Unravelling Timis’s Senegalese adventure

Business fixer and lobbyist Pierre Goudiaby Atepa, who introduced Frank Timis to then president Abdoulaye Wade, denied that exploitation of Senegal’s offshore resources could lead to an ‘oil curse’, as opposition critics complain, when he spoke recently to local television station TFM. Goudiaby said he had received no reward for introducing Timis to Wade. He was only “working for the good of my country in my role as presidential adviser”. At the time, newly appointed energy minister Samuel Sarr led the negotiations, supported by Société des Pétroles du Sénégal (Petrosen) director-general Serigne Mboup. Sarr was replaced as minister in 2009, when presidential son Karim Wade inherited the African Petroleum Corporation (APC) dossier.