-Caveat Lector- "...Since arriving 12 years ago to explore an area with no known oil reserves, CanOxy has created a geyser of black gold that, at 208,000 barrels a day, contributes nearly half the Yemeni government's revenue... "...Small wonder that Occidental Petroleum of Los Angeles, which holds a 29% stake in CanOxy, is trying to wrangle the Yemeni assets away from the Calgary-based company; and equally small wonder that CanOxy is resisting these advances. "...Oil production began in 1993. Civil war broke out in 1994. CanOxy evacuated its ***Aden complex*** just before the North shelled the port... CanOxy and the state are deeply dependent on one another. Oil sales -- more than half from the CanOxy project -- will bring in $900-million this year, more than two-thirds the nation's budget. Still, many complain the money does not flow back from the government to the people. The prime minister himself admits that corruption is rife in the public service." http://www.nationalpost.com/content/features/oilboom/111599oil1.html A Calgary firm finds wealth for a poor Middle Eastern nation CanOxy's blue army helps a desert bloom (November 1999) - Canadian Occidental In the village of Ressib, dozens of barefoot boys and girls -- the girls in brightly embroidered black dresses, the boys in futas (skirts) -- come running down the rocky trail to the three Toyota Land Cruisers. The bedouin of the Al-Jabbry tribe, whose tall houses of mud-plastered rocks crowd this desert valley, don't get much traffic. >From the shiniest truck steps Kevin Tracy, the Calgarian who is operations manager of Canadian Occidental Petroleum Yemen, the wholly owned subsidiary of Canadian Occidental Petroleum Ltd. Accompanying him is a four-man military escort armed with Kalashnikov machine guns. The children stare as Mr. Tracy, dressed in bright blue overalls, pulls off his work boots. He and the others sit cross-legged on the floor of their host's mufraj, a big living room empty but for some blankets and lots of flies. A boy passes out tiny glasses of sweet red tea. "I should slaughter a goat," Mohammed Omar Al-Jabbry, the host, mutters in Arabic. He is unprepared for such guests. "We are losing our customs." His guests are here to check on CanOxy's work in bringing running water and electricity to Ressib. The projects, financed by the firm, make the Canadians very popular. Since arriving 12 years ago to explore an area with no known oil reserves, CanOxy has created a geyser of black gold that, at 208,000 barrels a day, contributes nearly half the Yemeni government's revenue. Small wonder that Occidental Petroleum of Los Angeles, which holds a 29% stake in CanOxy, is trying to wrangle the Yemeni assets away from the Calgary-based company; and equally small wonder that CanOxy is resisting these advances. Today the "blue army," CanOxy's operations group in blue overalls, is perhaps the the most powerful tribe in all of Yemen. It's not always easy. CanOxy's staff have weathered two evacuations by warships, a civil war, and a 2 a.m. blast in August. The explosion killed a guard when it levelled a supermarket across the street from the firm's head office in Sana'a, the capital. The blast blew out most of CanOxy's windows and many heavy wooden doors. The company says it was not the target. While U.S. and other firms face repeated kidnappings and sabotage, no CanOxy staffer has been kidnapped. The firm's oil flow has never stopped. CanOxy ascribes its success to negotiating skill, good geological work and experienced staff. But most of all, the mild-mannered Canadians just seem good at getting along. They train Yemenis then give them top operating jobs. They have a special centre in Sana'a with a luxurious mufraj. Here, CanOxy executives smoke scented tobacco in hookah-type pipes and chew qat -- the mildly narcotic plant on which much of Yemen is hooked -- while negotiating with government officials. CanOxy builds water and power lines, and roads. Sure, some locals complain the company does not do enough. But most acknowledge it does more for them than just about anybody else. "The role of CanOxy in social development is the best of any company. That gives them good public relations," says Dr. Abdul Kareem Al-Iryani, the Yale-educated prime minister, in an interview at the government house in Sana'a. He says the Canadians' strength is their calm manner. To get along here, "you have to be flexible, you have to be modest." Walid Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf, editor of the Yemen Times that often criticizes the government, also praises CanOxy. "CanOxy is the biggest factor in helping the economy grow and they offer scholarships to study in Canada [10 a year]. They help people in the region where they work." Yemen is a mountainous country, about the size of Alberta, on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula surrounded by the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. It has a rich trading history. The biblical kingdom of the Queen of Sheba, it was here that traders assembled caravans of camels laden with frankincense and myrrh, plus Chinese silk and Indian spices, for the two-month trip to Egypt, Greece and Rome. Yemen is the birthplace of coffee, exported from the Renaissance through Victorian times via its Red Sea port of Al-Mokha (from which the word mocha is derived). Turmoil is also a constant. Over the millennia, Yemen has been repeatedly torn up and put back together, first by powerful local sheiks and kings, then by Ethiopia, Turkey and Britain. Iron-fisted imams maintained feudalism until 1962, keeping out engineers, doctors, banks, electricity and industry. North Yemen, which was pro-Western, and South Yemen, a Soviet client state, united peacefully in 1990. Four years later, the South started a civil war that it lost. Today in this poor nation of 16 million, unregistered automatic weapons are commonplace and tribes sometimes use force to pressure the authorities. "Canadians are advised against travel to Yemen," reads last month's travel advisory from Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs. "The level of risk to foreigners in Yemen is very high." There have been more than 100 kidnappings since 1991. Some victims were associated with the Dallas-based Hunt Oil Co., which has poor relations with the tribes in the Ma'rib region. "There's been two people with the company I work for kidnapped and held for ransom and I don't know how many vehicles have been stolen," says a Texan who works with a Hunt contractor. "They blow up our pipelines and we get shot at." Tourism has all but disappeared since last December's rescue of 16 kidnapped tourists. Four captives died in the shootout. The lack of visitors leaves Yemen cloaked in the mystery of the Thousand and One Nights. Most men wear wraparounds and Arab headdress, and carry jambias, knifes in curved sheaths, in their belts. Women, when seen, are cloaked in black. Cities are spiked with minarets, from which, at 4 a.m., issue Islam's call to prayer. Enter CanOxy. In 1987, company lawyers signed an oil-production sharing agreement with South Yemen, then hurriedly evacuated the port of Aden on a British warship when trouble arose. The Canadians returned, shrewdly hiring Ali Mohamed Sohaiki, then deputy governor of Aden, to handle government relations. He is now CanOxy Yemen's executive director. Oil production began in 1993. Civil war broke out in 1994. CanOxy evacuated its Aden complex just before the North shelled the port. In the desert, oil production continued with a core staff. "We produced more oil than ever, because we didn't have engineers around shutting down this or that well for testing or maintenance," boasts Benjamin Velasco, a CanOxy materials superintendent. To reach CanOxy's Masila Block oil-producing region, a patch about the size of greater Calgary, one boards a Twin Otter for a rattling two-hour flight from Sana'a. The sun is setting as the plane lands. The air is soothingly warm and almost fragrant. The call to prayer wafts across from the CanOxy mosque in the centre of the sprawling camp. At any one time, about 225 CanOxy staff live in trailers clustered on the barren soil. Another 700 contract staff -- some locals, some expats -- live in camps outside the gates. It's a tough grind, with breakfast served from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. Canadians and other expats work a 35-day "hitch" -- 12 hours a day, seven days a week -- then fly home for 35 days while their "cross-shift" comes in to replace them. For the first week, jet lag pounds their brains. Yemeni employees, who outnumber expats about two to one, work the same hours on 28-day "hitches." "The expats that work January and February, with the warm weather, aren't complaining," says Mr. Tracy. "But Christmas is another story." He will miss spending the holidays with his wife and two sons in Calgary and will celebrate the new millennium at the Central Processing Facility. Still, the pay's good and 80% of income is tax-exempt. "Anybody who says they're not here for the money, there's something wrong with them," says Eamonn O'Brien, the health and safety manager whose home is in British Columbia. Yemenis get paid a lot less than expats who do the same jobs; those who work for CanOxy directly aren't complaining, but the camp's bedouin security guards, who work for Yemen Contracting Service, want staff jobs. "What's this policy CanOxy has?" asks Omar Hassan, who says he makes about $125 (all figures in U.S. dollars) for a 42-day shift, then goes back to spend his 21 days off with his wife and child, tending his camels and goats. "The bedouin are learning English, we do our jobs very well, so why are we on contract?" CanOxy says it hires only for its core business, oil production, and contracts the rest to foster Yemeni businesses. Wages are what the market will bear. For the expats and Yemenis, learning to work together under high pressure requires adjustments. Nasser Baghaith, a materials supervisor, says some Western habits throw the locals, like feet propped on the desk. "He's putting the worst part of his body in your face," he says. The foul mouths of the oil workers surprised the locals as well. (They don't learn those words in English classes.) CanOxy Yemen is increasingly staffed by Yemenis and training will cost $1.4-million this year. Manpower is plentiful: about one million Yemeni workers were expelled from neighbouring Persian Gulf states in 1991 after Yemen refused to support the U.S.-led attack on Iraq. CanOxy employed 218 Yemenis and 285 expats in 1995; it will have 431 Yemenis and 243 expats by the end of the year. Cultural adjustments are tough for Canadians too. Rick Jensen, vice-president of operations, who lives in Sana'a, craves the CBC and Peter's Drive-In on the Trans-Canada in Calgary. It frustrates him that he can never take the wheel of his 4x4. With the chaotic traffic, the company prefers to hire skilled Yemenis as drivers. Security is also tight: CanOxy vehicles are tailed by cars of soldiers. All told, the firm has contracts for more than 700 enlisted men. The workers look out for one another in the desert. As one group bounces along rutted roads to a camp, the radio crackles to life. "Ken is missing," says a voice from base. "He left this morning in Charlie one-six-zero [truck number C160]. Ken's vehicle has been found but he's not in it." After a flurry of chatter, Ken gets on the air. "I'm here, I'm okay, I'm at Heijah 19, I walked here, I've just got a dead battery." And the oil keeps flowing. Some wells are prodigious: Tawila 6, drilled in February, 1994, has produced 21 million barrels and still gives 6,000 a day. All over the desert, riggers have punctured the Earth's crust with long straws, that stretch down 2,000 metres to suck out a liquid that is two-thirds water, one-third oil. After separating out the water, CanOxy sends it in a two-foot-diameter pipeline along 140 rugged kilometres to the coast, where supertankers wait to haul the crude to Asia. One Saturday, the massive Astro Beta floats in the Indian Ocean at CanOxy's Ash Shihr terminal taking on crude. Loading 1.8 million barrels of oil, via a hose hooked to storage tanks, will take two days. There is more oil to come: CanOxy estimates another 500 million barrels from Masila. Last year, it signed deals for exploration rights on 20 million acres in Yemen's Empty Quarter on the disputed border with Saudi Arabia. The challenges of the forbidding desert, where summer temperatures rise to 50 degrees Celsius, are compounded by the threat of nearby Saudi air bases. Still, the company exudes confidence. "We have land to explore on," says Waleed Jazwari, the Iraqi-born Canadian who completes a three-year stint as president of CanOxy Yemen in January. "The profit-sharing agreements are good compared to other countries. We have an outstanding organization with 12 years experience. And we have an outstanding relationship with the people and government." Those close ties are exemplified by large photographs of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the president of Yemen, that are prominently displayed in the company's offices. Mr. Jazwari and other CanOxy top brass sat behind the president at an election rally for 50,000 in Al-Mukalla, in eastern Yemen, in October. CanOxy and the state are deeply dependent on one another. Oil sales -- more than half from the CanOxy project -- will bring in $900-million this year, more than two-thirds the nation's budget. Still, many complain the money does not flow back from the government to the people. The prime minister himself admits that corruption is rife in the public service. "Let's take the example of cement," says Mr. Al-Iryani. "There are two types of cement. Local cement, produced by a state-owned factory, and imported cement, which is more expensive. Officials were selling local cement at the imported price; on 100,000 bags of cement [the corrupt bureaucrat] makes 300 million rials [about $2-million] from the scratch of a pen." Today, he says, there is just one price for cement. He says in Persian Gulf countries a portion of the oil wealth goes to the ruling families. In Yemen, all the money is spent for the public good. He knows his country's success rides largely on the success of its biggest foreign investor. "This partnership with CanOxy is very fruitful and productive and I hope it will be very long-lasting." CanOxy hopes so too. - Financial Post -------- A Canadian Occidental rig drills a new well in Yemen's Hadramaut region. The company has pumped 400 million barrels from the project. Deals end on a high note "No chewing gat during working hours," reads a sign in the security office at Canadian Occidental Petroleum Yemen in Sana'a, the capital city. Would that it were so. In fact, chewing gat, more often spelled qat, is key to CanOxy's success in building relationships with the Yemeni government. Qat is a bush that grows up to seven metres high in the highlands. By lunchtime every man in Sana'a is clutching a baggie of qat, the price of which ranges from $3 to $50 a bag, depending on the quality. At 1 p.m. all businesses shut as the locals settle down to chew qat until about 5 p.m. By then, everyone has a bulge of qat in their left cheeks, some the size of baseballs. CanOxy workers may not chew until the workday ends. Often, at 4 p.m., the executives head to "qat chews" at offices or people's homes, or at the firm's own business centre. It has been outfitted with a mufraj, or living room, for that purpose. Brian McNamara, the vice-president of human resources and administration, a Calgarian nicknamed "Sheik Brian," has mastered the art. He arrives at the mufraj in a floor-length silver silk camise, or Arab robe, and a headdress. A jambia, a dagger with a curved sheath, is in his belt. He nestles into one of the low couches that ring the room. A server hands out plastic qat bags stamped with the CanOxy logo. "This is nice stuff," Mr. McNamara says. "Pick off the smallest leaves, give them a couple of chews, then park them in the corner of your mouth. Then repeat. There's your qat lesson. The effect is like drinking 10 cappuccinos, only you don't have to go to the bathroom as often." The key is to build a bulge while the qat resin slowly seeps down your throat. It tastes bitter and dries out quickly -- you have to add more qat to keep your wad moist. Each guest gets a bottle of water and a can of Pepsi, and everyone puffs apple-scented tobacco from a metre-high hookah. But my hopes for a relaxing chat are dashed. It's all business. Mr. McNamara pulls out a binder and starts going over employment contracts with Ali Mohamed Sohaiki, the executive director. Cellphones ring continuously as employees sit, cheeks bulging, chewing and talking shop. Mr. McNamara says qat chews have helped him build a bond with Dr. Mohammed Saleh Moqbil, the Yemen oil ministry official in charge of ensuring CanOxy hits targets for replacing its expatriate workers with trained nationals. "We can talk for four-plus hours, and discuss anything on a without-prejudice basis," he says. "You always leave on a good note." ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: *Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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