War: Libyan businessmen smuggle oil from Nigeria

http://www.tribune.com.ng/sun/index.php/news/4082-war-libyan-businessmen-smuggle-oil-from-nigeria
Written by Taiwo Adisa, Abuja

The ongoing war of liberation in Libya has taken a new dimension following the discovery of a discreet but thriving oil smuggling business via Nigerian borders in Kebbi, Sokoto and Katsina States.

The recourse to Nigeria’s oil was said to have been mandated by the huge destruction to the oil supply chain in the war torn country.

Reports put together by different sources indicated that the spate of fuel scarcity that rocked parts of Northern Nigeria in recent weeks is attributable to the illegal oil business going on across Nigerian borders in the Northern part of the country.

It was gathered that much of the smuggled oil found their way to Libya to augment local supplies in view of the uncertainties surrounding life and living in the war ravaged country.

A source said that some of the towns mainly used included Kangiwa, Aliero, Marafa in Kebbi and Katsina States.

One government agency was said to have compiled a report detailing activities of the group involved in the smuggling activity, leading to a discreet government search for backers.

It was gathered that some Libyan businessmen discovered that to soften the biting effects of bombardments and war on their compatriots oil from Nigeria could be smuggled through some hidden channels into Libya.

Sources confirmed that the decision by the Libyan businessmen to source oil from Nigeria was largely informed by the wide landmass of Nigerian borders which makes free flow of human traffic easy across the borders.

“There are a lot of informal businesses daily going on between Nigerians and Chadians as well as Nigeriens. Much of this don’t go into the records.

“What happened was that the Libyans studied the situation around Nigerian borders and they latched in on it,” a source said.

It was also gathered that those behind the illegal fuel imports from Nigeria have discovered that a chunk of Nigerian fuel often gets into Chadian and Nigerien markets through the several land routes and that tapping fuel from Nigeria would only need little effort.

“It is a huge business going on there right now. Many of the Libyan businessmen have seen that to safeguard the local oil supply. In the face of the ongoing war, they have to augment with fuel from wherever. Nigerian northern borders seem to be providing the desired relief,” another source told Sunday Tribune.

It was, however, learnt at the weekend that at least one security outfit had stepped into the scene in an attempt to track those behind the illegal activities.

Sources also said that Nigerian authorities would not want to paint a picture of subtle involvement in the Libyan war, especially as the government is said to be sticking to the position of the African Union on the Libyan crisis.

OPEC set to roll over output amid weak economy, Libya unrest

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/opec-set-to-roll-over-output-amid-weak-economy-libya-unrest/articleshow/8732768.cms

LONDON: The OPEC oil cartel meets in Vienna this week, widely expected to hold production levels unchanged as it balances a weak economic outlook and popular unrest in the Middle East which has slashed Libyan output.

The 12-nation group, which pumps 40 percent of the world's oil, meets on Wednesday amid growing fears that high crude prices could further dent faltering world economic growth and energy demand.

The International Energy Agency has already called on OPEC to increase output and prevent another damaging spike in prices, with seasonal demand set to strengthen in the coming summer months in the northern hemisphere.

So far this year, Brent oil prices have soared by about 21 percent, largely as a result of spreading unrest in the crude-producing Middle East and North Africa region -- and particularly in OPEC member Libya.

At the same time, recent downbeat global economic data has suggested that the economic recovery is struggling and this complicates the outlook.

"I would expect OPEC to leave quotas unchanged, rather than raise them, given the growing evidence that global demand is slowing," said Capital Economics analyst Julian Jessop.

"There is speculation in the market that they will be doing something to acknowledge the supply problems in Libya.

"Regardless of what OPEC happens to do ... prices have further to fall," he added, citing recent weak economic data in top oil consumer the United States.

Standard Chartered analyst Helen Henton said "comments from OPEC members to date suggest that OPEC will ... pledge to keep the market well supplied, rather than proposing any formal change in output targets."

OPEC has left its production target at 24.84 million barrels per day (mbpd) since early 2009. The IEA estimates that output stood at 26.15 mbpd in April.

IHS Global Insight oil analyst Simon Wardell agreed that OPEC members were already pumping above the official ceiling to compensate for the Libyan shortfall.

"We expect no change in OPEC quotas once again. Certainly, oil consuming nations would welcome an increase but increasingly, OPEC is responding to market signals outside of the formal quota system," he told AFP.

"We saw that with Libya -- as production there fell sharply through February and March, Saudi Arabia moved to compensate through increased output. All of this occurred outside of the formal OPEC production target system."

He added: "OPEC could take the opportunity to formalise existing output as the new quota but with the possible issues that may arise from this -- how is Libya treated? Who gets extra volumes? -- OPEC will find it easier to roll targets over yet again."

In the run-up to the meeting, Libyan Oil Minister Shukri Ghanem announced that he had resigned and left Libya to join the uprising against Moamer Kadhafi's regime "to fight for a democratic country."

Ghanem, the head of the state-run National Oil Corporation (NOC), has been Libya's representative at the cartel for years.

Obama to meet with leaders of Nigeria, Gabon

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/06/04/3676570/obama-to-meet-with-leaders-of.html
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama has set White House meetings next week with two African leaders.

The White House says Obama will hold talks next Thursday with President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon. Ondimba is serving as president of the 15-nation Security Council during June.

Gabon is an oil-rich former French colony in central Africa with a population of 1.5 million.

On Wednesday, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan pays a visit. He won election in April in Africa's most populous nation, but violent protests have occurred in the Muslim north since the vote.

Muslim rioters were upset that Jonathan, a Christian from the south, had won. The postelection violence has threatened the stability of the oil-producing West African nation.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/06/04/3676570/obama-to-meet-with-leaders-of.html#ixzz1OL8mDUOt

Nigeria oil reforms to be taken up by new parliament

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/01/nigeria-oil-reforms-idUSLDE75019L20110601

* Reforms could significantly alter cost of business
* Passage of bill has been repeatedly delayed
* Billions of dollars of investment on hold

By Camillus Eboh ABUJA,  (Reuters)

Wide-ranging reforms to Nigeria's
oil industry will be left to a new parliament to consider but
the bill may not have to go back to a first reading, reducing
the risk of further long delays, lawmakers said on Wednesday.

Uncertainty over the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), a
massive piece of legislation that will redefine Nigeria's
decades-old relationship with foreign oil firms, has left
billions of dollars of potential investment on hold.

The reforms will alter the tax and regulatory framework for
projects in Africa's top oil and gas producer, and firms such
as Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L), Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) and Chevron
(CVX.N) are reluctant to commit until there is clarity.

Oil Minister Deziani Allison-Madueke had repeatedly
promised the bill would be passed by the current parliament,
which reaches the end of its term on Friday, and there were
fears that it would face long delays should it fail to do so.

A new parliament usually takes bills left over from the
outgoing administration back to a first reading, meaning new
committees have to be formed before months of debate on issues
already covered in the previous session.

But lawmakers said the Senate had altered its rules and
would not have to restart the process from scratch.

"The PIB is alive and will be continued by the next National Assembly," Bassey Otu, outgoing chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum and a senator-elect, told Reuters in the capital, Abuja.

"The Senate has amended its rules to allow bills to be
continued by another session of the Senate," he said.

Reforms to Nigeria's oil sector have been under
consideration for years and promised deadlines have repeatedly
come and gone without progress.

The PIB could still face an uncertain future.

The ruling People's Democratic Party saw its parliamentary
majority weaken in April elections and it is not certain that
new opposition members of parliament will be happy to sign off
on clauses that have already been debated.

The government hopes the bill will tackle issues including
funding shortfalls at its joint ventures with foreign firms,
insecurity in the Niger Delta, increasing local involvement in
the industry and production of more gas for domestic power.

(For more Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the
top issues, visit: af.reuters.com/ )

(Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Dale Hudson)

Nigeria's four oil refineries all online : NNPC

http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE7510IQ20110602

LONDON (Reuters) - All four of Nigeria's refineries are working and producing at an average rate of 60 percent of capacity, a spokesman for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp (NNPC) told Reuters on Thursday.
"Nothing is wrong with the refineries. Kaduna, Warri, they are all working," the NNPC spokesman said. "Warri has so much kerosene it's even becoming a problem."

Nigeria's refineries have the potential to process 445,000 barrels per day of crude oil but they have never reached full production because of sabotage and poor maintenance.

Glencore CEO’s IPO Wealth May Beat Google, Blackstone Founders

Glencore CEO, Ivan Glasenberg

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-05-04/glencore-ceo-s-ipo-wealth-may-beat-google-blackstone-founders.html

By Christine Harper, Zijing Wu and Elisa Martinuzzi

(Bloomberg) -- Glencore International AG’s initial public offering may value Chief Executive Officer Ivan Glasenberg’s stake at $9.6 billion, more than Google Inc. and Blackstone Group LP’s founders reaped in their IPOs.

Glasenberg, 54, will own 16 percent of the Swiss commodity trader after the sale, which may give the company a market capitalization of about $61 billion, according to a prospectus published today.

Stephen Schwarzman’s stake in Blackstone was $8.8 billion when the New York-based private-equity firm went public in June 2007. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin held $3.28 billion and $3.27 billion of the internet search company’s stock at its IPO in 2004. Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s IPO, 12 years ago, pegged then-CEO Henry Paulson’s stake at $219 million.

“I can’t think of any other IPO where an individual’s stake was valued this highly,” said Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Glencore’s IPO is set to make at least four more senior executives billionaires. Daniel Mate and Telis Mistakidis, the Baar, Switzerland-based firm’s top traders of zinc, copper and lead, will hold 6 percent stakes valued at about $3.7 billion, the filing shows. Tor Peterson, director of coal and coke, and Alex Beard, who oversees oil trading, will have stakes of about $3.2 billion and $2.8 billion, the prospectus shows.

Sale Restrictions

Simon Buerk, a Glencore spokesman in Baar, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment today.

Glasenberg and Glencore’s top executives won’t be able to sell any of their stakes in the year following the IPO. They will be able to sell as much as 20 percent of their original holding over each of the next four years, the filing shows.

Their wealth will, therefore, fluctuate with the stock price. Blackstone, which first sold shares to the public for $31 each, now trades at $18.05, eroding Schwarzman’s wealth. By contrast, Brin and Page’s stake in Google has soared in value as the stock jumped from its $85 IPO price to more than $534 today.

“This is the best time for an IPO,” said Michael Tamvakis, a commodities professor at Cass Business School in London. “Glencore’s margins are driven by commodity prices. If prices fall, those will be squeezed.”

Amancio Ortega’s holding in Inditex SA, the clothing company he founded, was valued at 6.9 billion euros, about $5.9 billion at the exchange rate when the stock began trading in May 2001.

Ortega, 75, is the world’s seventh-richest person, according to Forbes’s list of billionaires for 2011. Glasenberg would rank 92nd, after Johanna Quandt, a member of Bayerische Motoren Werke AG’s controlling family, and Maria-Elizabeth and Georg Schaeffler, who own part of Schaeffler Group, the world’s biggest maker of roller bearings.

Accounting Graduate

Glasenberg, an accounting graduate, has been at Glencore since 1984 and CEO since 2002. He was part of a management-led buyout of the business from founder and former fugitive U.S. financier Marc Rich in 1994.

Glasenberg, who was once a competitive walker and completed two Swiss triathlons at the age of 43, graduated in 1981 from the University of the Witwatersrand. He earned his accounting certification at Levitt Kirson and his master of business administration degree from the University of Southern California in 1983. He joined Glencore a year later.

The company plans to sell shares at 480 pence ($7.95) to 580 pence each, Glencore said in a statement today. The final price will be set around May 19, when the stock is set to begin trading.

--With reporting from Jesse Riseborough in London. Editors: Edward Evans, Amanda Jordan.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christine Harper in New York at charper@bloomberg.net

Sammy Ofer dies

Sammy Ofer

http://www.tankeroperator.com/news/todisplaynews.asp?NewsID=2750

Israeli business tycoon Sammy Ofer, whose shipping empire is at the centre of an investigation over trading with Iran, has died after a long illness, aged 89.

An Ofer Brothers group company, Singapore-based Tanker Pacific, was the subject of US sanctions row last month.

It was accused of selling an oil tanker to Iran. The brothers denied any wrongdoing, allegedly saying they did not realise the buyer had been a front for an Iranian company, reported Reuters.

The Israeli government has long urged tough action against Iran, accusing it of building a nuclear bomb. But authorities reacted cautiously to the US move, fuelling speculation about possible links between the brothers and intelligence services, the news agency said.

The Monaco-based Ofer Brothers group controls a network of companies worldwide, including Zim, Zodiac and Tanker Pacific.

Israeli newspapers have reported that besides the controversial tanker sale, a number of the group's ships had docked in Iran.

Reports suggested that these were units of Tanker Pacific’s tanker fleet, which called at Iranian ports, including Kharg Island, between 2004 and 2007, plus vessels belonging to Zodiac.

Lawyers met last Tuesday to discuss legal aspects of the case, but the meeting, which went out live on television, was adjourned within minutes after the chairman received a mysterious note from an aide.

Ofer was born in Romania in 1922 and his family moved to the territory that was to become modern Israel shortly afterwards. His father established a small shipping company that his sons developed into a world leader, Reuters reported.

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/10/billionaires-2010_Sammy-Ofer-family_QK08.html

The World's Billionaires
#109 Sammy Ofer & family
Press-shy Israeli and his family own a vast global shipping empire, plus interests in banking and real estate.
Israel SunNet Worth: $6.5 bil

Fortune: Self Made

Source: shipping

Age: 88

Country Of Citizenship: Israel

Residence: Monte Carlo

Education: NA

Marital Status: Married, 2 children
Press-shy Israeli and his family own a vast global shipping empire, plus interests in banking and real estate. Announced formal retirement last September and returned to Israel, becoming permanent resident. Two sons active in dad's vast empire: Son Eyal, who runs real estate business and is a director of cruise line Royal Caribbean, splits his time between Monaco, New York and London; son Idan, based in Israel, is chairman of Israel Corp., which holds strategic stakes in chemicals, energy, technology and shipping (through Zim Shipping). Owns extensive collection of impressionist, post-impressionist and modern paintings. Awarded an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth for his services to U.K. maritime heritage.