A recent WikiLeaks cable says Petro-Canada made a 30-year deal with Muammar Gaddafi's National Oil Corporation in 2008. To close the deal, Petro-Can "swallowed hard" and paid a $1 billion signing bonus.
The cable originated in the US Embassy in Tripoli on June 24, 2008. While unclassified, it was described as "sensitive" and "for official use only." In part, the cable read:
1. (SBU) Summary: Petro-Canada has signed a series of 30-year contracts with Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC), bringing its old agreements into line with Libya's preferred EPSA-IV contract standard. The new deals stem from Libya's ongoing efforts to secure tougher terms from foreign oil companies, and mark the growing importance of Libya to Petro-Canada. End Summary. DONE DEAL - AT LAST
2. (SBU) On June 19, representatives from Petro-Canada and the NOC signed a total of six contracts covering all of Petro-Canada's acreage in Libya. The contracts were crafted under the NOC's EPSA IV agreement template, which has become the preferred framework for all international oil companies (IOCs) working in Libya (reftel). An agreement signed by the NOC and Petro-Canada in December 2007 was recently ratified by the General People's Congress, paving the way to sign the actual contracts.
3. (SBU) Under the new deals, Petro-Canada has committed to pay a $1 billion signing bonus and invest $3.5 billion in the redevelopment of several large producing fields, and $460 million in oil and gas exploration. Petro-Canada will pay 50% of all development costs and 100% of all exploration costs. The company had to accept a lower production share (a flat 12% for all six contracts, regardless of location), but hopes to double its current production levels to at least 200,000 barrels of oil per day over the next five to seven years. LIBYA OF GROWING IMPORTANCE TO PETRO-CANADA
... 5. (SBU) Comment: Petro-Canada's re-negotiation is the latest in an emerging trend of contract extensions/renegotiations (reftel). The NOC is waging a concerted campaign to re-negotiate or extend existing contracts under better terms, principally with respect to production share. For their part, international oil companies - mindful of the high price of oil and limited venues for new exploration and production - have so far swallowed hard and signed up
Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.
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G West
2 years ago
You'd think
You'd think they might have learned from the way Talisman got burned in Sudan.
wcullen
2 years ago
As a private company
It should also be noted that this occurred after the company went private.
Yet another benefit of the(neo-)Liberal mantra of deficit reduction at all--and our--cost.
morechatter
2 years ago
And then after Harper will sell Petro Canada .....
to Suncor for a steal of a deal, 18 billion dollars. You know this sounds just like BC Rail. Were voters continue to lose out the more the story is told. Rich tells reporters British Columbians owe the BC Liberal government an apology. Not Dan Rich, the Mafia leader but a BC politician, Minister of Public Safety, former RCMP officer.
Why you may ask? Apparently British Columbians where unjustified in being suspicious. MLA's quitting, Basi and Virk fingering BC's preimer, Basi and Virk get out of jail free card collect 2 million dollars. Liberals pick-up all the fees.
And Suncor has a monopoly, yikes. Why didn't the RCMP also have Basi and Virks emails? You know the ones the Liberals accidentally deleted. And there is so much more leaving British Columbinas wondering "If it was a train robbery" Mr. Campbell fixation with fixing up the failing Rail, spent millions and millions of dollars unloading the future for a steal of a deal.
Rich knows all the answers the RCMP Not so much.
Harper wants everyone to get along and Libya to end any violence to its people Suncor wouldn't like it.
zalm
2 years ago
Say wha....?
"To close the deal, Petro-Can "swallowed hard" and paid a $1 billion signing bonus."
To which Swiss bank?
There are laws in Canada governing this kind of thing. I'm sure Petro-Canada's lawyers looked into this very carefully...
NOT
morechatter
2 years ago
Every which way but lose
Come now there where many of us who thought for sure the Liberals would stretch out the rail case. Many were certain there would be no justice. CBC was handed documents from the court proceeding and the RCMP had no evidence against the Liberals except Basi and Virk. Evidence disappeared. The case took 7 years to get to trial. Deleted emails. There is only one reason this trial took that long because British Columbians were not to hear what Basi and Virk had to say. Clark and her husband made a bundle on the sale of the rail and there is more despite it all being cleared. I will have to disagree with the courts finding and I don't need the RCMP to solve the crime to know something is terribly wrong.
And "Every which way but lose", the RCMP got that wrong also. Government has been nothing but lose with tax payers dollars and the futures of Canadians.
Maybe Basi will write his story, he is open to inquiry something this government is Not.
You think Canadians would get a break on energy especially since they heavily subsidize the barrel. Not!
morechatter
2 years ago
Zalm
It is Canadians who are going to have "swallow hard". Much of what we hear is "hard to swallow". I promise not to use that word in a sentence but it is just so Canadian. Saturday Night Live, McKensize Brother, Six pack, Not!
Canada's heritage from the North-West Mounted Police, "the Mounties" to today's technological society, we are said to have it all.
James Oliver Curwood wrote Canada is "God's Country" and the Mackenzie Brothers and "The Great White North." The Great Northwood of SLED DOGS and endless snows-except during the Olympics, crime-free streets of today's cities-only during the Olympics.
politico
2 years ago
Is it just me?
A billion dollar signing deal to Ghadaffi?
On the heals of the privitization deal and at the same time the stock sky rocketed?
It sounds like taxpayers picked up the Billion dollar tab and would probably bear out if you followed the money.
Moreover with all this chat of Ethical oil we have Petro China who just pulled off one of the biggest Gas Plays in history in our "free enterprise" oil and gas patch while our former National Oil Company gets given to the oil barons so they can go into Ghadaffi land and sign thirty year contracts to suck out the oil out of North Africa's biggest deposits whose populace is now being bombed by their own government! Where does that oil go? Algeria is our biggest provider! Algeria!
Big Oil runs the planet, not just into the ground like here and in Libya and Nigeria and every where else but they also fuel the space race.
We are in a lot of trouble. They even rumoured Ghadaffi skip town to hang with his old pal Hugo in Venezuala! They will stop at nothing! Mainstream media is nothing but an oily super market tabloid!
Just look at Levant!
People got a wake up.
freebear
2 years ago
It's called 'grease', or 'payola'
The show must go on; whatever the cost!
dabido
2 years ago
anything
anything to keep your car happy.
morechatter
2 years ago
the price of oil is up 6%
It is not good news for an economy that sales are in a slump and spells inflation. Deadly as it gets for an economy that has trived on low interest rates and with increasing food prices is can't get any worst.
Kleenex anyone, Harper is going to need a case of them.
morechatter
2 years ago
Suncor's price of a barrel goes up
Not so good for Canadians thought after "swallowing hard" folks now gotta wash it down with the high price of oil.