James Baker quietly lobbies India [Who is behind Texana Resources, of Houston, TX?]

WorldNetDaily ^ | April 15, 2002 1:00 a.m. Eastern | Shantanu Guha Ray

[SlickWillard]

I couldn't find any information on Texana Resources Co. It is not traded publicly under the name Texana:

http://biz.yahoo.com/i/te__4_4_.html

As far as I can tell, Texana Resources doesn't have a web site. The following Google search gives about 32 hits, most of which are worthless:

texana resources nepal

There is an article, at an outfit called Financial Express, that speaks in the same broad generalities as the WorldNetDaily article [indeed, the WND article looks as though it were plagiarized from the FE article], but which offers no specifics, such as a Texana trading symbol, the name of a parent holding company, or a link to a company web site:

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe20011025/top3.html

I found an online resumé, for one Frank Alexander, who claims to have made a presentation on behalf of Texana Resources. This single mention, in his resumé, is the only semi-independent confirmation I can find that Texana actually exists:

1999: Presentation/Paper (San Antonio): “Nepal’s Fiscal Terms” to a delegation of representatives of His Majesty’s Government of Nepal, for Texana Resources Company.
http://energy-environment.com/ResumeFA.html

Curiously, if you examine the HTML code behind Alexander's email address, you get

<a href="mailto:hibc@energy-environment.com;%20alexanderf@bennettjones.ca">Alexander@energy-environment.com</a>

which suggests that he really works for an outfit called Bennett Jones, out of Canada:

http://www.bennettjones.ca/mainframe.html?Page=firm_lawyers.html

So, I ask all Texas Freepers, and any other Freepers with some knowledge of the oil bidness: Just what is Texana Resources Co.? Here are a few possibilities:

1) The WorldNetDaily author, Shantanu Guha Ray, doesn't know what the hell he's talking about.
2) The WorldNetDaily author, Shantanu Guha Ray, is part of a fraudulent enterprise, running a bogus company, called Texana Resources, whose sole purpose is to separate fools from their money.
3) Texana Resources Co. is some guy with a telephone and a fax machine working out of his garage in his spare time.
4) James Baker, a bunch of Canadian lawyers, some Bilderbergers, and a handful of Rothschilds, are wheeling and dealing their way through Central Asia, making gazillions of dollars in the kind of backroom deals we peons can only dream about.
5) Texana Resources Co. is a CIA front operation.

Any ideas?

[Diddle E. Squat]

Maybe a Texan named Ana?

[Diddle E. Squat]

Or maybe Ana Kornakova?

[Diddle E. Squat]

Perhaps Ana Banana?

[Diddle E. Squat]

Then again, nothing regarding Ana Phylatic shocks me.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Oh Texana, oh don't you cry for me,
For I come from Alabama with a banjo and some CHEESE.

[Dog Gone]

Texana is just an ordinary oil company. We have dozens just like them in Houston. Give them a call at 713 659-3232 if you like. I'm sure they'll be surprised to hear that they're possibly a CIA front.

[SlickWillard]

Texana is just an ordinary oil company. We have dozens just like them in Houston. Give them a call at 713 659-3232 if you like. I'm sure they'll be surprised to hear that they're possibly a CIA front.

If they're privately held, then I understand why they don't have a trading symbol. However, I can't understand all the secrecy. Why don't they have a web site? Why aren't they promoting themselves? Where's the marketing? And if they are at least semi-legitimate, then inquiring minds want to know whether Bush family peripherals like Uncle Neil are gonna show up among the owners.

Jim Baker is walking a real fine line here between diplomacy and the very worst sort of war profiteering.

[Dog Gone]

They don't have anything to market. The vast majority of oil companies in this country are just like this. They don't have gas stations. They don't sell motor oil.

They are invisible companies that actually develop prospects and then drill them. They deliver the product into a pipeline where somebody pays them for it, and it is then refined or processed by another company who puts their brand name on it.

I have a book on my desk which is a directory of American oil companies. It's not complete, but it is 687 pages long and it's single-spaced. I doubt if most Americans have heard of more than a couple dozen. Those would all fit on one page, easily.

There's nothing secretive about it.

[SlickWillard]

I will grant you that it is entirely possible that Texana Resources is a perfectly legitimate company, run by decent, honorable people. However, in case you haven't noticed, the world is teetering on the edge of World War III. Something like the following has happened: Jim Baker, at either the direct request of GWB [POTUS], or at the indirect request of GWB's father, GHWB [former POTUS], has been sent to the second most populous country on the face of the earth, in an attempt to smooth some ruffled feathers prior to our invasion of Iraq. [Curious that we are allied with Pakistan against India, while India is allied with Iraq against us, but I guess that's the intrigue of which world wars are made.] In the course of his meetings, Baker asks the Indians to write off all of their multi-million dollar investments in Iraq, and also finds the time to mention to them, "Oh, by the way, there's this little outfit in Houston, Texas, you might be interested in. I know it doesn't have a web site, and it's not publicly traded, and no one knows who really owns the thing, but take my word for it, they're a great bunch of guys."

Let me rephrase what I said before: If there is any truth to this WND story, then Jim Baker is walking a fine line between statesmanship and the very worst sort of war profiteering.

[Dog Gone]

You're assuming Baker's trip was on behalf of the Administration or the former President. I suppose that's possible, but it's far from established, at least in this article. He may have been paid by Texana.

But even if we could establish some sort of a link between the former President and Texana, I don't see how it's war profiteering. Oil companies partner up all the time, especially in exploration concessions like these in Nepal. Where's the conflict of interest?

[SlickWillard]

Where's the conflict of interest?

I have not said that there is a conflict of interest, and I have not said that anyone is engaging in war profiteering. However, you can't really say, with a straight face, that this situation doesn't present a rather enormous potential for conflict of interest, and a rather enormous potential for the appearance of impropriety. When the stakes are as big as they are in this matter, people like Jim Baker need to bend over backwards to avoid these sorts of potentials and appearances.

[Harrison Bergeron]

India watch.

[Nita Nupress]

Dog, this first one is especially for you since I know you're in love with the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. :-)

Slick, maybe this first one means James Baker is trying to promote Ms. May's career for some reason.  No wait, the first one is from 1982...

 

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.

PR Newswire
December 2, 1982, Thursday

NEW YORK, Dec. 2 /PRN/ -- Contrary to what their flashy image may
portend, the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders are "good, all-American moral
Christian women," according to one of their members, who is an honors
graduate of Texas A & M and was valedictorian of her high school
class.

Interviewed by sports reporter Dick Schaap for this Sunday's
issue of Parade magazine, Melinda May, a second-year Dallas Cowboys
Cheerleader, complained about what she called the public's
"preconceived notion" about the Cheerleaders.

"Sometimes I get almost angry," Ms. May declared, "and so do the
other girls.  I just wish everybody could meet us and see what we're
like.  They'd realize we are good all-American moral Christian women.
The organization, I think, just epitomizes what life is about."

Asked by Schaap for an assessment of the Cheerleaders' appeal,
if, indeed, their sex appeal is misconceived and if the sexists
protests of feminists groups are misdirected, Ms. May said, "Some
people enjoy the dancing aspect.  Some people enjoy our smiles."  And
she added, "I think our uniform is very flattering, and I'm very
proud of it, I don't ever feel embarrassed at all."

A native of the small Texas town of Crosby, Ms. May was not only
valedictorian of her high school class of 141, she was also a drum
majorette, an all-district guard in basketball and president of the
National Honor Society.  She was voted Friendliest, Most Likely to
Succeed and Future Farmers of America Sweetheart.

Admitting that she is probably the most famous person ever to
come out of Crosby, Ms. May told Parade that since she's become a
Dallas cheerleader, "I've grown, I've changed, I've become a better
person.  My confidence has improved."

Ms. May, who holds a degree in business management, works full
time in the accounting department of Texana Resources.  Being a
Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader is only a part-time job, which pays only
$15 a game, for which Dick Schaap observed they do not go on strike.

---

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.

FT Energy Newsletters - International Gas Report
January 8, 1999

Pg. 30

AMERICAN FIRM REVIVES SEARCH

International Gas Report

US independent exploration company Texana Resources has reawakened interest in the state of Nepal. The Houston-based firm has won an exploration and production contract from the government for the Nepalgunj and Chitaun regions, in the Nepal Tera, along the border with India, says Texana president Max Mazy. Early in 1997, Nepal's Petroleum Exploration Promotion Project, Department of Mines & Geology in Kathmandu, invited bids for 10 tracts along the southern border with India. Block size was about 4,850 sq km. Texana appears to be the first to take acreage. Nepal has no oil or gas output and has traditionally depended on India for about 5,000 b/d of imported petroleum products. The country threw open 10 blocks in 1985. Shell took one in 1986 and put down the abandoned Biritnagar-1 hole in 1989. A large number of gas seeps and an oil seep have been charted in Nepal. In the early 1980s a government team, with Japanese help, located a small reservoir in the Kathmandu Valley holding an estimated 1.5 Bcf of gas.

Nepal has massive hydropower potential, estimated at 83,000 MW. In 1997 Enron of the US and Tata of India were reported seeking to revive the GBP 700m, roughly 400 MW Arun dam project in Nepal from which the World Bank withdrew in 1995 after protests by environmental lobby groups. In 1996 a water and power deal with India made the go-ahead for such schemes more feasible. An Australian company, Snowy Mountain Engineering, gained approval for a GBP 1bn, 750 MW project in northern Nepal.

Meanwhile, Enron Renewable Energy blew hot, then cold on a dam on the Karnali River in west Nepal to produce a maximum of 10,800 MW of electricity for export to India and China. The firm became concerned about selling a big block of power abroad from the approximately GBP 7bn scheme, India and China having been eyed as markets.

Texana's new search agreement calls for detailed exploration, including seismic, to further define drilling sites, says Mazy. Local officials say the three-year deal could be extended for two optional two-year periods. Local laws include a 12% royalty and 50% tax. However, Punnya Prasad Dahal, a senior official in the industry ministry, reckons that if exploration proves positive, government could consider amending laws to lure investors.

---

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.

World Oil
August 1, 2001

No. 8, Vol. 222; Pg. 101 ; ISSN: 0043-8790

Natural gas use increasing; China; Brief Article
Sitathan, Tony


Developing countries are expanding gas power generation/supply to mitigate oil import costs. Foreign investors are being actively courted

(Snip information about China, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Thailand, Viet Nam, Pakistan, Myanmar, Brunei, &  Philippines)

OTHERS

Nepal has no indigenous oil/gas reserves or production. Its primary energy source is hydroelectric power and some coal. It imports 12,000 bpd refined products. No results have been reported on a 1998 seismic exploration license to Texana Resources.

(snip)

---

 

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.

India Business Insight Database
October 25, 2001

ONGC TO PICK 50% IN US FIRM'S NEPAL BLOCKS (the acquisition is of significance as the two blocks are located on the Indo-Nepal border)

SOURCE: Financial Express; Daily; Oct 25, 2001; Pg. 1

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is all set to acquire Texana Resources' 50 percent stake in two exploration blocks in Nepal. The acquisition is of significance as the two blocks are located on the Indo-Nepal border. Besides, they are located close to other two blocks allotted to ONGC-Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) combine in the Ganga basin on the Indian side. ONGC and the US firm plan to tie up and submit bids for exploration blocks, offered by Nepal in future. Texana will transfer operatorship rights for these two blocks, 3 and 5, to ONGC. ONGC would also have the right to export oil and lay a pipeline after the discovery of oil and gas.

---

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) -- India

Thanks for the ping, Harrison.

[Dog Gone]

You are one of the best at digging up good background info, Nita. I would never have known about the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader connection. It makes me want to go work for Texana.

There is nothing at all remarkable about their concession in Nepal, and their interest in bringing in the Indian national oil company as a partner. This the way the business works. I can't think of any foreign concessions where companies don't partner up. This obviously is a high risk project involving a lot of bucks. It's also important to have a market for the product if it's ever discovered. Bringing in India makes perfect sense.

It's so routine that it doesn't even deserve comment, except that some see it as evidence of something sinister.

The only sinister thing is that you didn't post a picture of that Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader.

[Poohbah]

Ohmygosh...the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders are a CIA front?

[Dog Gone]

Well, not in the sense of a false front. ;-)

[Nita Nupress]

Shhhh! You'll make Tom Landry roll over in his grave. They probably didn't let him in on it.

[Poohbah]

You sure about that?

[Poohbah]

Naw, he's probably the one who came up with the idea!