Now we know why ‘May you live in interesting times’ is supposed to be a Chinese curse
Chinese oil major signs cooperation with Maltese minnow – seeking entry into lucrative African and S. American oil blocks
(I-Newswire) July 23, 2009 –
Oil Intelligence understands that a Maltese Oil Company, British Borneo Petroleum, has signed an unusual cooperation agreement with Chinese Giant CNOOCI (China Offshore Oil Exploration Corporation Intl.) the largest offshore exploration company in China.
At first sight, the agreement raises more questions than it answers, but sources say that British Borneo Petroleum is the owned by British Borneo Holdings, the holding company of Malta based businessman Shiv Nair.
In November last year we had highlighted Nair’s links with Kirsan Illyumzhinov, the President of Kalmykia, to whom he acts as special advisor. Nair was rumored to be the emissary of the Kremlin in the billion dollar deal to sell Oman’s shares in the Transcaspian pipeline to Russia. Neither Oman nor Transneft confirmed nor denied these rumors.
More recently, another company owned by British Borneo Holdings, Borneo Midmed, was involved in putting together a financing package using Chinese credit for building a railway line in the Caucasus from Georgia to Armenia. China railways are reputed to be the main contractors.
British Borneo Petroleum, which has an MOU with GNPC for the block adjacent to the giant Tullow block, is also reputed to be in discussions with CNPC, another Chinese major for the purchase of Kosmos’s block in the Jubilee field. Once again, Nair is reputed to be on close terms with the new government in Accra.
It would appear that CNOOC is getting unprecedented access to key decision makers in several African and South American countries, through British Borneo Petroleum, while the smaller Maltese company is getting all the benefits of Chinese financing and technological know-how. A win-win situation for all concerned.
Svetlana Toma, Oil Intelligence
Company Name Itar Tass News
Company Address 26/1, Sofiyskaya Embankment, 1, GSP-8 117997, Moscow, Russia
Contact Details Svetlana Toma oil Intelligence
33 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
http://www.i-newswire.com/chinese-oil-major-signs-cooperation/a310359
There is more to this.
Poly Energy is in a head to head collision with Genel Energy over the Tak Tak oilfield in Kurdistan (Northern Iraq). Shiv Nair is advisor to Poly Energy.
Would you be surprised to know that the present Maltese government is being ‘advised’ to undermine Genel Energy’s Maltese oil exploration licence over Area 4 (offshore south Malta)?
http://www.stockopedia.co.uk/content/vallares-and-chinese-in-a-noholds-barred-fight-in-kurdistan-59805/
More about oil in Malta:
Right after the March general elections iNews reports how oil minister Joe Mizzi is having ‘intensive’ talks with oil companies interested in Malta:
http://www.inewsmalta.com/dart/20130404-laqg-at-intensivi-ma-kumpaniji-interessati-fit-affir-ta-ejt
Joe Mizzi thinks he can boast about this, but anywhere in the democratic world would cringe at such news.
Oil companies are not meant to meet the oil minister directly.
By analogy, when the government needs a service (costing a few thousands euro, let alone millions) it issues a tender. Ministers do not go to the press and boast about their meetings with potential suppliers ahead of the issue of tender. Such an act would raise suspicion of corrupt practice.
However, it seems that in the case of Malta, it is the minister who decides who gets a multi-million euro oil concession rather than a transparent process that involves a formal application followed by scrutiny of the company’s finances and technical expertise, as in the case of the UK.
To think they’re all happily hounding Austin Gatt down.
Then there’s Tonio and his clock. Nahseb dak l-arlogg beda’ jahdem wahdu.
My thoughts exactly.
This is huge. I hope one or all newspapers take this up and give this story its due importance. In a normal place, this would be front-page material with further investigations taking place and the prime minister and Malta Enterprise not let off the hook.
Malta seems to forge ahead blindly…l-aqwa li tawni l-jopp/permess/etc li ridt.
Did I get this right? http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131004/local/gozo-channel-duty-manager-suspended-over-recalled-ferry.488847#.Uk5XrssaySM
Is this another farce à la Taliana?
All’Italiana.
At least here they are not referring to him as Maltese as other reports have done. However, he is still sullying our reputation.
Where the hell is the FIAU in all of this? Presumably he has legal advisers in Malta. Aren’t they subject to anti money laundering procedures like all other lawyers?
Daphne, why do you think that both the Times and the Independent have failed to pick up on your offer about uncovering the truth on this Nair business?
It is very disconcerting. Don’t journalists realise the dangerous implications to Malta of the game that Muscat is playing?
Are we so shallow as to ignore the ethics of it all and simply plough on as if nothing has happened?
[Daphne – It’s not so much the ethics, Kevin, as the implicit, real danger to Malta’s credibility. The frightening thing is that the people we’ve got in government now don’t seem to know or care how fragile that is.]
To extend your comment, I think they know full well but don’t care.
It seems that to this government the credibility of the country is merely an obstacle that can be easily destroyed rather than painstakingly nurtured for a better future.
However, you still leave unanswered the question about why the media hasn’t picked up on your story. Is it competition as you state in one of your earlier posts? Or is it more deep seated: example, lack of professionalism, susceptibility to take everything literally?
As I see it, another frightening thing is that this investigative piece that you have constructed over the past few days will fail to enter the mainstream because of a lack of response by the media.
Instead it will be relegated and labelled as the negative rambling of a “PN lackey” rather than taken as a severe critique based upon systematic analysis.
Your work in this respect cannot even be played down as an interpretation of facts, i.e., as mere speculation. You have put forward many facts for our consideration and reflection. You ask questions that will remain unanswered unless they are picked up by the media and thrown into the mainstream.
It is frightening that the Maltese media is not providing its readers with an investigative service.
Muscat knows this and actually relies on the state of affairs to field his abusive behaviour. He probably feels secure enough to do what he wants.
We live in a society where many prefer not to shoulder too much of a burden even at their work place. It takes experience and authority in one’s field to man up and pursue goals which to others seem a lost cause. I don’t expect a young journalist to take up this serious issue, but it is worrying that the ‘seniors’ avoid it.
Labour wants exactly this, a depleted media presence. No matter how many scandals are uncovered on this blog, unless they’re picked up by mainstream media, it will be hard to get the masses to understand them.
I simply cannot believe that the media did not take up this story and splashed it all over as headlines.
Daphne has presented enough facts to sustain it.
Then all I can say is that the situation is far beyond frightening.
Thank you, Daphne, for your brilliant work.
Never mind the dangers for Malta.
It’s a bloody good story with lots of scope for investigative journalism. It’s the type of story which increases newspaper circulation. Editors who don’t pursue it should be shot and killed.
For some strange reason, when a big revelation is made on this website, the rest of the media ignore it. Maybe they’re ashamed that Daphne gets there first.
Whenever they do make a reference to something published here, they use vague terms like ‘the internet’, ‘the social media’, ‘blogs’ and so on, carefully circumventing mentioning Daphne Caruana Galizia’s name. Little do they realise that that name adds weight to whatever it is they’re saying.
No mainstream news outlet investigated Mary Swan (John Dalli’s partner in crime) the same way Daphne did either. It’s a disgrace and a shame. Not everybody reads this blog.
Matthew, more people do read this blog than may be readily apparent to us who are not privy to the actual traffic statistics.
I do not believe other journalists are ashamed that Daphne got there first. I believe they are scared to handle the material that Daphne handles and they are not capable of following through. Shame has little to do with it.
Kevin, I agree. I think fear has a lot to do with it.
As well as vested interests of connected parties.
Daphne, you have done all the groundwork, now others just need to follow it up.
You are handing them headline news on a plate but these pseudo journalists (or reporters) with their BA in Communications prefer to “cut and paste” DOI press releases.
But that’s it really, I don’t see anyone capable of working out the technicals and analysis leading to a story.
Imagine Sansone or Vassallo delving into Shiv Nair’s company architecture.
That includes the Nationalist Party media. Can anybody explain?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131004/local/mube-disputes-gwus-bov-majority-claim.488845#.Uk50pWtBupo
The GWU has been struggling to gain majority union membership at Bank of Valletta since the latter’s inception in 1974, up to now not succeeding.
In the “golden years” recruitment in BOV was not measured by qualifications or experience but by selling your soul to the devil aka GWU.
Now the GWU is back on the warpath promising promotions, plum postings to those employees who are paid-up members of the GWU.
All this under the watch of iced-bun chairman John Cassar White who was also chairman of Malta Drydocks during the years leading to the closure of the Drydocks, although this must have been more of a poisoned chalice to him.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-10-04/opinions/maltas-place-in-chinas-foreign-policy-strategy-tarcisio-zammit-2794389505/
What a piece of shortsighted, propagandistic analysis.
Good, so let us develop our foreign policy and according to the question: “Where is Malta’s place within this all-encompassing Chinese foreign policy strategy?”
Let us protect our national interest according to what China thinks about our place in the world.
More cheap communist propaganda, in my view.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131004/local/eating-disorders-centre-set-to-open-in-january.488942#.Uk6plWtBupo
Is the daughter-in-law sister still involved ? You know the one who had the “scholarship”, inconvenient travelling expenses, etc reimbursed by the MCCF ?
The Labour clowns had a field day when a commission agent stated that he had consulted the Yellow Pages to identify a contractor.
Well what can I say, the Labour Clowns have gone one better.
They go directly to the World Bank Blacklist to choose their consultants.
I don’t think the electorate voted for this take over by faceless individuals. Nor do I think was the vote set against merging Chinese interests into the national agenda.
Even more so when the political alternative had its own plan to discount energy generation costs.
At one point, senior members of the Labour party were adamant it was about a change of tack where it came to governing, that the proposals could be modified to suit the national interest.
What mattered was the prompt response a Labour government would provide.
I’m afraid it’s anything but, Labour cornered into apologetic statements. This is not the Labour people voted for. Nor is it close to implementing the program promised.
If so, I don’t see why this government’s election shouldn’t be challenged. It will be, ironically, the PN’s way of accepting the result.
Giving Labour the benefit of the doubt provides the case for its removal. Expecting the worst provides it with an alibi.
C’mon Simon, open your broadsides, they’re anchored.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131004/local/vanessa-frazier-appointed-ambassador-for-italy.488946#.Uk67-mtBupo
Another iced bun?
[Daphne – Mrs Frazier is a career diplomat, and was an ambassador already.]
NOW SERIOUSLY GUYS, THIS BELOW IS WHAT SERIOUS INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM IS ALL ABOUT.
From today’s Times of Malta:
Maltese fish pies caught in Wigan controversy
Local authorities in Wigan have been granted permission by a court to destroy boxes of “dubious fish pies” imported from Malta.
WiganToday reported that the 150 pies were being kept at a cold store following an international investigation into illegally-imported food.
The 120 lampuki pies and 30 octopus dishes had been imported by London-based firm Le Malte Foods.
Investigations revealed they had not been made according to European standards and regulations.
Wigan Council stressed none of the potentially dangerous pies had been offered for sale to the public.
Wigan Council manager for business compliance and improvement, Julie Searing, said: “The council detained this imported product because of concerns about its origin.
The newspaper said Maltese authorities confirmed that the business in Malta from where the pies were imported had not been granted the necessary approval and the safety of the food could not be guaranteed.
Alfred Sant’s “Malta. a Switzerland in the Mediterranean” was pipe dream.
Joseph Muscat’s “Malta taghna lkoll” is metamorphosing into a nightmarish “Malta a stepping stone for China into the EU”.
Malta tac-Cina wkoll.
Was not the present chairman of BOV then the chairman of Malta Drydocks during the Fairmouth debacle? If I am not mistaken there was an article on The Malta Independent some years back by Noel Grima on this subject.
Oh, they “found the funds.” Euro 350,000.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131004/local/mea.488975
Don’t tell me they looked under Manwel Mallia’s mattress while he was fetching water from the Main Guard fountain? That would leave them with an extra Euro 150,000 in cash.
Or did they get another grant from China?
Gives one new insight into the cultural motif ‘make a pact with the devil’ doesn’t it?
What a change .. Previously negotiations were on going with Warren Buffet to open a base in Malta for one of his companies, Netjets. And this government is in “dealings” with Shiv Nair.
Throughout the day Sky News led with an expose on forced abortions in China. They interviewed a couple whose front door was kicked in at four in the morning by officials from the Planned Parenthood Department in their province.
The woman, who was over six months pregnant, was then carted off to have a forced abortion. Sky News stated that this sort of thing happens regularly and with the implicit blessing of Beijing under the umbrella of their One Child Policy.
So our Government snubs the EU and actively seeks out the despotic Chinese. Imma l-aqwa li naghlqu l-hofra l-Enemalta u nbaxxu dawk l-imbierek kontijiet.
Have you ever thought that they found huge oil reserves around the Maltese archipelago a while back and it has been kept a “not so secret” secret?
The Chinese want to get in on the first floor of this bonanza and Joseph Muscat is their agent, as Chinese money got him elected and he owes them big time.