Congratulations, You Won

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Qoraalkaan waa qoraal wacan, qof walbana in uu aqriyo u baahan.

__________________

 

Congratulations, You Won

 

You know when you get that annoying pop up after you open a web browser saying “Congratulations You Won!!!”? We all know that it's a hoax and there really isn't anything to win, just a bunch of false ads about subscribing to some random products or services. This is how I feel about the new Puntland oil discoveries. Let me give you a little background on the key player.

 

We have the Austrailian exploration and production company called Range Resources. The firm's

webiste

mentioned that they have found two hydrocarbon basins covering approximately 20 million acres in Puntland, Somalia. It was also mentioned in a web video by Al Jazeera, that these blocks could potentially produce about 19 billion barrels of oil in the Puntland region. That’s about 2 trillion dollars of commerciable oil.

 

When the firm's Executive Director, Peter Landau, was asked on Al Jazeera how the profits will be split, this is how he broke it down:

Without mentioning any details, monthly payment installments will be given to the local government of Puntland during exploration.

A range of 4%-12% of royalties, based on daily production, will go to the government. Lastly, profits will be split 50/50 between the local government and Range Resources

.

 

After listening to the interview, I immediately had many concerns about this venture. Questions that I believe should have been asked, were overlooked in this short interview. When it comes to production, who determines the cost and under what economy, the Australian or the Puntland region? When that has been determined, who will oversee the minimum cost? Usually, these companies make huge profits by taking advantage of poor countries, and in this case a region where one man controls, the President of Puntland and Australian citizen, Abdurahman Farole.

 

The astonishing thing is that a small unknown company is informing the whole world that they are going to explore oil in Puntland, while the renown companies like Sinclair Oil Corp., Rodgers Oil Company, and Conoco Oil Company, who have been exploring Somali oil since the 40s, are not in the frontlines of this oil business. This seems like a hoax to impress the world and lure big oil companies to buy them out, which is another cost added to the future of Somalia's oil business. Furthermore, to make this project seem legitimate, a few pictures where taken of the two areas with equipment staging a lucrative “come buy me” position. Excuse me? Last I checked, technology is so advanced that finding oil takes minimum effort by simply pointing a satellite. It looks to me that they are trying to gas up the hype.

 

My Last but certainly not least question is how and who will oversee the environmental impact of this oil? Certainly the local government has not established a organized environmental protection agency. The threat of a catastrophic oil spill can be very dangerous to human, animal, and plant life. We all witnessed the oil spill in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, eleven crew members died during the explosion and it took more than 80 days to contain the spill. It cost British Petroleum Billions of dollars in clean-up cost and fines mandated by the government. Their effort to contain the oil leaks were due to the demand and outrage of the US government and it’s citizens. I don’t know who will have Puntland’s back if there is such a disaster.

 

Furothermore extracting commerciable oil in a foreign country requires:

1. A recognized government, which can negotiate on behalf of it's people and environment.

A recognized elected Parliament, which represents the people of the land that can rectify the deals and contracts between the government and oil companies.

Huge Investment, which requires a peaceful country with a recognized government that can sign deals on behalf of it's people

Banks which are recognized by IMF and International Banks, to be able to conduct financial transactions and L/C (letter of credit)

Infrastructure and strong educated labor force.

Puntland and Somalia as a whole are lacking all these requirements, therefore no genuine company will consider spending a dollar to explore oil in Somalia. If anything, it all sounds like we have a scam on our hands folks and we cannot afford to fall for it.

Bilan A. Aaden

[Bluelicious]

I seriously hate that pop up with the annoying text "Congratuation, You Won". They wanna mess up with your mind.

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

LoL, Blue. You reminded me to this childhood friend of mine. Back in somewhere in mid 2000s, he used to email me from Nayroobi, telling me to call this special number that he got from this 'congratulations, you won' website. Since the phone number was an American number, he told me to call it for him. I told him iska iloow waxaas, oo waa beentood. He wouldn't believe it. Scam iyo waxaas muu kuu yaqaan. I told him, haye waa kuu wacaa. But ma anaa u wacay. No frigging way.

[Somalia]

No one ever thought that 2 trillion dollars would be paid out to Somalia, it's what the oil is worth. Second, this girl needs to know more about regions where oil are exported and that you don't need a central government. You need a country that will refine the oil for you and sell it in the market. This was recently done by Qatar on behalf of the Libyan rebels. As of a few months ago the Iraqi Kurdistan region negotiated with the Iraqi government to export its oil through a pipeline and before that during Saddam's era, the region exported the oil itself.

 

You need a country to market the oil for you and Puntland would most likely be using Yemen. Her point with "no genuine company will consider spending a dollar to explore oil in Somalia" is just plain false, tens of millions have been spend already and no one pulls a rig onto a place like Somalia if there's no real chance of success.

 

Does this look like no "spending"?

 

 

Veiled language is so obvious these days.

[Qandalawi]

This is BS, and she it too tale with her concerns and it amounts to nothing, its only few weeks before the big news hits her on the face and the phase of refining and the drilling of the other wells starts.

 

Actually I expected more of these, I'm surprised this is the first one I saw so far.

[General Duke]

Qandalawi;783199 wrote:

This is BS, and she it too tale with her concerns and it amounts to nothing, its only few weeks before the big news hits her on the face and the phase of refining and the drilling of the other wells starts.

 

Actually I expected more of these, I'm surprised this is the first one I saw so far.

Not only is she the only one, she actually put her picture on the article. Also its ammusing who posted it on SOL, the greatest Puntland hater of all time. It would be great if he was as brave as this young lady..lol

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Kids, please comment what the article says if you have any to object, which isn't. Do not bring the author's picture iyo waxaas on here. This is not kindergarten iyo ciyaal ciyaaleed.

[Bluelicious]

Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar;783194 wrote:

LoL, Blue. You reminded me to this childhood friend of mine. Back in somewhere in mid 2000s, he used to email me from Nayroobi, telling me to call this special number that he got from this 'congratulations, you won' website. Since the phone number was an American number, he told me to call it for him. I told him iska iloow waxaas, oo waa beentood. He wouldn't believe it. Scam iyo waxaas muu kuu yaqaan. I told him, haye waa kuu wacaa. But ma anaa u wacay. No frigging way.

Looooooool good thing you never did most of them have hidden contracts. They don't tell you about it, they write it in very tiny letters that no one can barely see at the very bottom of the page.

[General Duke]

^^^Her article and title is child play. No one not even the world media doubts whats taking place in Dharoor valley. Thus our sister is more knowledgeable than the BBC, Al Jazeera, FT, Reuters and all the local media. She presents nothing and what is her Oil expertise for her assumptions?

 

This is just sad, the fact that she did not even use a pseudo name is even sadder.

[Somalina]

She's a hater!

 

Atleast Amin Amir is avoiding the news of the oil in Daroor Valley and the peace in Xamar and is keeping busy with nonsense like these.

 

[ElPunto]

There isn't much substance there. The splits she's talking about can and will be (re)negotiated. Small companies make big finds all the time - and yes they do get bought up by majors - but it doesn't negate the actual find simply because a small company found it. The environment?? - we're talking Africa here - people need to eat first. And her last 5 points are irrelevant - war torn South Sudan was exporting crude oil for many years with little of those she mentions.

 

Somalida need to relax. At this stage - what's needed is to pray that anything found will be of benefit to the Somali people not gratuitous negativity.

 

Warya Somalia - why do you keep saying the crude has to be refined - it doesn't. You can sell crude as is. It's internationally priced - here - http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=clh12.nym

[bilan]

what are her credentials? Does anyone know her background?

[ElPunto]

^You don't need her credentials or background. Her arguments should suffice.

[Somalia]

ElPunto;783219 wrote:

There isn't much substance there. The splits she's talking about can and will be (re)negotiated. Small companies make big finds all the time - and yes they do get bought up by majors - but it doesn't negate the actual find simply because a small company found it. The environment?? - we're talking Africa here - people need to eat first. And her last 5 points are irrelevant - war torn South Sudan was exporting crude oil for many years with little of those she mentions.

 

Somalida need to relax. At this stage - what's needed is to pray that anything found will be of benefit to the Somali people not gratuitous negativity.

 

Warya Somalia - why do you keep saying the crude has to be refined - it doesn't. You can sell crude as is. It's internationally priced - here -

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=clh12.nym

I know that it doesn't before selling but Somalia doesn't have a refinery, Yemen does, several like the Safer refinery in Marib.

 

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Another note for the author is that Hunt Oil before Yemen was just like Range Resources. This is nothing more than haterade.

[Peace Action]

Furthermore, to make this project seem legitimate, a few pictures where taken of the two areas with equipment staging a lucrative “come buy me” position. Excuse me? Last I checked, technology is so advanced that finding oil takes minimum effort by simply pointing a satellite. It looks to me that they are trying to gas up the hype.

Really, so you just point the satellite at the site and boom you get oil. This is the level of ignorance Ms Bilan displays about the tough work of oil exploration and makes the rest of her arguments less credible. Here are the immediate benefits of the Dharoor oil exploration:

 

1. Millions spend on site survey and mappings

2. Hundreds of people employed.

3. Hundreds of trucks rented for transport

4.There is so much dollar in Bosaso that the Somali shilling went from 3million to 2.5million per $100.

 

and Insha Allah when oil is found all Somalis will benefit and it can't come soon enough.