Former Nigerian defence
minister wins Chinese oil deal
AFP
LAGOS
Petroleumworld.com 01 10 06
A former defence minister who served as army chief of staff under
one of Nigeria's previous military regimes owns the firm which
on Monday sold the rights to an offshore oil field to China's
CNOOC for more than two billion dollars.
The Chinese company said it would buy a 45 percent stake in offshore
oil bloc OML 130 from private Nigerian company South Atlantic
Petroleum (Sapetro) Ltd, which multiple business sources confirmed
is owned by retired lieutenant general Theophilus Danjuma, the
firm's chairman.
Sapetro's listed offices in Lagos were empty Monday. Neighbours
directed an AFP reporter to a second address where security guards
said no company officials were present and telephones had not
yet been installed. Calls to the firm's previous numbers went
unanswered.
Now a wealthy businessman, Danjuma served as chief of army staff
between 1978 and 1979 under Nigeria's then military ruler General
Olusegun Obasanjo and returned to act as defence minister when
Obasanjo came back to office as an elected civilian president
in May 1999.
He stepped down at the end of Obasanjo's first term in 2003, following
a turbulent period in office in which he was blamed by many for
a massacre of civilians carried out in October 2001 by Nigerian
troops in the village of Zaki-Biam.
He has since become a vocal critic of the president.
Earlier, in July 1966, Danjuma was one of the leaders of a military
putsch which overthrew Nigeria's first military dictator General
Aguyisi Ironsi and helped set in train the events which led to
the west African country's devastating 1967-1970 civil war.
CNOOC's purchase gives China a potentially lucrative interest
in Oil Mining Licence 130, which includes the Akpo oil field in
deep waters in the Gulf of Guinea south of the Niger Delta.
The international energy giant Total has the operating contract
for the field, which is expected to yield oil some time in 2008
and eventually produce 225,000 barrels per day.
South Atlantic Petroleum had initially planned to sell its stake
in OML 130 to India's ONGC, but last month the Indian government
stepped in to halt the deal. Officials said that Delhi considered
the investment too risky.
AFP
01/09/06
Copyright
© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved
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