Daily Archives: January 16, 2013

01/16/13

Egypt’s sinister proposal: A call for Jews to return

By: Ashraf Ramelah
Voice of the Copts

In the wake of Egypt’s newly ratified constitution embracing Islamic religious juridical law, Dr. Essam Al Eryian, the high ranking Egyptian political figure and Vice President of the Freedom and Justice Party, initiated a generous invitation to former Egyptian Jews now living in Israel. In an interview on December 28 with Al-Ahram, the state-controlled Arabic daily newspaper, Dr. Al Eryian justified his announcement as the need for Egypt “to place itself in the right international and regional status” as it undertakes “democratic change,” – “regional” referring to the Arab-Muslim Ummah (nation). However this backfired on him when Palestinian Authority head, Mahmoud Abbas, objected to reparations Egypt owed to Jews as part of Dr. Al Eryian’s offer. The destruction Abbas seeks entails no such recompense.

Just six days after Egypt accepted a constitution giving unprecedented authority to Islamic religious clerics and disappointing minorities seeking to achieve equality, Dr. Al Eryian’s attempt to draw Israeli Jews with Egyptian roots back to minority status in Egypt seems more like a trap than restitution. Compensation to Jews from an Egypt in dire financial straits would be impossible and is a ridiculous notion. No reasonable person would trust it — an absurd proposition agreeable only by those who likewise seek to ruin Israel.

As a top advisor to Mr. Morsi, Dr. Al Eryian called for “Arab Jews” to vacate the state of Israel and “return to their home countries, particularly those states undergoing a transformation to democracy.” In doing so he suggests compensating Jews for their earlier losses with the overriding purpose of emptying the homes of Jews in Israel so Arab-Palestinians could fill their vacancies – a sinister proposal. This exchange of population would further what Mr. Safwat Hegazy, a fellow Brotherhood leader, declared last year during Egypt’s Presidential election requesting that Muslims around the world head toward “occupied Palestine” and liberate it from Jews. Mr. Hegazy also called for Jerusalem to be the future Capitol of the Muslim Ummah.

Egypt’s Islamic anti-Semitism led to the expulsion of Jews during the Nasser era which began before Nasser’s presidency. On June 20, 1948, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood bombed the Jewish Quarter in Cairo and exactly one month later bombarded a Jewish-owned store. Eight days after that another shop owned by Jews was blasted. More attacks occurred until the end of that year which served to make it impossible for Jews to stay in Egypt. By 1960, five hundred thousand Jews left the country.

President Nasser expelled the Jews during his time because he was implementing ethnic cleansing designed by the Muslim Brotherhood of which he was a member. Nasser was a member of a group known as Free Officers made up of Brotherhood members inside the Egyptian army who executed the coup of 1952. He was known to swear over the Koran and a gun showing loyalty to these roots.

In answer to the Nasser era, Dr. Al Eryian, an Islamist at the top of the Muslim Brotherhood party, acts dumbfounded regarding Egypt’s history of expelling Jews — an unbelievable stance. Equally suspect is his concern for Jews exclusively and not the others who exited Egypt in the same time frame. From the basis that “every Egyptian has the right to return to his country”, curiously Dr. Al Eryian only directs his welcome to former Egyptian Jews living in Israel and not the Egyptian Greeks, Egyptian Italians, Egyptian Lebanese and other non-Muslims who were forced to leave Egypt because of oppression and discrimination. Dr. Al Eryian must have a special place in his heart for Jews.

As well, his request completely ignores Copts who were forced to emigrate from Egypt for the same persecution. Many Copts who stay are forced by illegal roving bands of Islamic supremacists to abandon their homes and businesses in neighborhoods and villages. Led by street “amirs” (local Muslim Brotherhood princes), Muslim thugs threaten and coerce Christians into leaving their home towns.

It appears that Dr. Al Eryian’s particular goodwill is predicated solely upon his determination to witness the destruction of the state of Israel. His appeal stirred up many critics from inside Egypt as well as from Arab-Muslim thinkers outside, and in the end, Dr. Al Eryian paid a heavy price for what some considered to be a delusional rant. He was pressured to resign from his position as aide to the President. Mr. Morsi immediately and publicly rejected Dr. Al Eryian’s idea and distanced himself from both Dr. Al Eryian and his point of view.

The larger effect of such distractions created by high level Brotherhood members well-positioned in Mr. Morsi’s government like Dr. Al Eryian, acting alone in his outrages comments, signals fragmentation of Egypt’s current ruling class. It disrespects the office of the Presidency and Mr. Morsi himself when controversial public statements are made by officials that require the President to repudiate them. Internally, this casts a shadow over the Morsi Presidency where all is not in concert under the umbrella of the calcified dictates held equally by Muslim Brotherhood members, Freedom and Justice Party political figures, and Mr. Morsi’s advisors.

Of course another possibility behind Dr. Al Eryian’s statements could be the intentional messaging best served by divergent voices and understood as propaganda by all the actors above. In this case, for instance, demonstrate allegiance to an Arab-Muslim caliphate looking to annihilate Israel and sugar coat it for the West. Puerile and dangerous, it typifies the maddening contradictions found in maneuvers and lies of Islamists manipulating the free world. Through Dr. Al Eryian’s offer to restore losses to fifty thousand Egyptian Jews and facilitate their return to Egypt (no doubt a hollow one given the sanity of Jews), Egypt truly strives to be a democracy! What the West really sees in this is the staging of another Holocaust.

Dr. Ashraf Ramelah is founder and president of Voice of the Copts, a human rights organization, www.voiceofthecopts.org. He is a board member of Stop Islamization of Nations (SION).

01/16/13

Interview with Cliff Kincaid: Stopping Al-Jazeera America

By: Cliff Kincaid
Accuracy in Media

Editor’s Note: The following is an interview that AIM’s Cliff Kincaid gave to RadicalIslam.org National Security Analyst Ryan Mauro. The introduction and interview are included in their entirety.

Cliff Kincaid is the president of America’s Survival, Inc. and the director of the Accuracy in Media (AIM) Center for Investigative Journalism. AIM set up a website, StopAlJazeera.org, to stop the Islamist television network that is based in Qatar from coming to the U.S.

Kincaid calls Al-Jazeera an “enemy propaganda network that has served as a mouthpiece for terrorist groups” including Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood. Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi, the extremist spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, has his own show on Al-Jazeera.

In May 2006, AIM’s Roger Aronoff produced a 20-minute documentary titled, “Terror Television: The Rise of Al-Jazeera and the Hate America Media,” which was screened for over 100 congressional staffers and was written and narrated by Kincaid.

He is renewing his campaign in the wake of former Vice President Al Gore’s sale of his Current TV network to Al-Jazeera for an estimated $500 million ($100 million to Gore personally), giving it access to 40-50 million homes. The American-Islamic Forum on Democracy, a Muslim group opposed to Islamists, is urging cable companies to reconsider their lineups in the wake of the sale.

Kincaid’s new campaign calls on the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), to hold hearings on the danger posed by Al-Jazeera’s broadcasting in America.

The following is RadicalIslam.org National Security Analyst Ryan Mauro’s interview with Cliff Kincaid:

Ryan Mauro: Can you summarize why you believe it would be dangerous to allow Al-Jazeera America to become a reality?

Cliff Kincaid: At a time when Americans are increasingly concerned about gun violence and the murder of innocents, Al- Jazeera wants access to tens of millions of American homes to promote its own brand of anti-American violence and terrorism. For the sake of our loved ones, we have to say no.

Al-Jazeera could inspire jihadism on American soil, just as it has provoked anti-American terrorism abroad. Captured terrorists in Iraq said they came to Iraq to kill Americans because of the words and images on Al Jazeera.

Dr. Judea Pearl, the father of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, supports an investigation of Al Gore’s sale of Current TV to Al-Jazeera, saying, “Al-Jazeera weaves the ideological structure and combustible angers from which jihadi recruits eventually emerge.” If Al-Jazeera reaches English-speaking Arabs and Muslims in the U.S. with its incendiary messages, we could see suicide bombings on the streets of America and the development of more Al Qaeda cells plotting 9/11-type terrorist attacks.

Mauro: What do you hope congressional hearings will accomplish, besides bringing some temporary coverage to the issue?

Kincaid: Al Manar has already been banned from the U.S. after it was determined that it was part of the Iran-funded terrorist group Hezbollah. In the same manner, the hearings should examine whether Al-Jazeera is a global terrorist entity and whether it should, therefore, be banned.

This means examining Al-Jazeera’s relationship with Al Qaeda.

Al-Jazeera was the voice of Osama bin Laden, who was responsible for killing about 3,000 American citizens. We must remember 9/11 and always be on guard against the terrorist enemy exploiting our own media to use against our citizens.

Al-Jazeera’s then-Kabul-based reporter Tayseer Allouni had conducted an interview with Osama bin Laden after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Allouni was later convicted of being an agent of Al Qaeda and was sentenced to seven years in prison in Spain.

It is interesting to note that the new film, “Zero Dark Thirty,” mentions that the courier who eventually led the CIA to bin Laden was located in Pakistan near an Al-Jazeera office in order to get the terrorist leader’s videotapes to the channel for worldwide distribution. This captures an essential truth about Al Qaeda – its use of Al-Jazeera as a weapon of war.

CNN reports that a document found in bin Laden’s compound after his death referred to a meeting with the Al-Jazeera bureau chief in Pakistan. A still photograph from an undated video released by the Department of Defense of the materials from the compound showed bin Laden watching television and holding a remote control. He was reportedly watching himself on television. Al-Jazeera was his favorite television channel until the time of his death.

The taking over of an American cable channel by Al-Jazeera is tantamount to giving American broadcast facilities during World War II to “Tokyo Rose” and “Axis Sally.” Tokyo Rose was the name given to an American broadcasting on Tokyo shortwave radio, while Axis Sally was “The American voice of Nazi Germany” and was broadcasting on Berlin radio. Both of them, incidentally, were apprehended and prosecuted for treason and sent to prison. The purpose of the broadcasts was to demoralize the American side in the war.

In Al-Jazeera’s case, the channel, through the acquisition of Current TV, is seeking to establish a more permanent base on U.S. soil, in order to undermine the U.S. war on Islamic terrorism and provide support for President Obama’s embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood.

We are not at war with Qatar, which owns Al-Jazeera, but we are at war with the jihadists being supported by Qatar, Al-Jazeera and the Muslim Brotherhood. Qatar openly supports Hamas and Hezbollah and protected 9/11 mastermind and bin Laden lieutenant Khalid Sheik Mohammed from apprehension by U.S. authorities.

The hearings should examine why Al-Jazeera’s current broadcasts into the U.S. are not being labeled by cable and satellite providers as foreign propaganda under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and why public television stations are turning their broadcast time over to Al Jazeera and other foreign channels, in violation of Federal Communications Commission rules.

Also, the hearing should examine the nature of the Qatar regime, which does not tolerate freedom of the press within its own borders. Qatar is a country ruled by an Islamist dictatorship and governed by Sharia law.

Mauro: It will be argued that you are violating freedom of speech and that poisonous ideas will be debunked when exposed. How do you respond?

Kincaid: Al-Jazeera will continue to exploit the Internet and YouTube, while its English-language version is available on some U.S. cable systems and through satellite television. We have not called for those broadcasts to be banned, only labeled as the foreign propaganda they are. But Al-Jazeera’s purchase of a cable television channel in the U.S., in order to get carriage in 40-50 million homes, is unprecedented and devious, since it had no success getting on those cable systems on its own merit.

What’s more, the deal was not reported to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) of the Treasury Department, in violation of the law. Holding hearings does not necessarily disqualify the purchase. But we have a right to know why the law is not being enforced, and whether new laws are needed to monitor and restrict enemy propaganda activities on U.S. soil.

Mauro: Al-Jazeera English’s coverage of the Middle East has been praised and your opponents will argue that this means that Al-Jazeera America cannot be equated with its Arab counterpart. What do you say to that?

Kincaid: Al-Jazeera English is different in tone than Al Jazeera Arabic. But the State Department’s own human rights report on Qatar notes that “the government [Qatar] exercised editorial and programmatic control of the channel through funding and selection of the station’s management.” That includes Al-Jazeera English.

The pro-terrorist messages do come through Al-Jazeera English. Al-Jazeera English gave favorable coverage to the Islamic Army in Iraq, an anti-American terrorist group.

More recently, Al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki praised Al-Jazeera. When Al-Jazeera Arabic ran a 2010 interview with al-Awlaki, describing him as the “Yemen-based religious scholar,” the transcript also showed up in English on the Al-Jazeera website.

Al-Awlaki inspired the Ft. Hood massacre through his contacts with Muslim Army soldier Nidal Hasan. In the Al-Jazeera interview, he appealed for more violence, saying, “Muslims in Europe and America are watching what is happening to Muslims in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan, and they will take revenge for all Muslims across the globe.”

Former ABC Nightline correspondent Dave Marash quit his anchor job at Al-Jazeera English, citing anti-American bias and saying that the “standard for journalism on Al-Jazeera in the United States didn’t seem consistently to be as good as their standards elsewhere.”

Mauro: Won’t Al-Jazeera America have to be moderate in order to succeed in the marketplace?

Kincaid: In our letter to House Homeland Security Committee Chairman McCaul, urging hearings, we point out, “The new ‘Al-Jazeera America’ may start out by softening its tone, in order to fool people about its real agenda, but the fact remains that the owners running the pro-jihadist regime in Qatar ultimately control the channel’s news policies and personnel.”

Dr. Pearl had noted in his 2011 statement, “Even if Al-Jazeera English waters down its sister network’s alarmist content, it should still be seen as a potential threat: It will bestow respectability upon the practices of its Arabic language network in Qatar, which continues, among other things, to broadcast Sheik Qaradawi’s teachings, frequently, consistently and prominently.”

In the AIM film, “Terror Television: The Rise of Al-Jazeera and the Hate America Media,” we pointed out that Al-Qaradawi made comments on his show about the conquest of Rome by Islam. “Islam entered Europe twice and left it,” the sheikh explained. “Perhaps the next conquest, Allah willing, will be by means of preaching and ideology.” He said “the conquest need not necessarily be by the sword … Perhaps we will conquer these lands without armies.”

Al-Jazeera is his weapon of conquest. We must not commit suicide as a nation in the face of this threat. American lives hang in the balance.

01/16/13

Kenyan Oil, Hot and Getting Hotter: Interview with Taipan’s Maxwell Birley

By: James Stafford of http://oilprice.com

Kenya has become the hottest oil and gas venue in East Africa since big discoveries were made in the country’s virgin oilfields last April. All eyes are on Kenya in 2013 to see how quickly–and economically they can develop those discoveries into production.

Nairobi based Taipan Resources Inc. (TPN-TSXV; TAIPF-PINK) is the 4th largest acreage owner in Kenya, and is getting ready to carry out seismic on Block 2B. They recently attracted Maxwell Birley as CEO. Mr. Birley has been instrumental in discovering more than 2 billion barrels of oil equivalent in his 30-year career—much of it in Africa and Asia.

In an exclusive interview with Oilprice.com, Taipan CEO Maxwell Birley discusses:

• Why Kenya is the hottest venue in East Africa
• Why 2013 will be a stellar year for Kenya
• Why the regulatory environment remains attractive
• Why Kenya outranks its neighbours
• Why infrastructure will be in place in time for commercial activity
• Why this venue is good for the juniors
• Why the Somalia security risk remains low
• What Taipan is really chasing

Interview by James Stafford of Oilprice.com

James Stafford: There were some major discoveries in Kenya last year. Could you give me some colour on these discoveries that has the market thinking Kenya is now one of the hottest exploration spots on earth?

Maxwell Birley: There are a couple—or 2 billion–reasons actually. First, two recent discoveries by Tullow in the Tertiary Lokichar basin of Kenya are in similar geological settings as the discoveries also made by Tullow in the Albertine Basin in Uganda, just to the west.

Uganda has over 2 billion barrels, and the discoveries are similar enough that one could assume the eventual size of the resources in the Lokichar basin could be in the billions of barrels range as well.

There are also other Tertiary basins in Kenya that are attractive. Based on geochemical work we recently did it’s possible that the eventual hydrocarbon resource size for the whole of Kenya could be much higher than this.

Being specific the unrisked prospective resources for Taipan’s acreage in Kenya is 530 million barrels. We also believe that this estimate will likely increase to approximately 1.0 billion on completion of our studies.

These estimates are for only 2 blocks in Kenya, if this is reasonably extrapolated to other blocks across the country one can easily forecast very significant hydrocarbon resource sizes indeed.

James Stafford: What’s the easiest and most challenging thing about working with the Kenyan government and in the Kenyan political climate?

Maxwell Birley: The Ministry of Energy is always ready for a meeting. They listen to our concerns and take the appropriate action. They quickly follow up and give us the support that we need with other Ministries. In the field the local administration is also very helpful. We have regular meetings to make sure our work continues without a hitch.

With regard to the political climate, there is an election coming up in March 2013. We’re making arrangements so that we do not have a slowdown in seismic operations during that period. The last elections in 2007 were associated with some “geographically limited” security issues, however these were located far from our areas of operation, so we are not expecting the elections to have much impact on our operations.

James Stafford: The Kenyan government is reviewing its oil and gas regulations. Among the suggested amendments is one that would see the National Oil Corporation (NOC) get a 25% interest in oil properties that foreign firms are operating in Kenya, but this would put the government in a precarious position vis-à-vis attracting investors. How do you see this playing out in the end?

Maxwell Birley: The government is reviewing the terms that shall apply for licences/contracts that will be granted in the future. Oil companies will review all the terms on offer at the time of bid submission and compare them to the attractiveness of the acreage.

James Stafford: In November last year, Kenya expelled Norwegian Statoil, after revoking its exploration license. Is Nairobi increasingly ‘policing’ exploration, and what will this mean for investors in the near/medium term?

Maxwell Birley: One of the main functions of the Ministry is to regulate the companies undertaking exploration activities in Kenya. We feel confident, as in many other countries where we have worked, that if you carry out your commitments in the timeframe of the PSC then your license is 100% secure. If we decide to go into the next phases of exploration on Block 2B we can continue to explore for hydrocarbons on the block for another 4.5 years without concerns to the validity of our contract.

James Stafford: How does the industry view the financial terms offered by Nairobi in oil and gas?

Maxwell Birley: We believe the terms are reasonably attractive, at least for an oil discovery. The reason that only a few exploration wells were drilled in the past was due to the lack of exploration success—and this was driven by the lack of understanding by the oil companies of the basins. It wasn’t because of financial terms offered by the government.

Now that a discovery has been made and our knowledge is increasing, we are going to see a significant increase in drilling activity and therefore reserve additions to the country.

James Stafford: Is Kenya becoming more a game for the majors rather than the juniors, and do you think we will see more joint ventures in the near future?

Maxwell Birley: In our opinion there is a place for small companies at every stage of the development of an oil province. But it’s definitely good news for those juniors with large land positions already in the country. The early movers–i.e. the companies like Taipan that acquired their acreage before the oil was discovered—will benefit from the recent oil discoveries. Most of the more prospective acreage has now been leased and therefore the competition for land is increasing.

As large volumes of oil are discovered, the large independent and Majors will start to notice the country more and more. The Majors—due to their size and complexity—tend to be exploration risk averse and prefer to concentrate on large, lower-risk developments.

James Stafford: How would you like to see Nairobi interact with the energy sector moving forward? And how does Kenya compare with other venues in the region like Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Sudan?

Maxwell Birley: There is no doubt that Nairobi is a premium location for business, tourism and families. This is illustrated by the fact that many multi-nationals operating in the sub-Sarahan African region have their head offices in Nairobi. Regarding interaction, it is the oil industry that will need to develop an active and well respected industry body so that broad industry issues can be discussed at the higher levels.

James Stafford: Kenya is clearly the East African leader in oil infrastructure, and is now starting the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transit corridor (LAPSSET) project. But it will cost $25 billion for the roads, the 1200 km pipeline and 120,000 barrel-per-day refinery. How feasible do think this project is and why? Is it feasible in the timeframe projected by Nairobi?

Maxwell Birley: The resources in Uganda and to some extend south Sudan must be exported. A pipeline through Kenya seems to be the most feasible.

Regarding the time line, having 2.5 billion barrels sitting in the ground just west of Kenya in Uganda is a really strong motivation to build the pipeline quickly. In South Sudan I think they started pumping oil back up north again now, but I think they will want to go through Kenya in the near future.

Whether it’s LAPSSET or the Tullow consortium someone is going to build a pipeline through Kenya to the coast in the next few years. We think the pipeline will be located within 175 kilometres from our acreage. The pipeline will be good for everybody in the region but it should be particularly positive for us.

So when we make a discovery on Block 2B, the pipeline will be in the construction phase. In the interim we’ll truck the oil by bowser the early production from the fields. Then, depending on the size of any discoveries, we’ll build a connecting pipeline into the pipeline from Uganda. I think we’re in a very fortunate position now.

James Stafford: In terms of exploration what are the ‘sweet spots’ in Kenya?

Maxwell Birley: Definitely the Anza Basin. Currently, the proven sweet spots are in the Tertiary sediments of the rift basins of Uganda and Kenya. More specifically to Kenya in the Lokichar Basin as proven by the Ngamia and Twiga wells by Africa Oil.

These basins form part of the larger East African Rift system. This is a very extensive rift system and many new plays will be discovered in the next few years. The Anza Basin is the largest of these East African rift basins and 10 times the size of Uganda’s Albertine Basin and Kenya’s Lokichar Basin. This rift contains Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary sediments.

Taipan is exploring for oil in the south eastern end of the Anza basin. Located on block 2B we have proven more than 9,500 feet of Tertiary section on the block. From the geochemical modelling we have undertaken we see the same oil source rocks in the Anza Basin that are present in the Lokichar basin, which are highly likely to be mature for oil generation on Block 2B. In addition we also believe that more oil discoveries will be made in the Cretaceous and Jurassic basins if you can find favourable places to drill.

James Stafford: What has Taipan’s proprietary technical work in Block 2B in the Anza Basin demonstrated so far?

Maxwell Birley: The Anza basin has proven oil-prone Cretaceous source that in places is potentially in the gas window (Bogal gas discovery), however our technical work has also demonstrated that the basin has an active Tertiary lacustrine (lake) oil source that is in the oil window. Consequently, the Anza basin has an excellent chance of being a much more significant oil producing basin than the small rift basins that have so far been discovered.

James Stafford: And that’s what you’re really chasing here—with these roughly 10 million acres in the Anza Basin—the tertiary play…

Maxwell Birley: Agreed. What we’re primarily chasing in Block 2B is the same Tertiary oil play that Tullow inherited originally in Uganda. The discoveries there were the main reason Africa Oil and Tullow drilled the Ngamia and Twiga oil wells in Kenya—which have also been very successful. Of course, don’t overlook the fact we also have a secondary Cretaceous oil play in the block, that appears to be broadly analogous to the Cretaceous plays present in the Muglad Melut basins of southern Sudan and is the main focus of exploration efforts in Block 10A, operated by Africa Oil Corp.

Regarding the rest of our acreage, in Block 1 for example where we have a 20% interest in a 31,781 Km2 block we are chasing older Cretaceous, Jurassic and Permo-Triassic plays. The block is located in an extension of the successful Ogaden Basin of Ethiopia and Somalia. We think the block will be very prospective as it is surrounded by oil seeps and a well that recovered oil on test.

The 2 blocks combined makes us the 4th largest acreage holder in Kenya. In terms of near-term drilling and catalysts in the region, we have Tertiary, Cretaceous and Jurassic plays on Block 1 and Block 2B that will be drilled in the next 12 to 18 months.

James Stafford: Tell us what 2013 will look like for exploration in Kenya?

Maxwell Birley: Ten exploration wells should be drilled in Kenya in 2013. Based on the previous success rate it is expected that a significant number of these will be discoveries. Tullow will continue drilling wells on Blocks 10BB and 13T on the west side of the country to find more oil in that string of pearls.

Also we shall shortly get the results of the Paipai-1 well which is currently drilling in northern part of the Anza Basin. The well is testing Cretaceous & Jurassic plays, with a potential 121 million barrels. Other wells including Sabisa and Kinyonga also expected to be drilled in 2013.

James Stafford: For Kenya, a discovery at Paipai-1 would prove that oil discoveries of Sudan extend into Kenya. What would it mean for Taipan?

Maxwell Birley: There have already been Cretaceous gas discoveries in Kenya. Taipan believes that if you can find the Cretaceous that has not been buried too deep it will be prospective for oil. However we think the Paipai well is very high risk as it seems likely to be a recent tectonic inversion structure and therefore may be breached by recent faulting. We think we can find on Block 2B Cretaceous structures that are oil prone that have not been breached by recent faulting. So if that well does come in then it is going to be good news for the Anza Basin in general, but if dry it will not write off the Cretaceous potential in our block. Having said that I should point out that this is not our main focus at this time.

James Stafford: What about other prospects, like the Kinyonga well?

Maxwell Birley: Kinyonga is the next big prospect that is going to be drilled by Africa Oil Corp. and that is very meaningful for us. Kinyonga, which is on Block 9, will be located relatively close to our block, is both Tertiary and Cretaceous prospect. It has an unrisked resource estimate of 320 million barrels prospective, and it is one of the largest prospects in Africa Oil’s portfolio of drilling targets. Africa Oil also has another prospect called Pundamilia which is even closer to our block. This prospect has a unrisked resource Best estimate of 402 million barrels and a High estimate of 952 million barrels which I believe is the largest prospect in Africa Oil’s portfolio.

James Stafford: And what is the status of Kinoyonga?

Maxwell Birley: The timeline Africa Oil report for Kinoyonga is the 2nd half of 2013.

James Stafford: That would be a pretty big corollary for Taipan ….

Maxwell Birley: I think that even prior to getting those drilling results; investors are going to become more aware that the Tertiary play extends into our block. This was proven by the Hothori well which encountered 9500 ft. of Tertiary sediments. Better than this based on seismic data we estimate that in parts of the block there could be greater than 15,000 feet of Tertiary sediments.

James Stafford: What can we expect from Taipan over the next six months?

Maxwell Birley: Taipan has contracted BGP to acquire up to 800 kms of 2D seismic survey and Arkex to acquire a block wide FTG survey both over Block 2B. The seismic will commence recording in January 2013 and the FTG in February. Both surveys will be completed and interpreted prior to the 1st June deadline to complete the work. We expect to enter the first additional exploration period and are planning on drilling a well late 2013 early 2014.

Taipan has a 20% interest in Block 1 where Afren has recorded 1900 kms of seismic data.

After the seismic has been processed and interpreted the company will commence preparations for well to be drilled in late 2013/early 2014.

James Stafford: What do you expect to learn from this North Eastern data?

Maxwell Birley: We will be acquiring world class seismic data with an extremely high fold in Block 2B. We may record data with fold as high as 540 (other operators in Kenya usually only record at 60 fold). We will do this so that we get excellent signal to noise ratio and seismic data improvement. This will then enable us to predict with some certainty the areas that have high shale to sand ratios. This in turn will indicate where the Tertiary lakes sediments were deposited. This will dramatically increase the chances of drilling a successful oil well.

James Stafford: Let’s close off then with a note on security and Taipan’s potential concerns in that area…

Maxwell Birley: Our acreage is in a remote region with very few inhabitants. We always take the appropriate health and safety precautions for example we’ve carried out detailed security risk assessments and we have visited the areas on a number of occasions. We work with other operators and security companies to ensure we have good local information.

To mitigate the risk, we have 50 to 60 armed police on the seismic crew to supply physical security. More importantly we have excellent support from the government and local authorities. We are in the process of undertaking some CSR water projects so that local people benefit from our activities. We also have a team from the area that is in the field communicating continuously to ensure that the local community understands what we are doing and observes the benefits of working with Taipan.

So in summary, we take it all pretty seriously. There are risks, however, it’s a place where you can work, so we’re being very respectful and careful to nurture successful relationships.

James Stafford: Has Kenya’s intervention in Somalia had any impact on exploration in the border area?

Maxwell Birley: Yes, it has ensured that oil companies can undertake their work in relatively safe conditions.

James Stafford: Mr. Birley, best of luck. Thank you for your time and we will check in with you later in the year.

Source: http://oilprice.com/Interviews/Kenyan-Oil-Hot-and-Getting-Hotter-Interview-with-Taipans-Maxwell-Birley.html

By: James Stafford of http://oilprice.com

01/16/13

Backfire: Obama’s Gun Control ban finally gives Congress the cause for Impeachment.

By: Nelson Abdullah
Conscience of a Conservative

Is anyone in America surprised today that Barack Hussein Obama has finally come out of the closet and declared himself to be against the Second Amendment? Using a tactic he took right from the Islamic terrorists field manual, our would-be Muslim, Communist-mentored, Marxist/Socialist leader surrounded himself with children before launching another attack on America and our Constitution. But of course, anyone who was not raised as an American would understand what it means to be an American so even though Obama is supposed to be a professor of Constitutional law, he seems so ignorant of it. Remember back during the 2008 campaign Obama said he supported the Second Amendment? Remember Joe Biden’s eloquently home-spun comments that Barack isn’t going to take away your guns? As Biden said, “He ain’t gonna take away my shotgun or my Beretta.” How come conservatives can remember these things but Democrats can’t and the leftist news media never raises any questions about them?

Does anyone remember the great TV commercial the NRA put out a few years ago? I can’t recall the exact year but it was before the 2008 elections. It was a simple voice over that had a politician proclaiming: “I support the Second Amendment.” Then there is news of a shooting and the same politician says: “We must do something to stop this violence.” Then the politician says: “We must ban all guns.” It sounds like it was some fortune teller predicting the future, doesn’t it. Well, I think that some of our conservative Republicans in Congress may be paying more attention now to just how far that Obama has gone to ignore the U.S. Supreme Court’s affirmation of our Right to Bear Arms. At least one of them, namely Texas Republican Rep. Steve Stockman threatened Monday afternoon that he would file articles of impeachment against President Barack Obama if he institutes gun control measures with an executive order. As reported in the Daily Caller:

“Stockman warned that such executive orders would be “unconstitutional” and “infringe on our constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear arms.”

“I will seek to thwart this action by any means necessary, including but not limited to eliminating funding for implementation, defunding the White House, and even filing articles of impeachment,” Stockman said in a statement.”

Unfortunately, there are too many people in Congress who remain clueless on what the U.S. Constitution says or even about the very laws they pass or the rules of their own party. The White House was supposed to had open meetings when it discussed with representatives of various groups how to deal with the tragedies in Newtown, Connecticut and Aurora, Colorado but those discussions were closed to the press and the public. Actually, those discussions were just a sham anyway to make it appear that some outside input was made. I’ll be willing to bet that Barack Hussein Obama has had a plan for many years to make changes to the Second Amendment and was just waiting for the right moment to announce them, crocodile tears and all.

Easy come, easy go.

A few weeks ago someone “discovered” that Democrat Sen. Harry Reid had inserted some words into Obama’s Socialist Medicine plan, call it Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act, that said Doctors would not be required to question patients about their gun ownership. It was buried down on page 767 of H.R. 3590 and it says:

LIMITATION ON DATA COLLECTION.—
None of the authorities provided to the Secretary under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or an amendment made by that Act shall be construed to authorize or may be used for the collection of any information relating to—
‘‘(A) the lawful ownership or possession of a firearm or ammunition;
‘‘(B) the lawful use of a firearm or ammunition; or
‘‘(C) the lawful storage of a firearm or ammunition.
‘‘(3) LIMITATION ON DATABASES OR DATA BANKS.—
None of the authorities provided to the Secretary under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or an amendment made by that Act shall be construed to authorize or may be used to maintain records of individual ownership or possession of a firearm or ammunition.

Well today, that shallow gesture that Harry Reid offered to get the NRA from opposing Obamacare evaporated into the air when Obama proposed the 23 changes he plans to make law with his Executive Orders. Rule #16 said. “Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.” In light of the technological advancements made in electronic record keeping, all patient medical records are now accessible by the government. This technology also means that patients suffering from violent forms of mental illness can be can and should be placed on a “no gun buy list” that would be accessible when background checks are being made at the point of purchase. So why isn’t this already being implemented? How did James Holmes, the homocidal maniac who killed 12 people and wounded 58 in Aurora, Colorado, get a pass from the NICS background check when he started buying his guns, with the record keeping created by his psychiatrist Dr. Lynne Fenton?

Time for Republicans to take some real action.

For the last four years Barack Hussein Obama has been treating the U.S, Treasury like it was his own personal piggy bank. Besides taking a billion dollars worth of vacations with his family and friends at the taxpayers expense, Obama has been giving away more billions of dollars worth of military weapons to his Islamic friends in the Middle East, gave away billions of taxpayer dollars in stimulus money to a handful of Green Energy producers, most of which went bankrupt after kicking back large amounts of contributions to Obama’s reelection campaign. Has anyone in Congress raised any eyebrows about the graft and corruption in those deals? How many more of these crimes can he get away with before he is impeached?

My name is Nelson Abdullah and I am Oldironsides.