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Madagascar - 75 billion barrels of oil found?

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Madagascar - 75 billion barrels of oil found?

Unread postby Aqua-Teen » Wed 16 Feb 2005, 02:01:11

Does_Anyone_Know_how_true_this_is_&_does_That_=_out_to_much_oil_if_it_is_true?

Sorry_For_All_the_Underscores_My_Space_Bar_is_broken_=(

(I_cut_&_Paste_the_title_&_Articles)

Madagascar has lots of Oil???

And_2nd_article China says "All your oil are belong to us!!!"
"Bond's role in 'huge' oil find uncertain By Sean Cowan and Rania Ghandour, January 25, 2005:
Mr Bond relaxing at North Cottesloe ... has gone from boasting of diamond mines to the biggest oilfield in Africa.

The good oil on Alan Bond's newest venture is that his reported boast that it's a "huge thing ... a bloody monster" seems to be no exaggeration. Mr Bond, who spent the first few weeks of the new year in Perth spruiking Madagascar Oil, has refused to reveal details of the project but investigations by The West Australian have revealed that the UK company behind it is closely related to a company involved in the struggling Lesotho Diamond Corp that Mr Bond pushed last summer.

And the businessman who runs Madagascar Oil believes it holds the rights to the biggest oilfields in Africa, capable of producing 75 billion barrels of oil. The only question left to be answered is what Mr Bond stands to gain. Mr Bond has refused to discuss his interest in the project and Sam Malin, the Canadian-born managing director of Madagascar Oil who works out of the London office of the Vuna group of companies, did little to shed any light on the matter.

"He [Bond] doesn't have a role in Madagascar Oil," he said. "He has no role in Madagascar Oil at all. I'll have to read your coverage. I know you had an article a week or two ago but I haven't seen it. I'll take a look at that."

Mr Malin said none of Mr Bond's relatives had a role in Madagascar Oil and he was not aware of the involvement of Vuna Capital in the Lesotho project. Then his mobile telephone cut out as his train passed into London's underground system.

But Madagascar Oil administrative and financial manager Alain Razafinimanana said the ageing entrepreneur held shares in Vuna Energy, the company backing Madagascar Oil, which is also run by Mr Malin and is a sister company to Vuna Capital. "He [Mr Bond] works with us in the role of shareholder," he said. "He finances our activity here in Madagascar. He is part of the company which finances Madagascar Oil.

"I'm not sure of the exact composition of the shareholders but I know he is part of the holding company called Vuna which finances Madagascar Oil. He's never been here. Up until now, we've never seen him in Madagascar."

Mr Malin had been happy to talk about Madagascar Oil's plans, claiming the board was looking at ways of raising capital, hinting it could float on London's Alternative Investment Market. "It's a big project and most companies would bring in a technical partner with complementary technical expertise so that's something to keep in mind as well," he said. "We are in the middle of negotiations at the moment. Personally, I can tell you we are likely to be able to give to the public more details in February."

He also revealed that the company was looking at conventional oil reserves but was excited about its chances of exploiting heavy oil reserves, similar to those found in Canada and Venezuela, which it had explored since 2003.

"What makes the project in Madagascar exceptional is that the volumes of those heavy oil reserves are absolutely massive," he said. "It depends on who you speak to as to the opinion on how much they are but they are certainly dozens of billions of barrels. The two heavy oilfields in Madagascar are almost certainly the largest oilfields, if you put them all into one pot, in and around Africa.

"It is in a part of the country that looks like an open field with a few palm trees dotted around. So from the point of view of getting operations on the ground it's straightforward."

Mr Malin, a former Dome Petroleum geophysicist and Arthur D. Little and Standard & Poor's DRI oil and gas expert, also said that rumours that another former Perth bankrupt living in London was involved in Madagascar Oil was wrong.


The West Australian"
"China plans Madagascar oil venture Last Updated(Beijing Time):2005-01-19 10:16

Sino Union Petroleum & Chemical International said yesterday it planned to set up a petrochemical joint venture in Madagascar.

Sino Union said it has agreed a letter of intent with the government of the Indian Ocean island to set up the venture, which will have exclusive rights to explore for oil and operate an oil refinery, oil storage, oil ports and oil transportation facilities for 50 years.
Source:China Daily"
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Unread postby ECM » Wed 16 Feb 2005, 02:06:19

75 billion barrels of oil would shift the peak by 1.25 years at the current 30 billion barrels/year. Remember, half on the rising side of the peak and half on the declining side.
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Unread postby Aqua-Teen » Wed 16 Feb 2005, 02:16:58

It also seems like they just found it. Maybe it won't go online until the peak is past anyway. I wish there was more info. [smilie=dontknow.gif]
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Unread postby 0mar » Wed 16 Feb 2005, 03:31:53

It'll be twenty years from today before that field (if this is even true, this is bigger than Ghawar) before it reaches its peak.
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Unread postby Grimnir » Wed 16 Feb 2005, 04:06:10

Perhaps they said billion when they meant million?
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Unread postby skiwi » Wed 16 Feb 2005, 04:26:32

Let us make him who shall nourish and sustain us. What shall we do to be invoked; to be remembered in the earth.
We have tried with our first creatures but we could not make them venerate us.
So let us try to make obedient respectful beings who shall
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Unread postby pup55 » Wed 16 Feb 2005, 07:31:42

Usually, when someone makes an announcement of an oil discovery, they state some specifics about the geological formation, the depth and/or size of the formation, and some results of a test well, including the API measurement of how sweet the oil is.

When that starts to happen, we (the public and potential investors) will have a better idea of what is down there.
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Unread postby pup55 » Wed 16 Feb 2005, 07:37:41

http://www.vunacapital.com/

Also, they need to hire a webmaster.

470 hits on their website as of this morning.
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Unread postby pup55 » Wed 16 Feb 2005, 07:51:17

link
Bond Corporation's ultimate collapse is blamed on various factors, including trial by media, but the real reason probably can be linked to the way Alan operated - in the sense that he always needed to do new deals to pay for the previous ones, whether real estate or corporate plays, so when one deal finally came unstuck, for whatever reasons, the whole corporate structure collapsed like a row of dominoes.
So while Pierpont reckons the most appropriate way of acquiring a copy of the book would be by shoplifting it, I would say try to borrow, beg or steal a copy because if you think what happened is what actually happened, then reading this book might allow you some new perspectives.
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Madagascar - 75 billion barrels of oil found?

Unread postby ireneekamou » Tue 01 Mar 2005, 19:34:10

Hi

Since I know something about the heavy oil in Madagascar let me add my two bits worth... the field STOIIP figures are in the billions of barrels. I have heard figures of as little as 12 billion barrels and as much as 360 billion (which I think might have been a typo!) across the two heavy oil fields: Tsimiroro with API's mostly in the range of 14-16 and Bemolanga with APIs in the range 8-11. Lighter oil of up to 22 API has been found around Tsimiroro and to the south is a light oil discovery (Shell) which was 41 degrees API.

The oil at Bemolanga has been known to exist for many decades (it breaks the surface in many locations) but the technology, fiscal and corporate environment did not exist to make it worth exploiting. As for Tsimiroro a number of wells have discovered and pumped oil. My understanding is that with modern technologies as well as the improving fiscal regime in Madagascar, the heavy oil deposits are now commercially exploitable and Madagascar oil and gas in general (i.e. not just heavy oil) is becoming more attractive. ExxonMobil, NorksHydro, Vanco and Sterling Energy, Madagascar Oil and Majunga Oil all have production sharing contracts signed, or are partipants in them. Also a number of other companies are apparently interested either directly or indirectly though the other players, including various Chinese companies (though intriguingly it seems not those in the article quoted elsewhere in this thread), and companies such as Mocoh and Neptune.

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Re: Madagascar - 75 billion barrels of oil found?

Unread postby Tanada » Sat 18 Nov 2017, 11:13:44

Former Canadian prime minister Jean Chrétien is adamant that he was never associated with Madagascar Oil’s offshore accounts: “I worked for (Madagascar Oil), yes, but just for a few days, a few weeks. I never heard from (them) again.”

OTTAWA–Buried within the millions of documents in a new offshore tax leak is a familiar Canadian name: Jean Chrétien.

The former prime minister’s name appears in an internal registry of Madagascar Oil Ltd., an onshore oil company operating in the remote island nation, but registered in the zero-tax haven of Bermuda. Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien is listed as receiving 100,000 stock options in the company.

Chretien released a statement Monday after his name was reported as appearing in the Paradise Papers leak. He called any reports that suggest “I have or ever had or was associated in any way with any offshore account is false.” In an interview last month, he told the Star and the CBC that he never had any knowledge the company was sheltering in an offshore tax haven.

“I worked for (Madagascar Oil), yes, but just for a few days, a few weeks. I never heard from (them) again,” Chrétien said. “I never had any options. I was never sent any documents. I never received an annual report or anything … I searched, I have nothing on it. They never told me I had options.”

There is no evidence the options were ever exercised.

In 2007, Chrétien had been out of public office for years and working for the now-defunct law firm Heenan Blaikie. Chrétien says an oil man who used to work in Canada, then working for Madagascar Oil in Houston, asked him for assistance.

The company was exploring remote regions of Madagascar for heavy crude. The island nation’s onshore oil reserves had been the stuff of legend since at least the early 20th century, but nobody had yet mounted a serious effort to exploit them.

But the company needed face time with Madagascar’s president, and hoped Chrétien — with his connections to world leaders — could help.

Chrétien said he facilitated a meeting between Madagascar Oil’s CEO and Madagascar’s then-leader, President Marc Ravalomanana, at a summit of African leaders.

“There was a meeting of African heads of state … and it was a chance to meet with the president,” Chrétien said in an interview.

“It wasn’t a long meeting. We sat down and [Madagascar Oil’s CEO] talked about what he wanted to talk about.”

Madagascar Oil was founded by U.K.-born, Canadian-raised Sam Malin in 2004, backed by Australian businessman Alan Bond, a convicted fraudster. Malin, who studied geophysics at Queen’s University, translated his success in Madagascar to a number of other natural resource projects in East Africa.

Chrétien said he doesn’t remember the specifics of the discussion between Madagascar Oil’s representative and Ravalomanana.

Madagascar Oil’s corporate headquarters was in Houston; its local operations are run out of the African nation’s capital of Antananarivo. But the company is registered in Bermuda, a zero-tax haven that is popular with offshore companies, where Appleby handled its affairs.

Registering companies offshore is legal, and there is no indication in the Paradise Papers that Madagascar Oil was engaged in anything otherwise. Tax havens simply allow companies to avoid taxes in other jurisdictions.

Chrétien said, when he agreed to work with Madagascar Oil’s Houston-based team, he assumed the company was based in Texas.

“Listen, when someone comes to see you (as a lawyer), you don’t do an analysis of their corporate structure. They come to see you to ask for your professional opinion,” Chrétien said in an interview.

“Every company has subsidiaries all over the place … we’re not here to scrutinize that,” he continued. “They asked me to help, they had retained our law firm, and I did my job. I did what I was paid to do.”

Asked for his personal opinion on structuring companies to take advantage of offshore tax havens, Chrétien said “that’s not the right thing to do … they must pay their taxes in countries where they operate.”

Madagascar Oil Ltd. did not respond to repeated requests for an interview for this story.


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Re: Madagascar - 75 billion barrels of oil found?

Unread postby onlooker » Sat 18 Nov 2017, 12:47:10

pstarr wrote:What is the relevance of a scandal at what is essentially a non-existent enterprise?

No commercial oil has ever been produced and sold out of the ground in Madagascar. It's super-heavy remote and not exploitable.

Akin to Venezuela , desperate times requiring desperate measures
"We are mortal beings doomed to die
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Re: Madagascar - 75 billion barrels of oil found?

Unread postby Plantagenet » Sat 18 Nov 2017, 12:57:30

Yes---this is real.

Madagascar-heavy-oil

"Pretty soon, the world’s fourth-largest island off the southeastern coast of Africa will be known more for heavy oil than it is known for the ring-tailed lemur. Experts estimate that out of the 600,000 square miles that make up Madagascar, half of the island is covered by the heavy oil-rich sedimentary basins of Morondava, Majunga and Ambilobe.

Heavy oil abounds in western Madagascar. First discovered in 1842, "more than 500 core holes and 13 exploration wells have been drilled over the past century," revealed Alex Archila, CEO of Madagascar Oil Ltd. "Due to the lack of infrastructure in the country and the resulting economics for producing the oil, most projects were abandoned. With the improvements in oil extraction technology and the surge in the price of oil, current efforts look positive."

A private oil and gas company, Madagascar Oil holds the largest amount of onshore exploration and production licenses in the country and boasts 100% interest in two significant heavy oil fields in northwest Madagascar."

madagascar_heavy_oil_project_slated_to_start_in_2018

French oil producer Total SA said the company .... expects production to begin as planned in 2018.

.....Total bought its stake in the Bemolanga license last September from Madagascar Oil S.A., a private oil and gas company based in Houston, which held the license for the deposit and retained a 40% stake.

Cheers!

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