Fifth Tanker is Launched. Where is The Money?

The 5th Seychelles-owned tanker ready for launching.The latest Tanker, the Seychelles Patriot, which will form part of the fleet which includes Pioneer, Prelude, Progress and Pride, was launched earlier this month on Saturday December 3, 2007, at the Lindenau shipyard in Kiel, Germany. The Seychelles Patriot is 189 metres in length with the capacity to transport over 36,000 tonnes of petroleum products anywhere in the world. Capt. Adam, Chief Executive of Seypec said that he was proud to accept the Tanker on behalf of  Seypec. Capt. Guy Adam was the person who first conceived the idea to invest in super tankers. He believed that it would provide the local economy with an extra pillar worth millions in hard currency earnings. This is yet to be realized as the business has to pay back millions in euros to the German Bank which financed the project. If this business turns out the way Capt. Adam has been hyping it, it will show that the best ideas do not have to come necessarily from politicians.

In the meantime politicians are making a meal of this potentially lucrative venture for the local economy. The Minister for Finance, Danny Faure, said the following about Seypec when he delivered Budget 2007 before the National Assembly in December,2006, last year. He said that Seypec was created to secure and supply the country’s energy requirements and that, over the years, it has grown to add a shipping arm which manages three tankers and have recently merged with ex-SNOC (Seychelles National Oil Company) and now handles the petroleum exploration activities.

“In 2006, despite oil prices having peaked, Seypec, in collaboration with government, was able to finance all the domestic consumption needs of around US$50 million. This can be compared to US$38.5 million in 2005 and US28 million in 2004,” Minister Faure said.

He added that “despite the higher prices and increased consumption, Seypec was able to make record profits with the turnover in 2006 expected to be SR1.6 billion. The company continues to do extremely well in its international operations, which are the re-export of petroleum products and tanker operations.

In the first 10 months of operation in 2006, profits on international operations were in excess of US$31 million. Today there are 48 Seychellois working as crew or being trained to join the tanker fleet and more are expected next year.” 

The above were the words of the Minister of Finance, Danny Faure, before the National Assembly in December, 2006, when presenting the 2007 Budget. The question we would like to put to the Minister is, what has happened since December, 2006 to date? If what Minister Faure said in his Budget address last year was correct then President Michel was being economical with the truth on SBC TV recently, when he said that all the foreign exchange coming into the country are going towards paying for fuel. This cannot be so if the figures given to the National Assembly by Minister Danny Faure in December, 2006 was the truth. Who is lying or who is telling the truth? President Michel has a lot of explaining to do, only this time we hope he gets his figures right!

December 21, 2007
Copyright 2007: Seychelles Weekly, Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles