Shareholders in Bula Resources will get an opportunity to discuss the report of the government-appointed inspector, Mr Lyndon MacCann, at an e.g.m. in Dublin today.
The first resolution on the agenda is that the report's finding that "Mr Jim Stanley is, and has at all times been, the sole beneficial owner of Mir Oil Development Ltd, is welcomed".
Another is that directors' fees not exceeding £100,000 per annum be authorised in respect of each financial year commencing with the year ended December 31st, 1998. The shareholders will also be asked to elect two new directors, Mr Russell Herbert and Mr David Hooker.
At an a.g.m. in July, held just hours after Mr MacCann's report was published, shareholders requested the holding of an e.g.m. at a future date to allow them give a considered response to the report.
Mr MacCann found that Mr Stanley benefitted by more than £660,000 sterling from the sale by Mir Oil of 27 million Bula shares. As part of a 1995 deal negotiated by Mr Stanley - the then chairman and chief executive of Bula - 101 million Bula shares were transferred to Mir.
Mr Stanley is now being sued by Bula Resources, which has been granted a worldwide High Court order freezing his assets. The case is up for mention this Thursday. The 74 million Bula shares still held by Mir are also the subject of a High Court freeze.
Mr Stanley, in an interview with The Irish Times last month, disputed the findings of Mr MacCann's report and said he was going to initiate a legal action to have the findings quoshed. That action is due to commence shortly. Mr Stanley is living in Russia.
In the period 1993 to 1995 Mr Stanley negotiated two deals involving Russian oil fields, both of which ended disastrously. They cost the company about £20 million. However, Mr Stanley believes the company can still pursue two valuable assets in Russia.
These are a 29 per cent interest in the Russian company, Aki Otyr, which, he said, Bula could prove if it took a case to a Russian court. The other asset is a share in the licence for the Salymskoye oil field in Siberia, the field which was at the centre of the Bula/Mir Oil deal.
"I admit the deals in Russia were a total mess and that is why I resigned, but the company is wilfully giving away assets which are worth a few million quid," Mr Stanley said. Bula has written off any assets in Russia and is now concentrating on potential deals in Libya, Yemen and the Middle East.
