Ipayipi, ipayiyaaa!

SPEAKING of oil industry secrecy being congenitally based, it seems even new entrants get infected faster than a sneeze in a bird flu epidemic. The Ipayipi Consortium's application to the National Energy Regulator is a case in point. In the covering letter signed by the chief operating officer, Dayer Natha, it emerges that the day before handing in the application a meeting was held with National Energy Regulator staff, Dr Rod Crompton and Bathito Chokoe, to make sure that two out of the four documents submitted with the application for a licence were not "disclosed to the public". Call Spigot paranoid, but why the need for secrecy? And who is Benhove Investments (Pty) Limited? That is also on the Ipayipi letterhead .Shouldn't we be told? After all they are part of an organisation that plans to set up in a highly strategic business. More to the point, why did Nersa agree to keep this secrecy shroud in place?