Events In Honduras

[Magda Hassan]

Now, this wouldn't have anything to do with it would it? Nah....

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Norway Company Explores for Oil in Honduras Caribbean
Petroleum Geo-Services to use seismic imaging.

TEGUCIGALPA -- Norway's Petroleum Geo-Services plans to explore for oil off the Caribbean coast of Honduras, according to an agreement signed in Tegucigalpa.

PGS will "lay some 10,000 kilometers (6,213 miles) of seismic lines in the territorial waters of Honduras," the office of President Mel Zelaya said in a statement.

The president and Natural Resources Minister Tomas Vaquero signed the deal with PGS vice president Michael Edwards and the company's head of new projects for Latin America, George Buzan.

The agreement is subject to approval by the Honduran Congress.

Oslo-based PGS, which specializes in geophysical research and analysis, has operations in 30 countries, with regional offices in London, Houston and Singapore.

Buzan said the geophysical studies to be conducted by PGS "will allow the evaluation of the petroleum and hydrocarbons potential of the country," according to the statement issued by Zelaya's office.

PGS will analyze information from 31 oil wells drilled by different companies before 1993 and conduct new seismic studies using a ship that will explore the Central American country's waters.

The studies conducted by PGS will be used to determine future oil concessions granted by Honduras.

Honduras "has a very great potential for energy and mineral resources" that has not been exploited, Zelaya said.

The president said the information obtained by PGS would assist "Honduras in making the decision on whether or not to exploit" the oil in Caribbean waters.

Companies from the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada and other countries have explored for oil in the Honduran Caribbean for years, but no one has yet discovered commercially viable amounts of petroleum.
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?Category...eId=323973
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And the oil companies wouldn't be pissed off would they? Nah....
What is Shell's Corrib security firm up to now? Any Irish or Hungarian mercenaries here yet?
Honduras temporarily grabs Exxon, Chevron terminals

Reuters
Sunday, January 14, 2007; 1:59 PM

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (Reuters) - Honduras will take temporary control of foreign-owned oil storage terminals as part of a government import program meant to drive down fuel prices, President Manuel Zelaya said late on Saturday.
Zelaya ordered the move after failing to reach a deal with big oil companies Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) and Chevron (CVX.N), as well as local company DIPPSA, to rent the terminals.

"It is not a nationalization, it's a temporary use of the storage tanks through a lease and payment of a reasonable price," he said.
Honduras produces no crude of its own and no longer has a refinery. Its fuel market, like that of most Central American countries, is dominated by Shell (RDSa.L), Exxon Mobil and Chevron.
The government program takes control of imports away from the small group of oil companies that operate service stations in the Central American nation. Those companies have opposed the new system, saying it is anti-competitive.
A congressional commission set up to study the new system has said it could save Honduras -- one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere -- about $66 million a year.
Zelaya, a logging magnate, said the decree will allow the government to go ahead with a deal reached in November with Conoco Phillips (COP.N) to import at least 8.4 million barrels of gasoline and diesel a year.
Exxon Mobil and Chevron could not immediately be reached for comment.
A spokesman for an oil companies group in Honduras, Mario del Cid, warned on Sunday the imposition would hurt the country's reputation among investors.
"Investment is based on clear rules, and decisions of this kind are not a good message," he told Reuters.
Oil companies in Honduras imported some $900 million worth of fuel in 2005.
Foreign oil companies' operations in Honduras are much smaller than in Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday the country's entire energy sector had to be nationalized, reinforcing his socialist revolution.
He said Venezuela was "almost ready" to take over the foreign-run oil projects of the Orinoco Belt run by heavyweights such as Chevron, Conoco Phillips and Exxon Mobil, that produce about 600,000 barrels per day.
(Additional reporting by Nick Zieminski in New York)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...00325.html



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But it may have more to do with this...

As referred to earlier in this forum.
I don't believe he, el Presidente, is into drug trafficking but I do think his plan to legalise drugs and educate users has made big enemies of those who thrive from that black market in misery. Hence the need to smear him with this...


Deposed Honduran prez accused of drug ties
By FRANK BAJAK – 3 hours ago
BOGOTA (AP) — The regime that ousted Manuel Zelaya in Honduras claimed Tuesday that the deposed president allowed tons of cocaine to be flown into the Central American country on its way to the United States.
"Every night, three or four Venezuelan-registered planes land without the permission of appropriate authorities and bring thousands of pounds ... and packages of money that are the fruit of drug trafficking," its foreign minister, Enrique Ortez, told CNN en Espanol.
"We have proof of all of this. Neighboring governments have it. The DEA has it," he added.
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Rusty Payne in Washington said he could neither confirm nor deny a DEA investigation.
Zelaya was traveling from New York to Washington and could not immediately be reached to respond to the allegations.
In an interview Tuesday evening with The Associated Press in Tegucigalpa, interim Honduran President Roberto Micheletti was asked about Ortez's allegations and said only that it would be up to prosecutors to present any evidence.
Honduras and other Central American nations have become major transshipment points in recent years for Colombian cocaine, particularly as Mexico's government cracks down on cartels.
The drugs arrive in Honduras on noncommercial aircraft and, increasingly, in speedboats, from Venezuela and to a lesser extent Colombia, according to the Key West, Florida-based Joint Interagency Task Force-South, which coordinates drug interdiction in region. The boats tend to make short hops up Central America's coast.
In its most recent report on the illicit narcotics trade, the U.S. State Department said in February of Honduras that "official corruption continues to be an impediment to effective law enforcement and there are press reports of drug trafficking and associated criminal activity among current and former government and military officials."
The report did not name names.
Drug-related violence appears to be up in Honduras.
Homicides surged 25 percent from some 4,400 in 2007 to more than 7,000 in 2008 while more than 1,600 people were killed execution-style, suggesting drug gang involvement, according to the Central American Violence Observatory.
In October, Zelaya proposed legalizing drug use as a way of reducing the violence. He also had pledged to double the country's police force, which reached 13,500 last year, up from 7,000 in 2005, according to the State Department report.