Libyan rebels retake much of key oil town

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/af_libya

By RYAN LUCAS, Associated Press

BREGA, Libya – Libyan rebels on Monday took back much of a strategic oil town that has repeatedly changed hands in weeks of battles with Moammar Gadhafi's forces along the nation's northern coast.

There were bursts of artillery and shelling from Gadhafi's forces in the west as rebels pushed into eastern sections of the town. Women and children were seen fleeing Brega as the battle raged.

"New Brega is under control of our forces and we are mopping up around the university," said Lt. Muftah Omar Hamza, a former member of Libya's air force who had a satellite phone and a GPS around his neck.

Brega stretches out over several miles of the coast and is concentrated in three main sections: New Brega, a largely residential area on the east end; West Brega, which includes a refinery and housing for oil workers; and a university between them. West Brega was still contested.

The uprising that began in February against Gadhafi's 42-year rule has reached a stalemate, with a series of towns along one stretch of Mediterranean coastline passing back and forth multiple times between the two sides. Though the regime's forces are more powerful and plentiful, they have been unable to decisively defeat a poorly equipped and badly organized rebel force backed by NATO airstrikes that have kept the Gadhafi loyalists in check.

Rebel forces made up of defected army units and armed civilians have seized much of Libya's eastern coast, but have been unable to push westward toward the capital, Tripoli. Two rebel advances on Sirte, a Gadhafi stronghold on the road to Tripoli, were cut well short, and government forces pushed the opposition back 100 miles (160 kilometers) or more after each attempt. Rebels were hoping for more this time.

"We're advancing. By today we'll have full control of Brega," said Salam Idrisi, 42, a rebel fighter. "We're more organized now, and that's played a big role."

Italy on Monday recognized the rebel-led Libyan National Transitional Council as the country's only legitimate voice on Monday, becoming only the third country, after France and Qatar, to do so.

After speaking with the council's foreign envoy, Ali al-Essawi, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the only way to resolve the conflict in the former Italian colony is for Gadhafi to leave — along with his sons.

"They are leaders of the military operations against Libyans," Al-Essawi said, explaining why the council refuses to accept one of Gadhafi's sons as Libya's leader.

Frattini also said proposals by a Libyan government envoy Abdul-Ati al-Obeidi, who met with Greek officials Sunday, were "not credible" because nothing was said about Gadhafi's departure.

Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas said that based on al-Obeidi's comments, "it appears that the regime is seeking a solution," but few other details of the Athens talks were released publicly. Al-Obeidi, a former Libyan prime minister, arrived Monday in Turkey for talks with senior officials, Turkey's Anatolia news agency said, and he plans to also travel to Malta.

Gadhafi's government has declared several cease-fires but has not abided by them, and the council says it will not negotiate with him or settle for less than his ouster.

Gadhafi's efforts to crush the uprising that began Feb. 15 led the international community to approve the U.N. resolution and launch airstrikes, which initially were U.S.-led but are now controlled by NATO. Of the popular uprisings across the Arab world inspired by those in Tunisia and Egypt, Libya's has been the most violent.

On Sunday, Gadhafi's forces pressed on with attacks against Misrata, the last key city in the western half of the country still largely under rebel control despite a weekslong assault.

Government troops besieged civilian areas for around two hours Sunday morning with Grad rockets and mortar shells and lined a main street with snipers, said a doctor in the city.

Two shells landed on a field hospital, killing one person and injuring 11, he said. The attacks, including tank fire, began again after nightfall, he said. He did not want to be identified by name out of fear for his security.

A Turkish ship carrying 250 wounded from Misrata docked in Benghazi, the rebels' de facto capital, on Sunday. The boat, which carried medical supplies, was also expected to pick up around 60 wounded people being treated in various hospitals in Benghazi, as well as 30 Turks and 40 people from Greece, Ukraine, Britain, Uzbekistan, Germany and Finland.

A military plane from Jordan landed in Benghazi on Monday carrying medical supplies. Jordanian Col. Aqab Abu Abu Windi, who arrived on the plane, said it contained seven and one half tons of medical supplies to help the Libyan people and promised, "This plane is just the beginning."

Associated Press writers Ben Hubbard in Benghazi, Alessandra Rizzo in Rome and Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece, contributed to this report.

Minmetals Offers to Acquire Equinox for $6.5 Billion

                   

Andrew Michelmore, chief executive officer of Minmetals Resources Ltd. Photographer: Luis Enrique Ascui/Bloomberg

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-03/china-s-minmetals-bids-6-5-billion-for-equinox-to-add-african-copper-mine.html

Minmetals Resources Ltd. (1208), the Hong Kong unit of China’s biggest metals trader, made an unsolicited offer of about C$6.3 billion ($6.5 billion) in cash for Equinox Minerals Ltd. (EQN), gaining control of Africa’s largest copper mine.

Minmetals bid C$7 a share, 23 percent more than Perth-based Equinox’s closing price in Toronto on April 1, the Hong Kong- based company said today in a statement. The Chinese-funded bid depends on Equinox, whose shares rose 28 percent in Sydney today, dropping its C$4.4 billion offer for Canada’s Lundin Mining Corp.

The deal, China’s biggest minerals takeover, would give Minmetals Chief Executive Officer Andrew Michelmore control of the Lumwana copper mine in Zambia and Saudi Arabia’s biggest copper deposit. Mining companies are competing to secure assets after a dearth of new global projects and demand from China drove copper prices to a record this year.

“The Minmetals bid could prompt another interested buyer to put forward an alternative proposal,” said Angus Gluskie, who manages about $350 million at White Funds Management Pty. “ “An improving global economic outlook is giving buyers the confidence that prices should remain firm for some time.”

Minmetals, a unit of state-owned China Minmetals Group, traded at HK$6.56 on April 1, giving it a market value of HK$19.5 billion ($2.5 billion). Equinox rose A$1.58 to A$7.29 (C$7.30) at 11:15 a.m. in Sydney trading, the highest since June 22, 2004. The company’s board will meet to consider the offer, it said in a separate statement. Lundin Mining Corp. (LUN) shares were up 3.5 percent at C$8.33 at the April 1 close of trading on the Toronto stock Exchange.

China Spending
Chinese companies spent more than $30 billion last year buying mining assets and oil deposits to help secure raw material supplies to feed the nation’s growing economy. Minmetals owns the world’s second-biggest zinc mine and other assets in Australia, Laos and Canada. Michelmore said in January he was targeting copper, lead and zinc mines.

“Prospective bidders for Equinox Minerals may be reticent to become involved in a bidding war with Chinese interests,” said Tim Schroeders, a Melbourne-based money manager at Pengana Capital Ltd., which manages about $1 billion.

The offer premium of 33 percent to the volume weighted average Equinox share price of the past 20 days compares with an average premium of 24 percent for resources deals of at least $500 million during last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Key Areas
“It fits perfectly into the key areas we want to grow in, extending our mine life, expanding our portfolio of regions, leveraging on our management and technical expertise to extract value and most importantly it’s supported by our majority shareholder,” Michelmore said during a media conference call. Minmetals has been studying Equinox for “well over a year” and built a 4.2 percent stake in the company during 2010.

The Hong Kong-based company is offering 11.3 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization compared with the average of 7.2 times EBITDA in 10 comparable deals from 2007 to 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Copper for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange traded at a record $10,190 a metric ton on Feb. 15 and is expected to rise as mine shortages curtail supply.

“The global recovery is becoming more broad-based and you’re not going to see any new mines coming on stream for at least this year,” said Christin Tuxen, a Bloomberg top-ranked analyst at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen. “You’ve got to be bullish copper for the next few years.”

Faster Cheaper
For miners, mergers and acquisitions are a faster, cheaper route to production than constructing projects from scratch, Standard Chartered Plc said last year in a report. The cost of building a copper mine has more than doubled in the past five years, according to the report.

“The costs of acquiring mining leases and building mine infrastructure have escalated materially over recent years, and in many cases it is now cheaper to buy an existing business than develop capacity internally,” said White Funds’ Gluskie.

Producers haven’t kept pace with demand because reserves are becoming harder to find and ore quality is declining, meaning less copper is extracted from each ton of rock.

Minmetals Resources is advised by Deutsche Bank AG and Macquarie Capital Advisors.

The offer requires approval from Chinese and Australian regulators. Minmetals lodged an application with Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board on March 11, Michelmore said.

Minmetals is seeking to acquire a minimum of two-thirds of its target’s outstanding shares. Minmetals completed the $1.85 billion cash and share acquisition in December of parent company China Minmetals’s Australian unit.

All financing for the proposed deal will be arranged with Chinese banks through a combination of existing cash reserves, long-term credit facilities and equity, including investments in Minmetals by Chinese institutions, the company said in a statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Elisabeth Behrmann in Sydney at ebehrmann1@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Hobbs at ahobbs4@bloomberg.net.

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Libya rebels battle Gaddafi forces in oil town.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/03/us-libya-east-idUSTRE7320X220110403

Warplanes flew over Brega on Sunday as rebels fought troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi for control of the east Libyan oil town, rebel fighters said.

Near the eastern gate of Brega, a sparsely populated settlement spread over more than 25 km (15 miles), aircraft and the thud of explosions and machinegun fire could be heard.

Black smoke rose further west and hundreds of cars carrying volunteer rebel fighters streamed away from the town. Later, half a dozen rockets struck near the gate.

Rebels waiting there held their ground while the silhouettes of men and trucks could be seen scouting the desert far beyond the road. Four rockets burst from their launchers and zipped across the wasteland toward Brega.

"Those planes that circled last night didn't hit anything," said rebel fighter Osama Abdullah, suggesting the absence of air strikes was the result of NATO taking command of the coalition forces from France, the United States and Britain.

"(French President Nicolas) Sarkozy is great but NATO is not," said Abdullah.

A Western coalition air strike killed 13 rebels late on Friday near Brega's eastern gate. The rebel leadership called the bombing an unfortunate mistake and said air strikes were still needed against Gaddafi's better-armed units.

A friend of Abdullah who gave his name as Youssef said: "We need weapons that can fight against the tanks and Grads (rockets) that Gaddafi has."

Comments from rebel volunteer fighters near the gate marking Brega's eastern limit suggested that better trained anti-Gaddafi army units continue to battle government forces around the town's university 15 km to the west, without any clear outcome.

"NO TACTICS"

The fighting in Brega has gone on for four days, with the rebels holding ground after beating a chaotic retreat from near Gaddafi's home town of Sirte more than 300 km to the west.

The rebel leadership has sought to break the stalemate by deploying heavier weapons and a firmer line of command.

They have also sought to keep the less disciplined volunteers, and journalists, several kilometres (miles) east of the front line.

The caravan of lightly-armed volunteer fighters has spent days dashing back and forth along the coast road on Brega's eastern outskirts, scrambling away in their cars and pick-ups as the Gaddafi forces fire rockets toward their positions.

An armored personnel carrier and a steady trickle of vehicles carrying heavy weapons drove back and forth along the road to Brega, past the charred remains of several vehicles.

A few dozen fighters were praying near the eastern gate. Some others were busy trying to climb a disconnected telegraph pole to raise the rebel flag.

The volunteers tend to get on well with the rebel army but a small scuffle broke out near Brega's eastern gate on Sunday as a soldier berated them for their lack of discipline.

"These revolutionaries go in and fire and that's it. They don't have any tactics, these guys. They cause problems," said the soldier, Mohammed Ali.

Former Air Force Major Jalid al-Libie told Reuters in Benghazi that a brigade of professional soldiers had been formed and it would bring order to the rebel army at the frontline.

"We are reorganizing our ranks. We have formed our first brigade. It is entirely formed from ex-military defectors and people who've come back from retirement."

Asked about numbers, he said he could not reveal that but added: "It's quality that matters."

Libie, a former fighter pilot, said he had joined the rebels at the outset of the uprising.

He conceded that the enthusiasm of the rebel volunteer army was not matched by much military prowess.

"Now this brigade will establish authority on the ground," he said. "Before the end of the week you will see a different kind of fighting and that will tip the balance.

(Reporting by Alexander Dziadosz and Angus MacSwan; Writing by Tom Pfeiffer; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton and David Cowell)

Mexico says OPEC, inventories can cover Libya oil

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/01/us-latam-summit-mexico-jose-idUSTRE7307AR20110401

Mexican Energy Minister Jose Meade said on Friday oil shortages caused by the Libyan crisis, which have helped push crude to a 2-1/2 year peak, could be covered by production in other OPEC nations and existing inventories.

If conflict does not spread to other Middle Eastern nations, oil prices should fall back to levels seen before fighting erupted in major oil producer Libya, Meade told the Reuters Latin American Investment Summit.

Current high prices will benefit Mexico as the world's No. 7 oil producer but a strengthening peso will limit gains for the country's state-run oil company Pemex, he said.

Meade also said Mexico, one of only three countries in Latin America that currently generate nuclear power, will not shy away from expanding the sector in the future, despite the ongoing nuclear disaster in Japan following a devastating earthquake.

(Reporting by Mica Rosenberg and Adriana Barrera; Editing by David Gregorio)

Attacks called off in Nigeria

http://www.smh.com.au/world/attacks-called-off-in-nigeria-20110403-1ct6s.html

Nigeria's most prominent militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), says it has called off planned bomb blasts and attacks on oil facilities so elections will not be disrupted in the West African country.

Nigeria was in the process of a legislative vote on Saturday when the country's electoral chief announced its postponement to today because of widespread organisational problems.

Presidential elections are to take place on April 9 and governorship and state assembly polls on April 16.

Advertisement: Story continues below MEND had threatened last month to carry out simultaneous bomb blasts and attacks on oil installations in the oil-producing Niger Delta region and other strategic locations.

Nigeria Extends Voting Delay One Week to April 9, Election Commission Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-03/nigeria-extends-voting-delay-one-week-to-april-9-election-commission-says.html

By Elisha Bala-Gbogbo

Business ExchangeBuzz up!DiggPrint Email .Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer, delayed general elections by a week after a last-minute postponement of a parliamentary vote yesterday due to the late arrival of voting materials, the electoral commission said.

Parliamentary elections, which had been rescheduled to start tomorrow, will now take place on April 9, while the presidential vote is set for April 16, Attahiru Jega, head of the Independent National Electoral Commission, said today in Abuja, the capital. The following week, voters will choose the governors and legislatures of Nigeria’s 36 states, he said.

“This postponement gives INEC the opportunity to address the logistical problems observed and to ensure that the electoral materials are distributed in a way that ensures the integrity of the election process,” Clement Nwankwo, executive director of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, which is monitoring the electoral process, said by phone today from Abuja.

“People’s confidence to come out and vote may have been shaken by these two postponements,” he said.

After meeting with political parties and civil-society organizations, Jega said, “the commission has found that the overwhelming sentiment is to further reschedule the elections.”

Some voting stations had opened yesterday before the announcement of the delay. Governor Tunde Fashola of Lagos state, which includes the West African nation’s commercial capital, said yesterday, “some people have voted, I voted.”

Elections in 2003 and 2007 were marred by violence, voter intimidation and the stuffing of ballot boxes.

Opposition Parties
The parliamentary vote is for 109 Senate seats and 360 seats in the House of Representatives. The main opposition parties, Action Congress of Nigeria and the Congress for Progressive Change, aim to cut the majority the People’s Democratic Party won in both houses four years ago by saying it failed to reduce poverty, corruption and violence.

The vote is a prelude to the presidential contest that pits the incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan, against 18 rivals, including former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari and the ex-head of the anti-graft agency, Nuhu Ribadu, who is the candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria.

Nigeria is the fifth-largest source of U.S. oil imports. Hague-based Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), Chevron Corp. (CVX) of San Ramon, California, Total SA (FP) of France and Italy’s Eni SpA (ENI) run joint ventures with the state- owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. that pump more than 90 percent of the West African nation’s oil.

Election Violence

More than 50 people have died in election-related violence since July, according to Amnesty International, while sectarian clashes in the north have claimed the lives of at least 200 since Dec. 24. In a March 3 attack, at least 10 people died when explosives were hurled at a rally of the PDP in the town of Suleja.

The concern about sectarian and election-related violence has sparked domestic demand for foreign currency, central bank Governor Lamido Sanusi said in a March 15 interview in Abuja. That has weakened the naira, which reached an 18-month low against the dollar on March 17.

“People want to see a smooth transition, a free and fair election before they bring back the money,” he said.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.