Heritage Oil
Contents
Angola
In 1991, Tony Buckingham reached a deal with Angolan state oil company SONANGOL and Ranger Oil, which gave him a 10 per cent share in the Ranger-operated Block 4 oilfield off the Angolan coast. The 10 per cent was originally assigned to Branch Energy Ltd, which turned it over to Heritage Oil and Gas, which was registered in the Bahamas.
A separate agreement provided for the creation of Ranger Oil West Africa Ltd, which would be 51 per cent owned by Ranger Oil and 49 per cent owned by Heritage Oil and Gas. The new company was intended to provide technical and advisory services to SONANGOL.[1]
In January 1993, UNITA over-ran Soyo, an important supply base for Ranger and other oil companies. UNITA refused requests for access. Buckingham discussed the issue with other oil companies, and his associate Simon Mann suggested an approach to Eeben Barlow's private military company Executive Outcomes for help. A proposal to retake Soyo was agreed with the Angolan Government.[2] Executive Outcomes began its assault on Soyo on February 16 1993, and succeeded in taking the town, which as however, retaken by UNITA after EO's withdrawal some six weeks later.[3]
Democratic Republic of Congo
- A source in Congo told me that Heritage currently hires UPDF, RPA, and MLC soldiers to protect their concessions from rebels and dissident FARDC soldiers. Another source who works in the oil industry told me that Heritage has very poor drilling techniques and are lucky if they strike oil making them hazardous to the local environment. Sources in Congo have also said that, in years past, Heritage has influenced much of the fighting in Ituri.[4]
Iraq
- While the debate continues, the Kurdistan Regional Government is pushing ahead. In 2002, at the suggestion of Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish leader who is now Iraq's president, the Turkish conglomerate Cukurova Group set up an oil unit called Genel Enerji to look for oil in Kurdistan. Genel signed a production-sharing agreement in July 2002 and took over the Taq Taq oil field in February 2003 on the eve of the U.S-led invasion. It signed another exploration contract in July 2005. A Norwegian firm, DNO, and a Canadian firm, Heritage Oil, also struck exploration and production deals in the Kurdish region.[5]
Website
People
Directors and Management
- Tony Buckingham - Chief Executive Officer
- Paul Atherton - Chief Financial Officer
- General Sir Michael Wilkes - Non-Executive Director
- John McLeod - Non-Executive Director
- Gregory Turnbull - Non-Executive Director
- Brian Smith - VP Exploration
- Armen Sahakian - VP Business Development
- Stephen Kobak - VP Production Russia and CIS
- James Baban - General Manager, Kurdistan
Former directors
- Micael Gulbenkian - Former chief executive and chairman[6]
References
- ↑ Making a Killing: How Corporations Use Armed Force to Do Business, by Madelaine Drohan, Random House Canada, 2003, p200.
- ↑ Making a Killing: How Corporations Use Armed Force to Do Business, by Madelaine Drohan, Random House Canada, 2003, pp205-207.
- ↑ Bloodsong, by Jim Hooper, HarperCollinsPublishers, 2003, pp42-54.
- ↑ Update on the Congo, by David Barouski, ZNet, 25 July 2006.
- ↑ Iraq Struggles to Finish Oil Law; Forging an Agreement Requires Balancing Sharply Divided Interests, Ethnic Groups, by Steven Mufson, Washington Post, 24 January 2007.
- ↑ Heritage Oil Corporation announces new Chairman and Chief Executive OfficerCNW Group, 6 October 2006.
