Vanity Blair scrabbles for the reflected glory with ex-IRA funding pariah

Libya’s Sirte Basin is the largest oilfield in Africa, holding 22 per cent of the continent’s 300bn barrels of reserves. Loosening diplomatic relations have enabled BP to enable Tony Blair on his world farewell Tour to announce a US$900 mn gas investment.

Halliburton have continued trading for many years through various offshore registered entities and companies like Eni and Repsol have been operating quietly for many years.

Mr G, never a man to miss an opportunity and the longest serving head of an African nation - bulwark of Mugabe, extracts substantial taxes and royalties which make investments there only modestly profitable. he himself owns Brussels based Tamoil which was acquired by Oilinvest, Libya's foreign oil investment arm, in 1988. It refines, markets and sells the country's oil, and has around 3,000 petrol stations in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Spain, with a further 150 in Africa (and has underinvested for years) . Quite who owns it currently is still somwhat a mystery as Vagit Alekperov's LUKoil has been after it, and Carlyle the secretive republican old boys retirement fund is said to have paid €3bn (£2bn). Bn for it in September. Famously they sponsor Juventus where Mr G's son had such a distinguished footballing career. (Fuller post in December 2006 on Tamoil / Carlyle here)

Faced with Mr Putin putting BP's balls through the wringer and faced the threat (BBC) of losing its TNK/BP licence to exploit one of its main Russian assets, the Kovykta gas field (enough reserves to supply the entire world's gas needs for almost a year) and needs to find new reserves ASAP. The shine is rapidly wearing off the Wunderkind Brown's legacy at the top of BP - no wonder he is seeking solace in the slim waisted Brazilian ex catamite of dog lover Peter "Randy Mandy" Mandelson.