Press Comments19 Aug 2014 07:58
Lombard:
Tales of the uneggspected show power of political risk: Avangardco evokes giggles because the Aim-listed Ukrainian group produces eggs, a product with potential for wordplay. But there is nothing funny about plans by the government of Crimea, an illegally annexed part of Russia, compulsorily to buy Avangardco’s operations there. The loss of a mining licence by Rio’s subsidiary Bougainville Copper is harder to emote over. Panguna, once the world’s biggest copper mine, has lain idle for 25 years because guerrillas on Bougainville wanted to split from Papua New Guinea. Rio lost its licence in a delayed reaction to autonomy. The company may now sell an associated exploration permit to a buyer less alarmed by zinging bullets. Optimists, meanwhile, think the possible partition of Iraq could benefit oil explorers cosy with the Kurdish Regional Government, such as Tony Hayward’s Genel. Wrangles between the autonomous KRG and the Iraqi government over oil exports would cease if the latter no longer existed. The small matter of keeping Isis out of Erbil – now with U.S. air support – comes first, though.