Comboni Fathers warn of coming power struggle over African oil 1-5-04

["Cor Groenendijk" <groenend at antenna.nl>]

NAIROBI - 1 May 2003 - 720 words

  Comboni Fathers warn of coming power struggle over African oil

  The editorial of a magazine published by the Comboni Missionaries, warns
that America is getting more and more involved in the developing oil
industry of African countries.

  The Nairobi-based Catholic Information Service of Africa (CISA) last night
issued the following summary of the article from the May-June issue of New
People entitled: 'Black Gold: Black is not Always Beautiful!'

  As the world's attention is fixed on the Persian Gulf, another titanic
power struggle goes on, and many people fail to see what is happening in
Africa.

  This power struggle is about the control of strategic crude oil reserves
and showing other Arab states who the ruler of the world is.

  In September 2002, the US Navy decided to set up a base in São Tomé and
Príncipe, Africa,s smallest country consisting of only two islands off the
coast of Gabon. The naval base has access to a landing strip. Airplanes and
boats of the American navy will protect the many oil tankers that leave the
West African coast and head towards the USA.

  Around the same time, American President George Bush met with eleven
African Presidents; all of them from countries where crude oil production is
underway or expected to start soon.

  Colin Powell, America,s Secretary of State, paid a visit to Gabon and
Angola, two major oil producers.

  Africa's 'black gold' attracts foreign interests, and America is in the
forefront. Most African producers - namely Angola, Cameroon, Chad,
Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and São Tomé and Príncipe - do
not belong to OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and
so production quotas do not bind them.

  Nigeria is considering withdrawing from OPEC to boost its production
beyond the two-million-barrel quota per day. Furthermore, these countries
lie on the Atlantic coast, far from the strategic bottleneck of the Persian
Gulf. African crude oil is essential to the United States if they are to
lessen their dependence on oil from the Gulf.

  America is not alone in this rush towards African oil. Chinese and
Canadian companies are active in the Sudan, fuelling the longest war of the
continent. European firms are engaged both in exploration and extraction
activities in most African countries.

  Africa is becoming the next frontier for oil companies. Huge reserves have
been discovered in the Gulf of Guinea. The existence of some of these fields
has been known for a long time. But only today, with the availability of
deep-water drilling technology, have these reserves become accessible.

  Oil and gas have been discovered along the African coast from Mauritania
to South Africa. Inland, the new Chad-Cameroon pipeline will soon bring both
countries to full production. Huge reserves are to be found in the Central
African Republic. A link to the Cameroon pipeline will make it easy to bring
this oil to the coast. The unrest that toppled former President Patassé,s
government, a war supported by Chad and externally aided by the USA, is not
unfamiliar, with making this oil available to certain nations.

  Recently, Neil Ford, an expert in oil production, stated: "oil puts Africa
on the map." Sadly, it is true.

  In this era of globalisation, international links, fast exchanges, Africa
remains at the edge of modernity. It becomes the, centre of attention only
when a new basis for exploitation arises. The various initiatives aiming at
giving Africa a new start almost always result in huge profits for foreign
companies and their local cronies.

  Oil industry is good for statistics. Suddenly, citizens of a country with
one of the poorest per capita income become rich. But in reality, the
newfound oil does not fuel development. Equatorial Guinea is an example. Per
capita income rose from 308 US$ in 1995 to over $1,500 in 2002. In reality,
the population has seen no improvement. The people of Equatorial Guinea
remain among the poorest of the continent.

  Oil puts Africa on the map - a map void of the lives of millions who will
never benefit from the resources of their land.

  Source: CISA, New People, -editorial of upcoming issue of May-June 2003.
New People is an international missionary magazine published by the New
People Media Centre of the Comboni Missionaries in Nairobi, Kenya, and
available across Africa.