Some Humor for Puntlanders

[Mintid Farayar]

Erotica and politics all part of the job for Africa pioneer

ANDREW BURRELL

 

11 February 2012

The Australian

 

© 2012 News Limited. All rights reserved.

Oil chief Peter Landau has had to fulfil some strange requests

 

PROFILE

 

PETER Landau knew he was taking a big risk when he flew into Somalia carrying a box of erotic DVDs. But risk is something Landau, the knockabout executive director of oil company Range Resources and the new chairman of troubled gold explorer Paynes Find Gold, appears to embrace.

 

Last month, Range became the first company in more than two decades to drill for oil in Somalia, a country that has been plagued by civil war, lawlessness, piracy and Islamic extremism.

 

It's a major achievement given that oil majors including ConocoPhillips, Amoco and AGIP fled the country in the early 1990s when fighting broke out and an American Black Hawk helicopter was downed in Mogadishu.

Landau, 40, doesn't shy away from the inherent riskiness of the venture: in fact he has used it as a deliberate sales pitch to investors who are prepared to take a chance on a region with the potential to become a major oil producer.

 

Range's wells are in semi-autonomous Puntland, in the arid northeast of the troubled nation. But even in this more stable part of Somalia, the severe poverty is confronting.

 

Which is how Landau, a former corporate lawyer, found himself carrying a box of DVDs and magazines into the Muslim country a few years ago.

 

As Landau tells it, some of the guards employed on Range's oil project in Puntland had asked him to bring some erotic DVDs on his next visit from Australia.

 

``I ordered it from Fyshwick . . . it was non-violent erotica,'' he recalls with a laugh. ``The smiles on their face -- that sort of humour you can't put a price on. There's nothing better than seeing someone with no money experience that sheer delight.

 

``There's no fun sitting around a room of Swiss bankers talking about what Mercedes they're going to buy next or which villa in Capri they're going to stay at. Whereas giving a box of erotic DVDs to 20 Puntland guards is just brilliant.''

The forthright Landau has needed to adopt a few similarly unconventional techniques during the six years it has taken for Range and its joint-venture partner, Canada's Africa Oil, to undertake seismic surveys and start drilling two wells that could hold more than 300 million barrels of oil. Listed Australian junior Red Emperor Resources also has a stake in the project. Landau has encountered plenty of scepticism that Range would even get to this stage and admits to quietly wondering a few times himself whether it would ever happen.

His most anxious moments came in 2009, when Puntland's president was replaced by its former finance minister who had been critical of the government's agreement with Range to grant it exclusive rights to explore for oil.

 

``I can't deny that the change of government was a concern -- we had invested so much time with (the former president),'' Landau says. ``The rumour was that the new government was backed by a rival oil company.''

 

Landau, who estimates he has travelled from Perth to Somalia 20 times in the past six years, managed to soothe relations with the new administration and the project was able to continue.

 

But his confidence has also been shaken by several security incidents, including a bombing in 2008 in the city of Bosaso that killed 20 people, which was blamed on the Islamic insurgency group Al-Shabbab.

 

Landau says the key to survival -- in both a literal and business sense -- in Somalia is attempting to understand the local people and their history.

 

Good luck and good timing also come in handy, he adds. ``The only thing we did differently to others, I guess, is we had a genuine passion for knowledge: to understand Somalia, understand how it broke down, understand the clan system and understand the current state of play,'' he says.

 

``Some companies just say we've got a piece of paper, let's go and drill. The two traits I hate about the oil and gas industry are ignorance and naivety.''

 

Landau is a firm believer that Range's oil project, assuming its exploration program proves successful, will boost Somalia's economic prospects, employ local people and provide a massive boost to the government's coffers.

 

Range will pay generous royalties to the government and share profits 50:50 after costs are recovered.

 

``People have called to congratulate on drilling the wells, but the fulfilment will only come in five or 10 years' time when you've got schools and hospitals and the country is receiving $1 billion in royalties,'' he says. ``It will be very disappointing if we don't find oil.''

 

Landau dismisses suggestions that the Puntland government may squander its oil revenues, saying the clan system that operates in the region ensures transparency and should prevent the emergence of a dictator who could squirrel away the money. With six years of work in Somalia behind him, Landau may be the ideal candidate to take over as non-executive chairman of colourful Perth explorer Paynes Find Gold.

 

The Australian Securities & Investments Commission is investigating allegations that money was siphoned out of the company during the colourful reign of sacked chief executive Peter Salter.

 

Paynes floated in late 2010 and took about nine months to burn through almost all of the $9 million it raised from investors. The shares have been suspended from trading since October.

 

The company was caught up in a series of other controversies, with The Australian revealing in December that Salter was dismissed over a sexual harassment case. Salter's behaviour was also under scrutiny amid allegations that he urinated into a sick bag during a company charter flight and threatened to punch the pilot.

 

A group of Paynes shareholders, including Perth porn king Malcolm Day and skimpies boss Steve Zielinski, failed in an attempt to roll the board, but their candidate, Perth businessman Carl Popal, was eventually installed after the resignation of chairman Paul Berresford.

 

Landau says he took on the role because he had seen his investment of $100,000 in Paynes virtually vanish and he still believes that the tenements at Paynes Find, 420km northeast of Perth, rank as some of the best unexplored gold ground in Western Australia.

 

Paynes Find said yesterday it had launched a $4m rights issue as part of an attempt to restart a drilling program and be reinstated to trading.

 

For Landau, Paynes is also a chance to become involved in his first Australian resources play for several years.

 

Landau says he is not interested in examining the misdeeds of the past at Paynes but is happy for others to do so. ``I've had a brief look at what's gone on -- it's interesting,'' he says. ``It's definitely not the way we'd manage a company, but my job is to look forwards rather than backwards.''

News Ltd.

[Somalia]

Alright, now you got something @Mintid.

 

But I got this.

 

Gunter Pischof Albert Porn Making Earns German Man 4 Years In Somaliland

 

 

MOGADISHU, Somalia — A court official says a Somali judge sentenced a 72-year-old German man to four years in jail for making pornographic films and pictures in Somalia.

 

The official says Gunter Pischof Albert was engaging in un-Islamic behavior by making films and pictures of himself having sex with local women. On Thursday a judge ordered him jailed and fined him $10,000. A 23-year-old woman was also sentenced to one year in jail and fined $880.

 

Police say Albert was a consultant to two international relief agencies.

 

He was sentenced in the breakaway northern region of Somaliland. Much of Somalia is controlled by Islamist insurgents who carry out regular amputations and executions. But Somaliland is ruled by a democratic government and relatively peaceful.

[Che -Guevara]

^Please don't throw Somali women into this pissing contest.

[Somalia]

I have the utmost respect for women. I am just pointing out a relevant story and that a person shouldn't live in a glass house.

[Sensei]

You breaking news amounts to zilch compared to the fiasco caused by the German psycho. Corruption is widespread in Somalia, and bribing few guards with porn should hardly raise brows.

 

Naqtiin ku sameeya wuxuu Mr. Somalia said, he had ready made counter for your nonsense. Regardless of the fact, it is horrible and should not be condoned. But I will not also condone hypocrisy and embellishments.

 

I do not understand the use of this forum to incessantly attack PL, or SL for that matter. Puntland Defense League or Puntland Anti-defamation League condems these attacks- all attacks on Somali regions and Somalis.

[kingofkings]

Oodweyne;789380 wrote:

Kingpins, erotica, DVD Porn, piracy, and Puntland...

 

What a combination to melt the stoniest of heart; if not, burst one's side with laughter. And, yet, others are holding forth in this forum expecting our standing contempt laced with smirk and laughter has no merit to begin with..

:D

 

Yaa dunya!..

:D

your attempt to sound sophisticated only beguiles your lack of ability to comprehend the words you use and unfortunately the context which you uses them. Furthermore, your attempt to correlate the above mentions fails as a result of poor word choice and lack of subject knowledge. I leave you with these wise words, "Looking back we see with great clarity, and what once appeared as difficulties now reveal themselves as blessings".

[Somalia]

kingofkings;789399 wrote:

your attempt to sound sophisticated only beguiles your lack of ability to comprehend the words you use

and unfortunately the context which you uses them. Furthermore, your attempt to correlate the above mentions fails as a result of poor word choice and lack of subject knowledge. I leave you with these wise words, "Looking back we see with great clarity, and what once appeared as difficulties now reveal themselves as blessings".

[OdaySomali]

*Odaysomali puts his trolling glasses on. Clears throat, cracks fingers and opens the GIF's folder*

[OdaySomali]

Oodweyne;789414 wrote:

The scripts are straining the leashes in here. Unfortunately they have difficulty in understanding a basic and a simple argument due the lamentable intellectual retardation of their owners...

:D

 

Hence, it's no use to hope, that, they shall understand what one was on about in the first place. Consequently, one could be forgiven to think that perhaps trolling is what they are about and therefore one ought to let them do so to their heart's content, indeed..

:D

[kingofkings]

Oodweyne;789414 wrote:

The scripts are straining the leashes in here. Unfortunately they have difficulty in understanding a basic and a simple argument due the lamentable intellectual retardation of their owners...

:D

 

Hence, it's no use to hope, that, they shall understand what one was on about in the first place. Consequently, one could be forgiven to think that perhaps trolling is what they are about and therefore one ought to let them do so to their heart's content, indeed..

:D

no the problem is not the intended readers or the audiences, but the person trying to get his or her words across. as many has suggested to you on numerous occasions, your attempt to sound smart fails you for the simple reasons; poor word choice, no connections between messages, words, and contexts, and finally lack of skills of making connection between place, action, or event. in other words or in lament terms; you don't know what you're talking about.

[OdaySomali]

kingofkings;789430 wrote:

no the problem is not the intended readers or the audiences, but the person try to get his or her word across. as many has suggested to you on numerous occasions, your attempt to sound smart fails you for the simple reasons; poor word choice, no connects between message, words, and context, and finally lack of skills of making connection between place, action, or event. in other words or in lament terms; you don't know what you're talking about.

Don't be a bully waryaa. "Some believe they can make themselves taller by cutting off the heads of others". Dont be that person.

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Shady characters with shady companies u hunguri weyn qeyraadka Soomaaliyeed. Ma anagaa sheegin awalba.

[kingofkings]

OdaySomali;789455 wrote:

Don't be a bully waryaa. "Some believe they can make themselves taller by cutting off the heads of others". Dont be that person.

i hate bullies and i thank god i'm not one, however; he does come off as a know-it-all and unfortunately or fortunately depending how you look at he fails big time. if he is at least someone with research like know-it-all, i would not mind, but he's not and, as a result, someone, anyone has to correct him, otherwise, what's the point of this forum. I hope this clears up any outstanding issues.

[Dr_Osman]

funny how they compare puntland soldiers wanting to see aussie porn, compared to german guy who went to hargeisa to make a porn of them!!! But then again its SOL I wouldn't expect anything less

[Carafaat]

Big deal. The guy brought some porn DVD's to his guards. Nothing to be sensitive about. I am sure guards from Muqdisho, Baidoa and Hargeysa would appreciate some porn DVD's as well.