As I posted at SH:
I found this on Centurion's web site ( centurionenergy.com ), which is well worth a look for new investors, like myself. It's just over a year old, but I think it's relevant to note who owns many of the shares. Also of interest, today's volume hasn't been seen for years. In fact the highest volume in the past 2 years was 466K on September 23, 1998. CUX will almost triple that today..., at an average price of .85.
David Raine
Vancouver
Mon Aug 2, 1999
Sheikh Can Open Doors for Junior
Publisher: Oilweek - MacLean Hunter Publishing LTD.
Author: Andrea Lorenz
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In the Middle Eastern oil business having a link to the Saudi royal family is like own-ing a Gulfstream jet. It will get you places. Centurion, a Canadian junior oil and gas company has secured the support of a Saudi businessman whose connections go right to the top. Sheikh Badr Al-Aiban is chairman and chief executive officer of Delta Oil, a London-based oil and gas company. Delta and Blakeney Management purchased a recent $5,000,000 private placement (92.5% and 7.5% respectively) acquiring 8,771,930 Centurion shares. Delta has also reached an agreement to purchase $3.8 million US of Centurion's 8% convertible debenture note. Once converted, Delta would hold over 16 million Centurion shares, 26.5% of the com-pany.
The initial investment of $5,000,000 is modest in the arena of international oil and gas ventures. For Centurion, which has been exploring and producing in Egypt and Tunisia, it could cover the cost of drilling and testing two on-shore exploration wells. The significance of Centurion's glamorous alliance lies not in the initial amount invested but in the backing of Sheikh Badr whose personal and political connections could put the little company on the fast track to the big league.
Centurion is a three-year-old company run by Said Arrata and Hany El-Sharkawi, both of whom were born and raised in Egypt. Arrata is an engineer and entrepreneur and El-Sharkawi is a PhD petroleum engineer with several discoveries to his name. The company produces 3,200 barrels of high gravity oil a day from its Tunisia concession.
It sells the 39 - 50 degree crude primarily to refineries on the Mediterranean. In Egypt, the company's two gas wells on the El Manzella Block in the Delta region have tested respectively at 12 million and 22 million cubic feet a day. Even before it caught the eye of Delta, Centurion was being quietly backed by First Associates Investments, a mid-sized institutional securities dealer in Toronto. "Last year, with international turmoil, when investors were retreating to North America, we saw a number of smaller companies that were extremely undervalued," said First Associates Director John Playfair. "One we thought was particularly undervalued and ignored was Centurion." This spring, Centurion engaged First Associates for help raising money. At the time, Centurion's stock was trading at 50 cents a share. "We thought it would be difficult to raise money," recalled Playfair. To his surprise the Calgary company found backers who agreed to provide the entire financing. The company's shares now trade at between 65 and 75 cents a share.
Interestingly, Delta and Centurion were introduced not by a fellow Arab connection but by New York financier Philip Epstein. What Delta saw in Centurion was proven expertise. El Sharkawi, who worked in both Yemen and Libya for Canadian Occidental before joining Centurion, was a key member of the team that discovered CanOxy's crown jewel, the Masila Field in Yemen. Delta's Chief Operating Officer Philip Beck said, "We see the progress that the company has made in the Tunisia operation. It's a formula we think is repeatable."
Sheikh Badr bin Mohammed al-Aiban is a 43-year-old economics graduate from the University of Southern California. His London-based company is one of two private Saudi oil and gas companies, the other being Nimr Petroleum (with whom it is rumored to have recently merged.) Badr Al-Aiban's father was a man of relatively humble origins who rose to prominence as a trusted advisor to Crown Prince Abdullah, King Fahd's brother. Abdullah is the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia. The king has been ill for sev-eral years and has ceded responsibility for ruling the kingdom to his brother, who, though in his early 70s, is in far better health.
Unlike Fahd who had a penchant for the good life, Abdullah is said to be religious, ascetic and shrewd. In gratitude for his ser-vice, the Crown Prince awarded the senior al-Aiban the post of deputy commander of the National Guard. After his death, Abdullah took al-Aiban's three sons under his wing. Badr himself was brought up as a member of the al-Saud household. All three brothers are achievers. Musa'id is minister of state in charge of legal affairs. He is also a director of SaudiAramco and is among the top candidates for the position of oil minis-ter, when Ali al Naimi resigns.
Badr al-Aiban's international ventures have focused on Central Asia with mixed results. In the early 1990s Delta acquired a 2% stake in the Azeri-Chirag concession in the Caspian. The project, which is slow to come to fruition, is now producing about 120,000 barrels of oil a day, with the ultimate total of 700,000. Delta has also taken a lead role in the Trans-Afghan pipeline project following Unical's pull-out. That project is on hold until warring Afghani factions strike a truce.
With Centurion on board, the sheikh appears ready to expand into areas where there is less risk, including Libya -- said to be the next hot area for investment. El Sharkawi has great ambitions. "If we require $50 million to develop a project I don't think they'll hesitate." |
