Following his recent meeting with Kadhafi, Democrat senator Joseph Biden, a highly influential member of the Senate’s foreign relations committee, said the Libyan leader ?
“Is the most intelligent man I have ever met.”
But sure ! What a (free) compliment :
With active backing from Saif El Islam, son of Muammer Kadhafi, Abdallah Badri (Morocco’s leading oil official) and prime minister Shukri Ghanem have managed to push through an American takeover of a good chunk of Libya’s oil industry !!!
Out of 15 new blocks awarded in a licensing round, 11 went to American operators, principally to Occidental Petroleum (nine in all, four of them in conjunction with Australia’s Woodside) but also to Amerada Hess Corp (one) and Chevron (one). Others awarded acreage were Petrobras (Brazil), Medco (Indonesia), India Ltd., Verenex Energy Inc (Canada) and Sonatrach (Algeria).
European’s majors like Gaz de France, Total, Repsol, BP and Agip went away empty-handed. Luckier in March when a second round will be staged ?
It’s very strange to see that is there no Italian company, Italy government has very good relationship with Kadhafi from the last year, maybe more interested about resolve emigration problems than get some oil…
