Foundations of sand?

SPIGOT undertands that on Friday last week, at the iPayipi Consortium public hearings into its application to the National Energy Regulator (Nersa)for a licence to build a Durban to Johannesburg pipeline , BP and Transnet put forward objections. If true, it may seem odd that BP should do so, seeing as their people (so to speak) are behind the iPaypi idea. The question is "How much are they behind iPaypi? So far, iPayipi has nothing solid in the can. No money. No expertise. No history. Zip. Their gamble is that once they get a licence they can parlay it into the considerable financial backing they need ie. R8-R12 billion -- at a rough guess. Spigot has no doubt they will get a licence, if only so Nersa can justify its bureaucratic existence. Nersa can then sit back and watch. Of course, who knows what has been "promised" by BP in conversations with iPayipi -- some of whose executives, I understand, have, in recent weeks and months, been in and out of the Waterfront head office of BP Africa, emulating the fiddler's elbow. Could it be that promises have been made of millions of litres of petroleum products flushing up to the Reef via iPaypi's still-to-be-built line? If so, Spigot would warn that such promises might vanish if the price of such transportation is not to BP's liking. Pretty sandy foundations on which to raise such mighty sums.