Believe it or not, I stumbled upon this while researching info for a company report I am doing on Oil and Gas exploration in Northern Canada and Alaska.
Oil and gas adviser to the world
Pedro van Meurs draws on international knowledge to help Alaska
Larry Persily
Petroleum News Juneau Correspondent
Pedro van Meurs has advised Alaska on oil and gas tax policy since 1996, using his 30 years of international knowledge gained by helping dozens of nations plan tax policy for exploration and development of their resources. This three-part series starts with the story of how van Meurs got into the business. Parts 2 and 3 will cover his views on world oil and gas markets and Alaska.
International oil and gas consultant Pedro van Meurs has been in Mexico while business people were kidnapped, in Bolivia as 25,000 protestors demonstrated in front of his office, driven around burning buses to get to his desk in Guatemala, and been in Africa during coups. But it was his work in the Dominican Republican that made him the most nervous.
Van Meurs, who has advised the state of Alaska on oil and gas tax and fiscal issues since 1996, used to do a fair amount of work for the United Nations. He was in the Dominican Republic in the 1980s, assigned to review the nation?s energy policies and prices. ?It was indeed an absolute disaster,? he said, with heavy government subsidies for gasoline, diesel and propane driving the country into serious budget deficits.
After two weeks he gave his report to a Dominican government minister. ?My recommendation was very simple. You have to double prices if you really want to do something about the deficit.?
He didn?t know what the government had done about his recommendations when he returned to the country two weeks later. The airport was besieged by demonstrators and he asked the taxi driver why people were protesting. The answer caught his attention.
?Some stupid adviser to the U.N. came in and advised them to double the gas prices,? the driver told his passenger.
Van Meurs, thinking quickly, told the cab driver he was in the country for scuba diving, thinking that a better answer than to announce he was the U.N. adviser ? stupid or not.
There was a phone message waiting for him when he got to his hotel. It was from a U.N. official. ?What did you do?? the official asked a surprised van Meurs when he returned the call. ?The whole country is in ruins two weeks after you left.?
The U.N. official told van Meurs not to say anything as the two men were scheduled to meet with the same Dominican minister who had acted on van Meur?s recommendation to raise gasoline prices. Let me do the talking, the U.N. officer said. But when they met the Dominican official, the minister turned to van Meurs and said, ?Now Pedro, we are going to work on the other prices,? raising the cost of diesel.
When asked how the government could consider raising even more fuel prices while people were protesting, the minister answered, ?Don?t worry about it. It?s not half as bad as we expected.?
Van Meurs has never returned to the Dominican Republic.
Oil and gas adviser to the world
Pedro van Meurs draws on international knowledge to help Alaska
Larry Persily
Petroleum News Juneau Correspondent
Pedro van Meurs has advised Alaska on oil and gas tax policy since 1996, using his 30 years of international knowledge gained by helping dozens of nations plan tax policy for exploration and development of their resources. This three-part series starts with the story of how van Meurs got into the business. Parts 2 and 3 will cover his views on world oil and gas markets and Alaska.
International oil and gas consultant Pedro van Meurs has been in Mexico while business people were kidnapped, in Bolivia as 25,000 protestors demonstrated in front of his office, driven around burning buses to get to his desk in Guatemala, and been in Africa during coups. But it was his work in the Dominican Republican that made him the most nervous.
Van Meurs, who has advised the state of Alaska on oil and gas tax and fiscal issues since 1996, used to do a fair amount of work for the United Nations. He was in the Dominican Republic in the 1980s, assigned to review the nation?s energy policies and prices. ?It was indeed an absolute disaster,? he said, with heavy government subsidies for gasoline, diesel and propane driving the country into serious budget deficits.
After two weeks he gave his report to a Dominican government minister. ?My recommendation was very simple. You have to double prices if you really want to do something about the deficit.?
He didn?t know what the government had done about his recommendations when he returned to the country two weeks later. The airport was besieged by demonstrators and he asked the taxi driver why people were protesting. The answer caught his attention.
?Some stupid adviser to the U.N. came in and advised them to double the gas prices,? the driver told his passenger.
Van Meurs, thinking quickly, told the cab driver he was in the country for scuba diving, thinking that a better answer than to announce he was the U.N. adviser ? stupid or not.
There was a phone message waiting for him when he got to his hotel. It was from a U.N. official. ?What did you do?? the official asked a surprised van Meurs when he returned the call. ?The whole country is in ruins two weeks after you left.?
The U.N. official told van Meurs not to say anything as the two men were scheduled to meet with the same Dominican minister who had acted on van Meur?s recommendation to raise gasoline prices. Let me do the talking, the U.N. officer said. But when they met the Dominican official, the minister turned to van Meurs and said, ?Now Pedro, we are going to work on the other prices,? raising the cost of diesel.
When asked how the government could consider raising even more fuel prices while people were protesting, the minister answered, ?Don?t worry about it. It?s not half as bad as we expected.?
Van Meurs has never returned to the Dominican Republic.
, same shit, different decade!