Namibia is hugeMaybe it's time to load up again.
TB
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"Speaking at the Moscow conference for South Africa, Sandile Nogxina, director-general of the Department of Minerals and Energy in Pretoria, said the current trend is for combinations of SA and Russian companies "in development of new deposits in other African countries." He added that he sees "big potential in the cooperation of black companies with their Russian peers."
Among the third-country ventures, to which Nogxina was referring, one of the first is in Namibia, where PetroSA has taken a 10% stake in a Namibian oil and gas exploration venture, alongside the Russian company Sintezneftegaz. The Russian company told Mineweb "we had carefully studied the Namiobian Law on Oil, and were fully satisfied with its terms and conditions. We are doing geological prospecting in block 1711 on the Namibian shelf."
On May 31, the company Sintezneftegaz-Namibia received with its partner companies a license for prospecting the 1711 block. Sintezneftegaz-Namibia holds 70% stake in JV and was chosen as the operator of the project on June 22, when the operating agreement between the companies was signed. A rough estimate of reserves in the block "could be on the level of 105 million tons of oil and 135 billion cubic metres of gas," a Sintez source told Mineweb."
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https://www.mineweb.net/african_renaissance/901934.htm
Russians prepare for African energy, mining push
By: John Helmer
Posted: '07-AUG-06 11:56' GMT © Mineweb 1997-2006
MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) -- Russian energy and mining companies are preparing for the visit to Africa early next month of President Vladimir Putin. But the black backdrop of the visit, the first in half a century by a Russian head of state, is the increasingly aggressive reaction of the Bush administration in Washington to the combination of arms and business which the Russians are offering those whom the US considers to belong to its camp.
Behind the scenes then of the Russian initiatives toward South Africa, Angola and Namibia -- the three countries currently on Putin's agenda for September 5-10 -- there is a US campaign of threats, inducements, and even sanctions.
Official confirmation of the visit is still not forthcoming from the Kremlin. However, the Russian Foreign Ministry told Mineweb the visit is on, and technical preparations are well under way. The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, which hosted a conference last week in Moscow of Russian commercial and investment interests in southern Africa, described Minister Yury Trutnev's recent trip to SA, Angola and Namibia as "creating the foundation and developing the main topics" for
the presidential visit. Trutnev is the co-chairman of inter-government commissions for trade and economic development between Russia and the three countries.
Alrosa, the state-owned mining company, which controls all Russian diamond production and is diversifying domestically, and globally, into a multi-mineral miner, has one of the most active African programmes, primarily in Angola. It is also considering exploration in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other African sites, and is in talks with De Beers for possible joint ventures in the region. Alrosa's chief executive, Alexander Nichiporuk was recently in South Africa.
In a recent speech to the World Diamond Congress, Nichiporuk identified Africa as one of his targets in the plan to expand diamond output. "In practice," Nichiiporuk said, "Alrosa mines 30 to 33 million carats of diamonds every year, which equals one kimberlite pipe going out of operation, with no simultaneous new ones to compensate for the depletion. According to our estimates, other producers are in the same situation in the long run."
To lift the production ceiling, and replenish mineable reserves, he said the company is commencing "mass-scale exploration activities in Yakutia and in the North-West of Russia, as well as in Africa. We are developing joint exploration projects with other companies both in Russia and abroad."
The Angolan presenter at the Moscow conference was Pedro Vasco, currently acting head of Angola's Russian embassy. He focused primarily on drawing Russian interest to Angolan fishery concessions; Russian high-seas fishing fleets operate further north in the Atlantic, off western Africa and Morocco. Vasco also noted the growing role as intermediary for Russian investment of Vneshtorgbank VTB, ("Foreign Trade Bank"), which has signed an agreement with Angola's central bank, and hung out its shingle in Luanda. VTB, a state-controlled bank headquartered in Moscow, likes to play its cards close to its chest, and will not respond to queries about its African or diamond sector interests.
The senior diamond expert in the bank is Sergei Shilov, vice president for relations with foreign banks. He has told associates his involvement in diamonds started when he was serving at the Russian Embassy in London, and played a role in monitoring Russian diamond deliveries to De Beers and the paydown of the billion-dollar loan which De Beers made in 1990 to the Soviet Union. That transaction was secured by an unusual advance delivery of Russian rough, which was stockpiled at De Beers until the loan was paid off. In 2005 Shilov led VTB's effort in Angola. He has also tried building relationships in South Africa, participating as VTB 's representative in South Africa-Russia business meetings. VTB recently entered the Indian diamond market, where it is offering to provide finance, first into Indian purchases of rough from Russia, and at a later stage, into polished diamonds.
According to a VTB release in March for the nine-month period to September 2005, the bank held 8,759 client accounts, of which 40% were retail depositors. Loans were 13.8 billion, up 36% on the same period of 2004. But it is noteworthy that retail lending to small or individual depositors was no more than 4% of the loan portfolio.
By contrast, there was a high concentration of loans to Russia's leading corporations -- a higher concentration, in fact, say industry sources, than Sberbank, the state-owned savings bank and the largest bank in Russia. VTB's relationships with these borrowers is a closely guarded secret. Year-end results for 2005, released in June, were adversely affected, according to bank analysts, by high staff and administrative costs. A plan to issue shares on a western stock market may improve the bank's responsiveness, but a proposed IPO has been deferred until next year.
Speaking at the Moscow conference for South Africa, Sandile Nogxina, director-general of the Department of Minerals and Energy in Pretoria, said the current trend is for combinations of SA and Russian companies "in development of new deposits in other African countries." He added that he sees "big potential in the cooperation of black companies with their Russian peers."
Among the third-country ventures, to which Nogxina was referring, one of the first is in Namibia, where PetroSA has taken a 10% stake in a Namibian oil and gas exploration venture, alongside the Russian company Sintezneftegaz. The Russian company told Mineweb "we had carefully studied the Namiobian Law on Oil, and were fully satisfied with its terms and conditions. We are doing geological prospecting in block 1711 on the Namibian shelf."
On May 31, the company Sintezneftegaz-Namibia received with its partner companies a license for prospecting the 1711 block. Sintezneftegaz-Namibia holds 70% stake in JV and was chosen as the operator of the project on June 22, when the operating agreement between the companies was signed. A rough estimate of reserves in the block "could be on the level of 105 million tons of oil and 135 billion cubic metres of gas," a Sintez source told Mineweb.
There is considerable potential for joint oil search ventures with the Russians in Angola, where LUKoil, Russia's largest oil producer and exporter, is negotiating concessions; and in other African countries where PetroSA is also active; these include Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Gabon, Sudan, Mozambique, and Algeria.
The Algerian case is one of the few in Africa to trigger a US reaction. In March, during President Putin's visit to Algiers, agreement was struck for the supply of aircraft, missile batteries, and other arms. At the same time, Algeria's state gas corporation Sonatrach and its Russian counterpart Gazprom initialled a protocol with the intention of expanding their cooperation in exploring for fresh gas sources in the Sahara, share markets for gas in Europe and North America, and exchange technology for gas liquefication.
According to Russian sources, the US has applied political pressure on Sonatrach not to complete its cooperation agreement. As a result, the formal signing in Moscow has been twice postponed. It was finalized last Friday with agreements between Sonatrach, Gazprom, and LUKoil.
An agreement reached last Friday between Sonatrach and LUKoil covers joint co-operation in exploration and production of oilfields. Gazprom says its pact "opens the way for deeper cooperation between the companies, identifying, among other things, the following major directions of further joint businesses in the oil and gas sector: geological exploration, production, transmission, gas transmission and distribution network development, asset swaps, natural gas and oil processing and marketing in Algeria, Russia and third countries."
On Friday evening, the Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that, one week before, the US had imposed sanctions on the Russian state arms exporter, Rosoboronexport, and the warplane builder Sukhoi, allegedly for supplying Iran in contravention of US legislation on nuclear nonproliferation.
Sukhoi has denied supplying any aircraft to Iran, and it is unclear what exports to Iran by Rosobonexport -- mainly naval vessels and anti-aircraft or anti-ship missile systems -- violate the US law. In its statement, the Foreign Ministry called the US move a pretext, and Russian officials believe the real focus of the sanctions is the Russian arms supply and energy partnership with Venezuela, sealed during President Hugo Chavez's visit to Moscow a few days ago. "In effect," the Foreign Ministry said, the US action "amounts to one more unjustifiable attempt to force foreign companies to base their activities on American domestic regulations. Sanctions of this kind that the United States unilaterally applies to other countries and to organizations in them are an obvious political and legal anachronism, especially when such moves are made under far-fetched pretexts."
Neither Gazprom, nor the Americans have yet acknowledged the campaign of pressure against Algeria, which is buying its fighter aircraft from MiG, not Sukhoi, in preference to a rival offer from US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who made his pitch to Algiers in February. However, Sukhoi is the supplier of aircraft to Venezuela. The impact of US sanctions against Rosoboronexport may also hit the global supply of titanium, which is produced by VSMPO-Avisma, the Russian titanium leader, now being taken over by a special metals holding created last year by Rosoboronexport. Both Sukhoi and Rosobornexport have growing interest in the African market.
The two most prominent Russian mineral deals currently being pursued in SA are both aimed at consolidating global control of two vital alloys used in steelmaking, manganese and vanadium, in which SA is one of the international market's principal producers. In his Moscow speech, Nogxina referred directly to the Renova group's pursuit of SA manganese; his remarks touched indirectly on the Evraz takeover bid for SA vanadium producer, Highveld.
The Renova group, and its owner Victor Vekselberg, a Russian metals magnate, are currently facing more than two US federal court cases, accusing them of fraud, asset stripping, and manipulation of the Nikopol plant in Ukraine, one of the largest manganese refiners in the world. They deny the charges. They have yet to face the US court-ordered discovery procedures, or testify on oath. Vekselberg's partner at Nikopol, according to court records in Boston and also Renova sources, was Alexander Abramov. Until a recent share sale, he was the controlling shareholder of the Evraz steel, coal, and vanadium mining group.
Abramov remains a powerful influence at Evraz, and was behind last month's $678 million bid for the Russian takeover of Highveld Steel and Vanadium. A review of the takeover by SA's Competition Commission, the SA Reserve Bank, and other government regulators in SA; the European Commission;, and the US Department of Justice, has yet to commence. But SA media have reported initial moves by the Evraz group, following the takeover announcement, may be intended to neutralize concerns for retrenchment of jobs in Highveld's steel division, and price fixing by the vanadium division.
A year ago, Nogxina's ministry issued a licence for manganese search and mining to a joint venture put together by Renova, called United Manganese of Kalahari, with local partners Lazarus Mbethe, Taole Mokoena, and Tebogo Makgatho. Promises of substantial Russian spending on exploration, drilling, and investment into the SA manganese sector were given at the time. However, SA manganese miners at work in the region claim to have seen no drilling or surface exploration work by the joint venture. Renova officials have been unable to say what drilling has been done at their concession, and repeated requests for the investment spending in the first year of the venture have produced no figures.
"Why do you hate Renova?" Nogxina asked Mineweb. "They are investing money in our country." Nogxina's office was asked to substantiate the value of Renova's investment, but did not respond.