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African oil rush
    #1638902 -

Scramble for Africa

Fear of corruption and chaos in oil rush

Charlotte Denny, economics correspondent
Tuesday June 17, 2003
The Guardian

Washington's determination to find an alternative energy source to the Middle East is leading to a new oil rush in sub-Saharan Africa which threatens to launch a fresh cycle of conflict, corruption and environmental degradation in the region, campaigners warn today.
The new scramble for Africa risks bringing more misery to the continent's impoverished citizens as western oil companies pour billions of dollars in secret payments into government coffers throughout the continent. Much of the money ends up in the hands of ruling elites or is squandered on grandiose projects and the military.

Tony Blair will today urge the oil industry to be more transparent in its dealings with Africa. Openness and accountability are essentials for stability and prosperity in the developing world, he will tell oil company executives and oil exporting countries at a meeting in Lancaster House in central London.

African countries own 8% of world oil reserves. An estimated $200bn (?125bn) in revenues will flow into African government treasuries over the next 10 years as new oilfields open up throughout the Gulf of Guinea. Oil will bring the largest influx of revenue in the continent's history, and more than 10 times the amount western donors give each year in aid.

But Ian Gary, author of a new report, Bottom of the Barrel, from the US aid agency Catholic Relief Services (CRS), warned yesterday: "Petro-dollars have not helped developing countries to reduce poverty; in many cases they have actually exacerbated it. In Nigeria, for example, which has received over $300bn in oil revenues over the last 25 years, per capita income is less than a $1 a day."

In Nigeria, an overvalued exchange rate has devastated the non-oil sectors of the economy while local uprisings over control of oil revenues have sparked large-scale military repression in the Niger delta. "So overwhelming is mismanagement and rent-seeking that Nigeria has become virtually synonymous with corruption," says the report.

In Gabon, oil has been at the centre of a string of scandals tainting the Mitterrand government, which turned a blind eye as the French-owned oil company, Elf Aquitaine, used the country's banks to launder money while paying huge bribes to the government.

"Oil rents have tended to impede democratisation and have sustained a long line of authoritarian rulers - from the Shah of Iran to Nigeria's Abacha to the House of Saud to Saddam Hussein," the CRS report says.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,11319,979053,00.html


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Don't worry, B. Caapi

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Re: African oil rush [Re: Xlea321]
    #1639614 -

Washington's determination to find an alternative energy source to the Middle East is leading to a new oil rush....

Why are they so stuch on oil?! You'd thik they might look into one of the many alternate fuels available already...


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"Know your Body - Know your Mind - Know your Substance - Know your Source.

Lest we forget. "

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Re: African oil rush [Re: Azmodeus]
    #1639669 -

I doubt they'll really push alternative (ie renewable) energy sources until they can figure a way to charge you for it.  Take a look at solar power, how can they put a meter between you and the sun? :smile:


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The above is an extract from my fictional novel, "The random postings of Edame".
:tongue:

In the beginning was the word. And man could not handle the word, and the hearing of the word, and he asked God to take away his ears so that he might live in peace without having to hear words which might upset his equinamity or corrupt the unblemished purity of his conscience.

And God, hearing this desperate plea from His creation, wrinkled His mighty brow for a moment and then leaned down toward man, beckoning that he should come close so as to hear all that was about to be revealed to him.

"Fuck you," He whispered, and frowned upon the pathetic supplicant before retreating to His heavens.

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Re: African oil rush [Re: Edame]
    #1639779 -

All they have to do is make it seem more complicated than it is, and sell the finished product to stupid people too lazy to make thier own setups. :smile:



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"Know your Body - Know your Mind - Know your Substance - Know your Source.

Lest we forget. "

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