Mayan Mural: San Bartolo
The news of the recent discovery by US archaeologist, William Saturno, of a 2,000 year old Mayan mural in San Bartolo was picked up initially by the BBC (13-12-05). The Daily Telegraph has picked up on the news this week (07-01-05) of the further discovery of the oldest Mayan glyphs to date. Saturno has written a full report on his discovery in the January issue of National Geographic magazine out in the UK.
Guatemala Oil Exploration Deal with UK Firm
In London (05-01-06), a press release was
issued confirming the granting of 25 year licence (A7-2005) to
the London-based Taghmen Energy PLC, an independent oil and gas company
focused on Latin
America, by the Guatemalan government. The award was first announced in
September 2005. After an initial rise, Tag's share price has fallen
to pre-September levels.
Tag's licence relates to an area of about 77,718 acres in the northwestern corner of Guatemala in the department of Alta Vera Paz. Based on the review of available data, the company estimates the possible reserves on the licence to be in the region of five to 16 million barrels of oil.
According to an interview with Taghmen's US founder, living in London, Greg Smith in The Sun Taghmen stands for the names of his kids, nephews and nieces- Tess, Abby, Greg, Hannah, Mary, Emily and Nick. Mr Smith explained to The Sun why he decided to invest £1.8 million in oil exploration in Guatemala:
“The government is fairly stable, as governments go. In any Latin American country, there is always the risk of kidnapping, but I don’t see that there.
“I’d rather be in Guatemala than somewhere like Russia.”
The Taghmen agreement is one of a number of concessions that Berger's Government has made with private companies keen on exploiting Guatemala's natural resources.
