China plays for energy in new Great Game | ||||||
Stalled decade-long negotiations with Russia have led China to go energy shopping around the Caspian Sea. Colin Shek Last Modified: 10 Oct 2013 08:08      | ||||||
 China has purchased a stake in Kazakhstan's Kashagan oil field in the Caspian Sea [Reuters] | ||||||
| Shanghai, China - Near the right bank of the Amu Darya River in Turkmenistan lies a sprawling complex that is the fruit of China's decade-long charm offensive in the hermetic state. Derricks erected in the bleak, forbidding desert extract natural gas from huge reservoirs underground. Pipes carry the gas to a plant, the largest and most advanced in Central Asia, where it is processed before being pumped more than 1,800 km east to China. The Amu Darya gas project, as it is known, is a testament to China's courtship of Central Asia - a region of increasing strategic and economic importance to Beijing. China is now a player in the latest round of the "Great Game" - a tag coined by Rudyard Kipling to describe the 19th-century rivalry between imperial Britain and Russia for influence in Central Asia. Competing with China now are Russia, Europe and the United States. China's economic clout, though, has helped it win friends in what was once firmly Russia's playground. Bilateral trade between China and Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan reached $46bn in 2012 - a 100-fold increase since the five sovereign states emerged from the rubble of the Soviet Union two decades ago.
Claiming the Caspian China's interest in the Central Asian states is easy to understand. Burgeoning Chinese demand for energy has led the country's state-run oil and gas companies to waters off the Mozambique coast, the dusty Australian outback - and the shores of the Caspian Sea. "It's another region that they see ripe for the picking," said Peter Kiernan, lead energy analyst with the Economist Intelligence Unit in London. The area is rich in energy resources. BP estimates that Turkmenistan sits on the world's fourth-largest reserves of gas. The lush valleys and snow-covered mountains of Tajikistan have also attracted both Chinese and Western companies, with one company executive claiming the country has enough gas to meet China's demand for 24 years. Beijing's interest in Central Asia is about "securing diversified sources of energy supply", said Kiernan. "They don't want to put all their eggs in one basket, like in the Middle East or in any particular region. So they are trying to secure diversified supplies from different parts of the world, and Central Asia is pretty crucial to that." As China started locking down huge quantities of Caspian oil and gas, some Western analysts and media began characterising the booming energy trade eastwards as part of a grand Central Asian energy strategy by Beijing. Some Chinese observers dismiss that view. "I've heard that there could be a strategy ... truly I don't believe so. I don't think China has a choice [over buying energy from Central Asia]," said Lin Boqiang, director of the China Centre for Energy Economics Research in Fujian province. "You have to go where the energy is. If there's an opportunity, you're going to see [the] Chinese, no matter where." In its quest for energy, China has employed much the same strategy as other countries in the world, providing billions of dollars in low-interest loans and offering to pick up the tab for major infrastructure projects. It was Beijing's financial largesse, for instance, that helped pave the way for an international pipeline to carry gas from the Amu Darya project to China. Built at a cost of about $7bn, the Central Asia-China gas pipeline starts in Gedaim in Turkmenistan, and winds more than 1,800km through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan before entering northwest China.
"The Chinese decided they wanted to build a pipeline and were willing to do it themselves," said Kiernan. "They started the construction pretty much straight away [and] got it done in about two to three years." "The Chinese can do things more quickly and more directly. As long as they get the supply, then it doesn't matter so much about the cost." 'Jenny on the bloc' The lengths in which Beijing goes to win over Central Asian leaders was underscored this summer by an unlikely figure: Jennifer Lopez. The American pop star was embroiled in a human rights controversy in June, after performing at lavish birthday celebrations for the 56-year-old president of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov.He has been accused of human rights violations with Turkmenistan being "one of the world's most repressive countries" under his rule, according to Human Rights Watch. As Lopez came in for criticism, it emerged that state-owned China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the country's biggest oil producer, had invited her and other celebrities to perform for Berdymukhamedov. Besides its chequebook and impressive Rolodex, China's studious avoidance of discussing domestic political affairs has also helped it access Central Asia's prized natural resources. "The Chinese don't worry about the internal matters of the countries that they get involved in. Issues like human rights are not really a concern. It's strictly economic," said Kiernan. "Energy is mainly a commercial activity but to say that politics is not involved ... is not possible," said Lin. "You cannot avoid some foreign politics in energy activities."
Beijing's generous attempts to curry favour contrast with the labouring efforts of the European Union, which pinpointed Central Asia as a potential energy supplier before China did. Europe has been drawing up plans to bring in Caspian gas for more than a decade, under a so-called "southern gas corridor" initiative that would involve a trans-Caspian pipeline. But distances and politics means Brussels now trails Beijing in the race to tap Central Asian energy. "There're a lot of bilateral territorial issues that they would need to resolve before a link to Europe could ever be built," said Kiernan, noting a pipeline would need to cross the Caspian Sea - which would then involve Russia and Iran. "The EU is not in a position to say 'we're willing to build a pipeline and finance it if you agree to supply us'. There's the commercial rationale that the Chinese don't necessarily have to have." Growing ties Chinese President Xi Jinping criss-crossed Central Asia in September, sealing energy deals and promising billions in investment on a whirlwind 10-day tour. Xi and Berdymukhamedov inaugurated work at Turkmenistan's giant Galkynysh gas field - the second-largest in the world. Production from the field will underpin a surge in Turkmen gas exports to China, rising by 25 billion cubic metres annually to a total of 65 billion cubic metres per year. That will cement Turkmenistan's status as the biggest seller of gas to China. In Kazakhstan, some $30bn of announced deals included CNPC's $5bn purchase of a stake in the country's Kashagan oil field - one of the world's largest oil discoveries in decades. And in less-affluent Uzbekistan, Xi and the country's President Islam Karimov signed deals worth $15bn in sectors including oil and gas. For the former Soviet republics, the benefits of China's interest are obvious. "They get a regular and a growing market. They know that China's going to be an increasing buyer, whether it's oil or gas," said Kiernan.
Lin agreed. "It's a win-win situation, because they really depend on each other and it's quite complementary." Beijing's deepening energy ties with Central Asia are unlikely to have gone down well in Moscow, where the Kremlin is already concerned that Chinese influence over the Caspian is gradually eclipsing its own.The extensive deal-making has cast doubt on Russia's efforts to broker a mammoth gas supply deal with China. After more than a decade of talks, the two sides appeared to make tangible progress in March with the signing of a memorandum for 38 billion cubic metres every year. Progress, however, appears to have stalled on the longstanding issue of price. As Moscow haggled over price, China extended its hunt for energy supplies to Myanmar, the Middle East, and of course Central Asia. "They're playing hardball [with Russia] at the moment because they can afford to," said Kiernan. "They've got their fingers in different pies." | ||||||
Thursday, 10 October 2013
CHINA/RUSSIA
Wednesday, 9 October 2013
A NIGERIAN MUSLIMAH WINS MISS WORLD......
The 20 finalists, who were all required to wear headscarves, put on a glittering show for the final of Muslimah World, strolling up and down a catwalk in elaborately embroidered dresses and stilettos.
But the contestants from six countries were covered from head to foot, and as well as beauty they were judged on how well they recited Koranic verses and their views on Islam in the modern world.
After a show in front of an audience of mainly religious scholars and devout Muslims, a panel of judges picked Obabiyi Aishah Ajibola from Nigeria as the winner.
While the event in a Jakarta shopping mall paled in comparison to Miss World on the resort island of Bali, in which scores of contestants are competing, Ajibola was nevertheless overwhelmed.
Upon hearing her name, the 21-year-old knelt down and prayed, then wept as she recited a Koranic verse.
She said it was “thanks to almighty Allah” that she had won the contest. She received 25 million rupiah ($2,200) and trips to Mecca and India as prizes.
Ajibola told AFP before the final that the event “was not really about competition”.
“We’re just trying to show the world that Islam is beautiful,” she said.
Organisers said the pageant challenged the idea of beauty put forward by the British-run Miss World pageant, and also showed that opposition to the event could be expressed non-violently.
Eka Shanti, who founded the pageant three years ago after losing her job as a TV news anchor for refusing to remove her headscarf, bills the contest as “Islam’s answer to Miss World”.
“This year we deliberately held our event just before the Miss World final to show that there are alternative role models for Muslim women,” she told AFP.
“But it’s about more than Miss World. Muslim women are increasingly working in the entertainment industry in a sexually explicit way, and they become role models, which is a concern.”
Hosted by Dewi Sandra, an Indonesian actress and pop star who recently hung up her racy dresses for a headscarf, the pageant featured both Muslim and pop music performances, including one about modesty, a trait the judges sought in the winner.
The pageant, which also featured bright Indonesian Islamic designer wear, is a starkly different way of protesting Miss World than the approach taken by Islamic radicals.
Snowballing protest movement
Thousands have taken to the streets in Indonesia in recent weeks to protest Miss World, denouncing the contest as “pornography” and burning effigies of the organisers.
Despite a pledge by Miss World organisers to drop the famous bikini round, radical anger was not appeased and the protest movement snowballed.
The government eventually bowed to pressure and ordered the whole pageant be moved to the Hindu-majority island of Bali, where it opened on September 8.
Later rounds and the September 28 final were to be held in and around Jakarta, where there is considerable hardline influence.
But there are still fears that extremists may target the event — the US, British and Australian embassies in Jakarta have warned their nationals in recent days of the potential for radical attacks.
More than 500 contestants competed in online rounds to get to the Muslimah World final in Indonesia, one of which involved the contenders comparing stories of how they came to wear the headscarf.
The contest was first held in 2011 under a different name and was only open to Indonesians, Shanti said, but after the media began comparing it to Miss World, it was rebranded as a Muslim alternative to the world-famous pageant.
Because of its popularity, organisers accepted foreign contestants this year for the first time, with Iran, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Nigeria and Indonesia represented.
Ventures Africa's Richest People in Africa 2013 List
The combined fortune of Africa’s 55 billionaires is $143.88 billion. The average net worth of the members of this exclusive club is $2.6 billion, while the median age of the richest people in Africa is 65 years. The oldest billionaires are Kenyan industrialist, Manu Chandaria, and Egyptian property tycoon, Mohammed Al-Fayed, both aged 84. The youngest billionaires are Mohammed Dewji of Tanzania and Igho Sanomi, a Nigerian oil trader. They are both 38 years old.
Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt lead the pack with the highest number of billionaires at 20, nine and eight respectively. Algeria, Angola, Zimbabwe and Swaziland only have one billionaire each. In all, there are 10 African countries represented on the list.
Three women made it into the rankings. The richest of them is Folorunsho Alakija, a Nigerian fashion designer and oil tycoon worth some $7.3 billion by our estimates.See the full list after the cut...
1. Aliko Dangote
$20.2 billion
Industry: Manufacturing
Country Of Citizenship: Nigeria
Age: 56
Marital Status: Married
Africa’s richest man started building his fortune three decades ago after taking a business loan from his maternal uncle to begin trading in commodities such as flour, sugar, rice and cement. In the early 2000s, he started producing these items himself. His Dangote Group is now the largest manufacturing conglomerate in West Africa and owns sugar refineries, salt processing facilities, a beverage manufacturer and a string of cement plants across Africa. In October 2012, Dangote sold a controlling stake in his flour milling company to Tiger Brands, a South African manufacturer of consumer goods. He pocketed $190 million from the sale. Dangote’s biggest asset is Dangote Cement, a $20-billion (market cap) cement manufacturer with operations in 14 countries and an annual production capacity of 30 million metric tonnes. In June this year, South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation acquired a 1.5-percent stake in the company for $290 million. Dangote is also Africa’s most generous philanthropist. Within the last 12 months, he has given away over $100 million to causes ranging from youth empowerment to flood relief, religious causes and education. His younger brother, Sani Dangote, is Vice Chairman of Dangote Group.
2. Allan Gray
$8.5 billion
Industry: Financial services
Country Of Citizenship: South Africa
Age: 75
Marital Status: Married
This media-shy South African moneyman controls two investment companies that collectively manage over $50 billion in assets. After Gray received an MBA from Harvard, he worked for eight years at Fidelity Management and Research in Boston before returning to Cape Town in 1973, when he founded Allan Gray Limited, now the largest privately owned asset manager in South Africa. It is also the most successful with assets under management at approximately $30 billion. According to inside sources at the company, Allan Gray’s global mandate share portfolio has achieved an average annual return of 28 percent since 1974. Keys to success include rigorous research and the consistent application of Allan Gray’s ages-old and time-tested investment approach of buying heavily into companies whose share price is less than their intrinsic value. Gray is also the founder of Orbis, an asset manager in Bermuda, which he founded in 1989. Orbis has over $21 billion under management. Gray’s son, William, is President of Orbis and equally serves as portfolio manager of the Orbis Funds. Gray and his family are the controlling shareholders of Allan Gray Limited and Orbis. In 2007, Gray endowed his Allan Gray Orbis Foundation with $130 million, the single largest charity gift in Southern Africa at the time. The foundation funds scholarships for poor but promising South African high school students.
3. Mike Adenuga
$8 billion
Industry: Oil, telecoms
Country Of Citizenship: Nigeria
Age: 60
Marital Status: Married
Nigeria’s second richest man made his first fortune in his mid-twenties by distributing lace fabrics and Coca- Cola, and by handling lucrative government contracts during the regime of former Nigerian military President, Ibrahim Babangida. In the early nineties he founded Conoil Producing, an indigenous oil exploration and production outfit that was the first Nigerian company to strike oil in commercial quantities. Today, Conoil Producing’s assets produce more than 100,000 barrels of crude a day. Adenuga’s other holdings include Globacom, a Nigerian mobile telecommunications network that boasts more than 25 million customers in Nigeria and Republic of Benin. He also owns a 74-percent stake in Conoil PLC, a petroleum marketing outfit listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
4. Folorunsho Alakija
$7.3 billion
Industry: Oil
Country Of Citizenship: Nigeria
Age: 62
Marital Status: Married
Africa’s richest woman sits atop Famfa Oil, a Nigerian oil company that owns a 60-percent stake in OML 127, one of Nigeria’s most prolific oil blocks located at Nigerian offshore Agbami deepwater field. Daily production at OML 127 stands at over 200,000 barrels per day. Alakija studied fashion design in England in the eighties, returning to Nigeria to found Supreme Stitches, a Nigerian fashion label which enjoyed patronage from the more successful women in Nigerian high society. One of her clients was Maryam Babangida, the wife to former Nigerian military President, Ibrahim Babangida. Alakija is believed to have ridden on the crest of this relationship to acquire an oil block in 1993 at a relatively inexpensive price. Famfa immediately entered into a joint venture agreement with Star Deep Water Petroleum (a subsidiary of Chevron and Brazil’s Petrobas), ceding a 40-percent stake to the two companies. Famfa owned a 60-percent interest in the block until 2000, when the incumbent Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, forcefully acquired a 50-percent stake in the block, transferring it to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation – a government-owned oil company. Famfa Oil immediately went to court to challenge the acquisition in a case that dragged on for 12 years. In May 2013, the Nigerian Supreme court reinstated the 50-percent stake to Famfa Oil. Alakija also owns $200-million of real estate in the United Kingdom.
5. Nicky Oppenheimer
$6.5 billion
Industry: Mining, investments
Country Of Citizenship: South Africa
Age: 68
Marital Status: Married
Diamonds are not forever. In November 2011, Nicky Oppenheimer made the momentous decision to sell off his family’s stake in De Beers, the world’s largest diamond producer, to mining behemoth Anglo American. The landmark $5.1-billion deal ended the Oppenheimer family’s eight-decade control of De Beers, which began when Nicky’s grandfather, Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, took over the firm in 1927 and consolidated the company’s global monopoly over the world’s diamond industry. In 2011, E Oppenheimer & Sons, the family-owned investment firm which Nicky controls, partnered with Temasek, the investment firm of the Government of Singapore, to form Tana Africa Capital, a $300-million private equity fund that invests in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and agriculture sectors.
6. Johann Rupert
$6.1 billion
Industry: Luxury goods and retail
Country Of Citizenship: South Africa
Age: 63
Marital Status: Married
Johann Rupert is the chairman of Swiss-based luxury goods company, Compagnie Financière Richemont SA, which owns premium brands such as Cartier, Dunhill, IWC Schaffhausen, Piaget and Vacheron Constantin, among many others. It is the sixth largest company on the Swiss stock exchange and the third largest luxury goods company in the world. Johann’s father, Anton Rupert, founded a small cigarette manufacturing operation, Rembrandt, in his garage in 1941 with a £10-investment. Rembrandt became incredibly popular among young South African smokers and by the 1950s, was already one of the leading tobacco firms in the continent. Anton, ever the visionary, diversified from tobacco into the industrial and luxury branded goods sectors, splitting Rembrandt into two divisions: Remgro (an investment company with financial, mining and industrial interests) and Richemont (the Swiss-based luxury goods group). Johann is chairman and the largest individual shareholder in both companies. He also owns two of South Africa’s best-known vineyards, Rupert & Rothschild and L’Ormarins, and founded the Franschhoek Motor Museum, which houses his personal collection of over 200 antique motor vehicles.
7. Nassef Sawiris
$5.2 billion
Industry: Construction
Country Of Citizenship: Egypt
Age: 53
Marital Status: Married
Nassef Sawiris is the youngest of the three sons of Egyptian billionaire and founder of the Orascom conglomerate, Onsi Sawiris. He heads Orascom Construction Industries (OCI), one of the largest companies in the North Africa region. In January this year, Nassef announced that OCI was exchanging all global depositary receipts of the company for newly issued shares of OCI NV on the NYSE Euronext in Amsterdam or in exchange for cash. A consortium of investors, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates, provided the $1 billion in fresh capital required to pay off investors. The overwhelming majority of the shareholders accepted the buyout offer, which subsequently led to the company’s delisting on the EGX. Nassef also serves as a director at Lafarge, the French cement giant, and the Dubai international Financial Exchange.
8. Gilbert Chagoury & Family
$4.2 billion
Industry: Construction
Country Of Citizenship: Nigeria
Age: 67
Marital Status: Married
The Nigerian-Lebanese industrialist and diplomat is a co-founder of the Chagoury Group, a large, multi-faceted Nigerian conglomerate with interests in manufacturing, construction, real estate, hospitality and healthcare. Gilbert was born in 1946 in Lagos by Lebanese immigrant parents. After studying at the College des Freres Chretiens in Lebanon, he returned to Nigeria where he kick-started his business career. In 1971 he started GrandsMoulins du Bénin Flour Mills, a milling company in Cottonou, Republic of Benin, which formed the foundation of the Chagoury Group. Today, the Chagoury Group owns five flour-milling companies in Nigeria and Republic of Benin. Chagoury’s milling operations collectively produce over 3,700 metric tonnes of wheat flour every day. The Chagoury Group also owns a glass bottle manufacturing plant and a plastic bottle manufacturing operation. Other assets include Eko Hotel, a five-star Hotel in Lagos, and Hotel Presidential, a five-star hotel in Port Harcourt. One of the newer companies within the group is South EnergyX, a real estate development company that is developing Eko Atlantic, a new $6-billion metropolis on land reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean. When completed, Eko Atlantic is expected to provide residential accommodation for up to 250,000 people. Chagoury’s property portfolio also includes Ocean Parade, a series of 14 tower blocks overlooking a lagoon in Banana Island, Nigeria’s priciest residential community. Gilbert Chagoury’s career has not been without controversy. In 2001, in a British court, he admitted to helping the family of deceased Nigerian dictator, Sani Abacha, transfer $300 million into foreign accounts. He returned the money and was indemnified of charges.
9. Nathan Kirsh
$3.6 billion
Industry: Real Estate, Distribution
Country Of Citizenship: Swaziland
Age: 82
Marital Status: Married
Nathan Kirsh made his first fortune after he founded a successful corn milling business in Swaziland. He deftly reinvested his profits in food distribution and real estate. The bulk of his fortune is held in various property and distribution companies. His investment company, Kirsh Holding Group, owns a 50-percent stake in Swazi Plaza Properties – the company that owns the largest shopping mall in Swaziland. He also owns a 29-percent stake in Minerva, a London-based property developer, and a 63-percent stake in Jetro Holdings, which operates Jetro Cash and Carry stores and Restaurant Depots in the New York City area. Jetro enjoys a near monopoly in supplying wholesale goods to small stores and restaurants in the New York City area and had revenues of over $6 billion in 2013. Kirsh is also the largest individual shareholder in Magal Security Systems, a developer and supplier of control systems and intruder detection systems.
10. Christoffel Wiese
$3.4 billion
Industry: Retail
Country Of Citizenship: South Africa
Age: 72
Marital Status: Married
The South African businessman is the chairman and greatest individual shareholder of Shoprite, Africa’s largest discount retailer. After studying Law at the University of Stellenbosch, Wiese took up a job as an executive director at Pep Stores, a discount clothing chain his parents co-founded. In 1979, Pep Stores diversified into groceries through its acquisition of Shoprite, a small South African retail chain. When Wiese became chairman of the company in 1981, he changed the company’s name to Pepkor and made a series of acquisitions including Ackermans, a prominent clothing chain. He went on to list Shoprite on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. He owns a 15-percent stake in the $7-billion (market cap) company. While his Shoprite stake remains his biggest asset, he also owns significant stakes in other Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed companies, including Invicta Holdings, PSG Holdings, Tradehold, and private equity firm, Brait. Other assets include a private game reserve in the Kalahari and Lourensford Wine Estate.
Banky Says he prefers to be wealthy and quiet....
| I RATHER BE WEALTHY AND QUIET THAN FAMOUS AND BROKE.............. |
Banky W took the 10th position of the Forbes and he is not excited about that, ‘I don’t believe very much in such things. Let’s be honest, the real wealthy people are the businessmen like Dangote and the politicians (some of whomgot there by looting Nigeria). They’re the ones with real money. This entertainment business is too much hype. It is more fame than fortune. So I’m not thrilled to it and I don’t think any of us should buy into it too much. I’d rather be wealthy and quiet than famous and broke’
He does something most people do not known, ‘I’m not sure how many people know this, but I shave my head and shape my beard myself. I’m my own barber. I’ve been doing it for years. It started when I was in University and didn’t have a lot of money, I learnt to maintain it myself so I didn’t need to spend money on it every week. And now I’m good at it so I’m my own barber. I will probably open a barbershop at some point.’
| October 8, 2013 at 12:15 PM |
Though, this act may be viewed as 'just having fun' with a work of art, however, it's not showing any act of responsibility with this display.
The controversial young artiste is holding an essential part of a lady represented in art.
Indeed Some art fans would go hard against him for this though and see different opinions concerning it.
Categories: Entertainment news
Friday, 4 October 2013
DOES IT NOT ?
It seems there's a growing trend of "shacking up" and living together rather than committing oneself to marriage these days. Reminds me of when people in ages past settled for concubines instead of wives. Doesn't opting for a concubine instead of a wife essentially say to the woman that you're not worth marrying? And you're only here to meet my sexual needs/desires?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)