Coup on Tiny African Islands Felt in Texas Oil Offices - NYT

[goforit]

Coup on Tiny African Islands Felt in Texas Oil Offices
By SIMON ROMERO

<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/19/business/worldbusiness/19OIL.html>

HOUSTON, July 18 — A coup this week in the West African island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe is reverberating in the corporate suites of the energy industry here, oil company executives said today. Officials from several companies said they were anxiously monitoring events on the potentially oil-rich archipelago, a former Portuguese colony on the Equator in the Gulf of Guinea.

Exxon Mobil of Irving, Tex., the world's largest oil company, and Chrome Energy, a small Houston-based oil and gas company controlled by Nigerian investors, have secured options for oil exploration in the waters off São Tomé, an area just south of oil-rich Nigeria that geologists estimate could hold up to six billion barrels of reserves.

ChevronTexaco, Royal Dutch/Shell and TotalFinaElf are among the other big oil companies that have shown interest in bidding for licenses to explore other areas in auctions scheduled for October. This interest has sent expectations soaring in São Tomé and Príncipe, ae two-island country of 1,000 square miles and 160,000 people where the main export crop is cocoa and the average annual income is $280.

"Oil has created dreams of grandeur for a tiny place that has been on the margins of global affairs for many years," said Gerhard Seibert, an authority on São Tomé at the Institute of Tropical Scientific Investigation in Lisbon. "The army and the political and business elites sense something coming and want a part of it."

(con't)

[I AM SPARTACUS]

1. so, the coup was either: A. to steal the country FOR BushCo...or

B. to steal the country FROM BushCo...

[indictrichardperle]

3. i would wager FOR BFEE

those silly island people probably wanted to "nationalize" their own resources, like Iraq and Venezuela......so they could fund schools and hospitals. This new "friendly" govt will probably just give it away.

BTW, i saw a story where Bremer passed a law in Iraq, officially opening up all business to foreign corps, rescinding Saddam's old law that Iraq maintain a 51% interest in all foreign investment.

[Tinoire]

8. Self evident answers!

Sao Tome and Principle - two tiny islands off the coast of West Africa populated by 160,000 people - could be sitting on up to four billion barrels of crude oil.

<snip>

Sao Tome was an important "alternative source of oil outside the politically volatile Middle East," he told Mr Bush, reminding him that his country "is strategically situated on the most important petroleum area in the world today."

A Texas company Environmental Remediation Holding Corp has had rights to two offshore fields in the country's territorial waters since 1997.

There is excitement about the creation by Sao Tome and Nigeria of a Joint Development Zone (JDZ) - covering an area slightly smaller than Belgium - which officials say could produce 250,000 barrels of oil a day within five years.

<snip>

But if oil starts flowing the country's fortunes could vastly improve; each citizen could be worth $1m, according to one estimate.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3070813.stm

BUSH! RAPING AND PILLAGING THE THIRD WORLD!

[goforit]

11. WOW!!!..............This imperialistic grabbing nauseates me!

It seems like it is never going to end.

[Tinoire]

2. Oil-Producing West Africa Catches Bush's Eye

Oil-Producing West Africa Catches Bush's Eye

17.09.2002 As Pres. Bush moves the U.S. closer to war with Iraq, he is taking steps to intensify relations with oil-producing countries in West Africa and considering constructing a U.S. naval base on the tiny island nation of Sao Tome and Principe, reports the Kenyan newspaper The East African.

http://www.oneworld.net/article/country/678/

Sigh... Next we'll hear the WMDs are there

[Tinoire]

4. Yep- They're screwed now!

SAO TOME, Jun 30 (IPS) -

The discovery of oil in the rugged and forested islands of Sao Tome and Principe has raised both hope and fear in the former Portuguese colony located off the west coast of Africa.

”We, in Sao Tome, will be very careful. We are not going to repeat the mistakes of other African nations where natural resources turned into a curse rather than blessing for them,” remarked the Prime Minister of Sao Tome and Principe Maria das Neves, when opening an international conference on Africa's extractive industries last week.

”We will be transparent as much as we can in our dealings and ensure that the people of Sao Tome directly benefit from their country's oil wealth,” das Neves added.

The twin islands of Sao Tome and Principe are believed to be sitting on about two billion barrels of crude oil. They have already attracted the attention of multinational oil companies as well as powerful countries like the United States and Nigeria.

The Americans are considering setting up a military base in Sao Tome, and there have been exchange of visits between officials of the two countries.

<snip>

http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/62642/1/

So much for their idea of using "the revenue for improving health, education and fighting poverty on the islands"!

[indictrichardperle]

6. our foreign policy

makes you proud doesnt it ?

So this govt in earlier stories was just overthrown ? another mugging.

[Tinoire]

5. How important is African oil?

President George W Bush is in Africa to launch HIV/Aids, development and anti-terrorism initiatives.
But his visit has also highlighted the growing importance of oil imports for the United States.
----

The US imports two thirds of its oil needs.

About 15% of that amount comes from West Africa and that figure is projected to rise to 25% in the next 10 years.

The oil sector in Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the fastest growing in the world.


Click here to see a map of Africa\'s oilfields
Production has taken off in the Gulf of Guinea which includes Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Gabon, Angola and Congo.

By the end of 2003, hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude will be flowing from oil fields in Chad, through rain forests in Cameroon to tankers docked off the Atlantic coast.


<snip>

US military involvement

America may even eventually increase its military presence in the region to secure its oil supplies.

Sao Tome - which has big oil reserves - has invited the US Navy to build a port from which to patrol the Gulf of Guinea.



<snip>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3054948.stm

[I AM SPARTACUS]

7. bon-swa, T...s'ak pase?

pa we-ou lontemp...

[goforit]

13. Looking at your map, isn't the French assisting in Congo?

It certainly is little in the amount of oil compared to
the others.

[I AM SPARTACUS]

15. pssst...eet ees zee diamonds and zee meenerals...

[DUreader]

9. Since I have not seen a W* admin. condemnation of this coup,...

I am assuming that the coupsters are bushistas

[goforit]

14. Bingo!...I do agree!

*

[Rose Siding]

10. "The age of oil is upon São Tomé, so some level of friction is to be expec

If wishes were fast trains....

http://www.nrdc.org/video/video_dp.asp?media=rm&rootname=detroit&PlayButton=Play

[lastliberalintexas]

12. It was NOT a coup

It was merely the oil and energy industry claiming it rightful place in the world. Geez- when will you people learn? ;-)

[Nottingham]

16. I had a friend who was a Peace Corps Worker in Sao Tome'

She spent two years there and got Malaria

It also is home to one of the few RainForests in the World

Its people are very poor and Life Expectancy is low.

So they may have a million dollars but won't live long enough to spend it.

It will be interesting to see if the people benefit from this money.

:bounce:

[Tinoire]

17. Great Pic