BP and other companies. “BP was having difficulty getting heavy equipment into the country,” he said. However, BP denied that it had faced anything more than routine problems in Libya. A spokesman said that the company was very happy with progress so far.

BP is not the only company that appears to have experienced problems in Libya, which holds 42 billion barrels of oil reserves, the largest in Africa, and is seen as a potential alternative to Russia as a supplier of gas to Western Europe. Tripoli is currently obstructing the sale of a Canadian oil company with Libyan interests, Verenex, to a Chinese company. BG, another British company exploring in Libya that is thought to have experienced similar issues, declined to comment.

The close ties between politics and the oil industry in Libya, where 95 per cent of export revenues are from oil and gas, are irrefutable.

Shokri Ghanem, chairman of the National Oil Co (NOC) and the country’s most senior oilman, is the former Prime Minister. In 2004, he provoked international outrage by claiming that his country had no involvement in the murder of the British policewoman Yvonne Fletcher or the Lockerbie bombing. NOC is now BP’s partner in the country and Mr Ghanem was the executive who signed the 2007 deal with BP’s chief executive, Tony Hayward, in the presence of Tony Blair, then Prime Minister.

Al-Megrahi’s release also comes amid a highly delicate battle for influence over Tripoli between Russia and the West. It is a struggle tied to billions of dollars worth of oil and arms deals, which could shape Europe’s energy security for years to come.

Nick Day, a former MI5 officer who now runs Diligence, a political risk consultancy, said that a “competitive courtship” is under way between British, US and Russian interests to tap Libya’s oil and gas wealth. Russia, already the world’s biggest gas producer, is keen to exert greater control over Europe’s alternative supplies of the fuel and has been using its willingness to export weapons to Libya as leverage to secure energy deals and other concessions from Tripoli, he said.

“The Russians have been very aggressive in their negotiations because what Gaddafi needs right now are weapons. He still can’t get Western governments to sell to him, but the Russians are prepared to do it on the back of oil deals.”

Last year President Putin visited Tripoli, where he discussed a series of oil deals as well as a $2.5 billion deal to sell Colonel Gaddafi weapons, including anti-aircraft systems, fighter jets, helicopters, submarines and warships.

In return, Mr Putin has been pressing Colonel Gaddafi to allow Russia to site a naval base in Libya, which is still facing security problems along its southern border with Chad.

Because of its proximity to Europe, as well as the existence of a pipeline that connects Libya with Italy, Tripoli is a key player in the race to secure Europe’s long-term energy security. Oliver Miles, a former British Ambassador to Libya, said: “There is certainly fierce competition in the commercial field and I’m sure the Russians are willing to link that to weapons.”

British companies are not officially banned from exporting arms to Libya, but many are unable to secure insurance for deals and are therefore reluctant to do so. Geoff Porter, Middle East and Africa director for Eurasia Group, a business risk consultancy, said that this had opened up an opportunity for Russia. “There is an agenda in Moscow to reassert itself as a Mediterranean player … Gazprom’s strategy is a pincer attack on the EU.”

Americans want to know if Britain and Libya had secret deal to trade Lockerbie bomber’s freedom for oil

Libya’s Moammar Khadafy, at July’s G8 Summit in Italy, stands with Britain Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is reeling from reports that Britain released Libyan bomber for an oil deal.

DAILY NEWS | Aug 23, 2009

U.S. pols question Brits’ dealings with Khadafy in relation to Lockerbie bomber’s release

BY Helen Kennedy

The uproar over the Lockerbie bomber’s release grew Sunday as U.S. politicians demanded to know if Britain and Libya had a secret deal to trade the terrorist’s freedom for oil.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman called suggestions of a deal “shocking” and urged an investigation.

“I don’t want to believe that they are true, but they are hanging so heavily in the air that I hope that our friends in Britain will convene an independent investigation,” Lieberman (I-Conn.) told CNN.

In New York, Sen. Chuck Schumer also demanded answers to the questions swirling around Thursday’s release of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who is dying of cancer.

“Was there a quid pro quo here?” Schumer (D-N.Y.) asked at a news conference. “I don’t know if that’s the truth, but if it is: shame, shame, shame on the British government.”

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was under blistering fire at home for what critics called his “astonishing” refusal to speak publicly about the matter.

“When the going gets tough, Gordon Brown disappears,” sniped Conservative Party pol Liam Fox.

Both Brown and his secretary of state for business, Lord Mandelson, had separate private meetings with Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy and his son in the weeks before the release of the only man convicted of blowing up Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.

They acknowledged discussing the prisoner, but denied any quid pro quo.

“It’s not only completely wrong to make such a suggestion, it’s also quite offensive,” Mandelson said.

But Khadafy’s son, Saif al-Islam, said that “in all commercial contracts for oil and gas with Britain, Megrahi was always on the negotiating table.”

Several major British energy companies, including BP and Shell, have invested heavily in oil and gas exploration in Libya.

Lord Trefgarne, chairman of the Libyan-British Business Council, said U.K. firms would see “benefits” from Megrahi’s release.

“In Libya, business matters and political matters are inextricably entwined,” he said.

Khadafy added to the embarrassment by thanking Scotland and “my friend Brown.”

According to a letter believed likely leaked by Scottish authorities to deflect anger, Brown’s Foreign Office had encouraged Scotland’s justice minister, Kenny MacAskill, to consider granting Megrahi a prisoner transfer.

The Sunday Times of London reported the letter came Aug. 3, after Libya threatened to cut diplomatic ties and disrupt trade if Megrahi wasn’t sent home.

It was MacAskill who ordered Megrahi freed Thursday. Megrahi returned to Libya to a hero’s welcome, infuriating many families of the 270 Lockerbie victims.

“It turned my stomach to look at it,” Schumer said, calling for a United Nations resolution condemning the celebration and demanding Libya apologize.

As American tourists threatened a boycott of Highland holidays and Lowland whiskeys, Scotland First Minister Alex Salmond defended the compassionate release as “the right thing to do.”

Americans are the biggest contributors to Scotland’s $1.6 billion foreign tourism industry.

The Scottish Parliament was recalled from vacation early, and MacAskill is to stand before them today to explain himself further.

Chavez in China to strengthen ties built on oil

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez listens to a question from the media upon his arrival at Beijing airport to start his two-day visit to China, April 7, 2009. Reuters

AFP | Apr8, 2009

BEIJING (AFP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was due to meet his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, on the first full day of a visit to Beijing he said would reinforce a friendship built on oil.

The flamboyant Latin American leader arrived in the Chinese capital late Tuesday stating he would pursue three “concrete objectives of great strategic significance,” all related to energy trade, during his three-day visit.

They include a strengthening of the Chinese presence in the Venezuelan oil sector, the construction of Venezuelan refineries on Chinese soil, and the establishment of an oil transport joint venture, he said.

“In themselves, these projects are more than enough to justify my visit to China,” he told reporters at the start of his sixth visit here since coming to power a decade ago.

China imported 380,000 barrels of oil a day from Venezuela at the end of 2008, Chavez said, adding he wanted to expand this to one million barrels by 2013.

Venezuela is the biggest oil producer in Latin America and fast-modernising China, with its 1.3 billion people, is on a global quest to secure energy supplies.

While oil is the dominant theme in the two nations’ relationship, it has been expanding into other areas during Chavez’s leftist administration.

When Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping visited Venezuela in February, the two nations signed 12 agreements and doubled an investment fund to 12 billion dollars.

Bilateral trade peaked last year at more than 10 billion dollars, according to Venezuelan figures, and corporate China is making inroads into the Latin American country.

In one example of the growing business ties, agreements signed during Xi’s visit stretched from a mobile phone factory to an assembly plant for household appliances and a farm venture.

Last year, Venezuela launched its first geostationary satellite thanks to cooperation with China.

Military ties have also expanded. Venezuela recently purchased a fleet of 18 K-8 reconnaissance and training aircraft from China with delivery expected in January 2010.

Chavez, whose global tour has also taken him to Qatar, Iran and Japan, spoke at the start of the China leg of a “new world order”.

“A new world equilibrium is being born, a new world order, the multi-polar world of which we have long dreamed,” said Chavez, a vocal critic of the US role in international affairs.

“The power of the US empire is at an end… and by contrast other poles of global power are emerging, Beijing, Tokyo, Tehran.”

Meanwhile, his Chinese hosts appeared keen to play down any implications that the developing relationship with Venezuela might have for the United States.

Seeking closer ties with Latin America “aims at no one,” said Wu Guoping, a professor of Latin American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, according to the state-controlled China Daily newspaper.

“In the age of globalisation, a viewpoint like ‘Who is within whose sphere of influence?’ doesn’t stand,” Wu told the paper.

Chavez was due to meet Hu late on Wednesday afternoon, then hold talks with Xi on Thursday.