We publish here an open letter from the president of Petro Quest International, the holder of specified oil and gas exploration rights to the offshore southern plateau of Seychelles.
To the various media of Seychelles, the executive branch of government, the cabinet of ministers, the Seychelles Petroleum Company, the Parliament and, most of all, the freedom-loving citizens of Seychelles:
We are sending this “open letter” in a sincere effort to clarify important facts that will dispel some very negative accusations generated by recent articles in the Regar and Nouveau Seychelles Weekly newspapers.
We appreciate the role of the free press in every nation to act as a whistle-blower where true corruption has occurred, and this letter is not meant in any way to question the motives of the writers of such articles.
It may be that the authors of such articles were simply trying to ask important questions on beliefs that were sincerely held. However, reputations of honourable government leaders and company directors can be ruined in a moment when accusations are made in a context devoid of all the pertinent facts.
Although none of the accusations or innuendos raised in these articles were directed at anyone in our company, we feel deeply it is our duty to set the record straight regarding some of the questions that were raised in the articles.
At the heart of the false accusations is the unfounded notion that government officials or other insiders from Seychelles have corruptly profited by selling rights to Seychelles’ sovereign territory to a private financial company with no oil background.
The articles also strongly hint that the private company held the property for only a few months before selling it for a $7 million profit that went into their shareholders’ pockets.
The content and headlines associated with these articles were over the top in their accusatory tone towards the private company that was secured by Petro Quest to help in our funding goals. There were also very unfair attacks made on the integrity of Seychelles government leaders without due consideration of the facts.
We are the exploration company that has been involved with this project from the very beginning, and it is from that authoritative vantage point that we offer our sincere view of the facts.
Fact 1. The Republic of Seychelles and the national oil company entered into a legitimate petroleum agreement a few years ago that granted Petro Quest certain exclusive exploration rights to an area located in the offshore southern plateau of Seychelles.
No property of any kind was ever sold to Petro Quest. This legitimate and out-in-the-open transaction was fully in keeping with the approved petroleum legislation, and an appropriate petroleum agreement was fully executed by the Seychelles government, the national oil company and Petro Quest. No hidden fees or signing bonuses were ever paid by any party to anyone.
Fact 2. Petro Quest is a subsidiary of Liberty Petroleum Corporation, which was originally founded by US Congressman Trent Franks and is a privately held corporation in the United States.
The founding vision was to secure world-class international exploration opportunities through standard industry bidding applications and pursue their exploration and development through larger operating partners.
Fact 3. In the last decade, Liberty Petroleum and its subsidiary or associated companies have been awarded over 11 distinct international exploration permits or grants covering an exploration area exceeding 10 million acres. Most of our portfolio of exploration projects can be seen on the Liberty website: www.libertypetroleumcorporation.com
By successfully setting up partnering associations, over $700m has been spent on exploration and development in these specific permit areas.
Fact 4. One such commercial discovery resulting from Liberty’s efforts on their previously awarded WA/315 permit in the offshore Browse Basin of Australia was so significant that it was listed in Rigzone’s top 10 worldwide discoveries for 2009.
Conoco was the operator, and over 700 vertical feet of net pay was found at 16,500 feet in the Plover sands. The structure is mapped to exceed 280 square kilometres and is assumed to hold between seven and 15 trillion cubic feet of gas. It is known as the Poseidon discovery.
Fact 5. Liberty/Petro Quest have a historical investment in the Seychelles work programme that currently exceeds US $5m; 2,500km of data was acquired in 2006. The data outcome was not sufficient to image appropriate drill prospects.
Consequently, Petro Quest has entered into a contract with Fugro to acquire an extra 7200km of quality 2D offset seismic data to gain the needed data imaging for future drilling.
Fugro is a world-class seismic company using the state-of-the-art Geo Arctic vessel to acquire this new data. The cost to Petro Quest of this survey now taking place in Seychelles exceeds a further US $7m.
Fact 6. To help project funding for this current seismic programme, Petro Quest secured the services of Allegra Capital in Perth, Australia, whose website is:
http://www.allegracapital.com.au/home.html
Allegra has an outstanding reputation in Perth and enjoys a proven track record in helping to set up energy project funding and IPO launches.
Fact 7. Acting as lead manager for Petro Quest, Allegra arranged a corporate merger between Petro Quest/Seyco/WHL. (Seyco is not to be confused with any prior Seychelles company with the same or similar Seyco name.)
The simple strategy of this merger of Petro Quest into WHL Energy was to give PQ access to interim capital raising offered in a publicly trading market that it did not have as a privately held company.
It is a completely false allegation that $5m-7m has gone into the Seyco shareholders’ pockets. These associates and shareholders have acted with absolute integrity.
The primary use of these proceeds was earmarked under the agreement to pay Fugro for the $7m Petro Quest seismic survey now taking place. Not one cent of any of these proceeds was ever asked for, offered to, or paid to any government officials or insiders in Seychelles.
Although Petro Quest is now a wholly owned subsidiary of WHL Energy – website
http://www.whlenergy.com.au/ – the exploration rights granted in the original petroleum agreement, duly and lawfully executed between Petro Quest, the Republic of Seychelles and the national oil company of Seychelles, continue to rest with PQ. We hope this provides appropriate and factual clarification.
Summary: Petro Quest holds the very highest regard for the executive branch of government in Seychelles and the leaders of the national oil company Sepec.
Some time ago, when the United States was suffering form the massive damage and fuel oil shortages caused by Hurricane Katrina, President James Michel and Captain Guy Adam of Sepec demonstrated their executive integrity and leadership by sending one of the premier Seychelles vessels to help our citizens at a time of great need.
We also applaud President Michel and the Seychelles Coast Guard for their decisive way of handling pirates and the heroic rescue of Seychelles fishermen a short time ago. Men of this calibre deserve to be defended when they are wrongly accused.
We have dealt with various national oil companies and governments from Libya to Kazakhstan. In our experience around the globe, the two most honourable governments we have ever had the privilege to do business with are the Australian government and the Seychelles government. That can be especially said of the Seychelles Petroleum Company.
These men have acted with absolute integrity and goodwill every since we began our work programme to find oil in Seychelles.
That is the truth. That is why it did not sit well with us that they were being unfairly implicated. We can only hope our open letter will quash or mitigate any further unfounded assaults on their character.
In conclusion, Petro Quest and its parent company WHL Energy can only hope that our hard-fought efforts will ultimately result in discoveries of massive quantities of oil that will benefit the government of Seychelles, all their gracious citizens and the companies involved. May God allow it to be so.
If this open letter should be published during the Christmas season, it is our genuine hope that all who read it will have a fulfilling time with their friends and families. It is also our hope that this letter reminds all of us to believe the best about people’s motives and integrity until we have categoric evidence to the contrary.
We wish all a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year.
Lane Franks, President, Petro Quest International
QFY Price at posting:
2.8¢ Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held
