“Katie bar the door” :: Southcom Keeps Watch on Ebola Situation

By Jim Garamone
DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Oct. 8, 2014 – The potential spread of Ebola into Central and Southern America is a real possibility, the commander of U.S. Southern Command told an audience at the National Defense University here yesterday.

“By the end of the year, there’s supposed to be 1.4 million people infected with Ebola and 62 percent of them dying, according to the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention],” Marine Corps Gen. John F. Kelly said. “That’s horrific. And there is no way we can keep Ebola [contained] in West Africa.”

If it comes to the Western Hemisphere, many countries have little ability to deal with an outbreak of the disease, the general said.

“So, much like West Africa, it will rage for a period of time,” Kelly said.

This is a particularly possible scenario if the disease gets to Haiti or Central America, he said. If the disease gets to countries like Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador, it will cause a panic and people will flee the region, the general said.

“If it breaks out, it’s literally, ‘Katie bar the door,’ and there will be mass migration into the United States,” Kelly said. “They will run away from Ebola, or if they suspect they are infected, they will try to get to the United States for treatment.”

Also, transnational criminal networks smuggle people and those people can be carrying Ebola, the general said. Kelly spoke of visiting the border of Costa Rica and Nicaragua with U.S. embassy personnel. At that time, a group of men “were waiting in line to pass into Nicaragua and then on their way north,” he recalled.

“The embassy person walked over and asked who they were and they told him they were from Liberia and they had been on the road about a week,” Kelly continued. “They met up with the network in Trinidad and now they were on their way to the United States — illegally, of course.”

Those men, he said, “could have made it to New York City and still be within the incubation period for Ebola.”

Kelly said his command is in close contact with U.S. Africa Command to see what works and what does not as it prepares for a possible outbreak in the area of operations.

Source

Sagres Prepares for Drilling Offshore Jamaica

Sagres Energy Inc., an international oil and gas company with an exploration portfolio in Colombia, Guyana and Jamaica, provides an update on its activities in Jamaica.

The company’s subsidiary, Rainville Energy Corporation (“Rainville”), is a party to three production sharing agreements with the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (the “PCJ”) covering the right to explore and develop Blocks 9, 13 and 14 covering approximately 8,864 km² located offshore Jamaica (the “Blocks”).

The minimum exploration work commitments under each of the production sharing agreements are divided into two phases. The PCJ has granted Rainville an extension to the first phase until April 30, 2012 to allow potential joint venture partners sufficient time to complete their evaluation of the Blocks. Concurrently, the Company is in discussions with several parties with regards to a potential farm-in on these properties.

Mr. Gary Wine, President and CEO of Sagres stated that “we continue to be excited by the potential of the La Concepcion prospect, a prospect mapped straddling Blocks 9 and 13, with an independent evaluation establishing a gross mean prospective resource estimate of 3.0 billion barrels. We look forward to advancing this project to the drilling stage and we are holding discussions with potential partners”. Resources estimates are pursuant to the Company’s NI 51-101 Report prepared by Chapman described in a press release of the Company dated August 27, 2010.

Source

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Jamaica: Bids Open for LNG Project

The Government says it will be hosting meetings with prospective bidders for the Jamaica’s Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) supply project and the building of a Floating and Regasification Terminal next week.

The meetings are to take place on Monday and Thursday at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel. Minister of Energy and Mining, Clive Mullings and Chairman of the LNG Steering Committee, Christopher Zacca are expected to speak at both pre-bid meetings.

The Office of the Prime Minister says pre-bid meetings are opened to all interested bidders but that attendance is not required to submit a proposal in response to the project.

The Government was forced to re-tender the bid for the Floating Storage and Regasification Terminal after the Contractor General, Greg Christie, alleged there had been irregularities in the bidding.

Christie had said the eventual winner, the Exmar Consortium, had been given an unfair advantage. However, this week the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said there was no evidence to draw the inference that Exmar’s advantageous position was the result of bid-rigging or corruption.

Original Article

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