As America and Europe diversify oil and gas supplies away from the volatile Persian Gulf, West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea is set to become its counterweight, argue Andy Rowell, James Marriott & Lorne Stockman in “The Next Gulf: London, Washington and Oil Conflict in Nigeria.”

“Since 9/11, the Gulf of Guinea has gained unprecedented strategic importance to the US and its allies. Washington wants the region’s oil and gas resources and is prepared to protect its access with military might. Nigeria is the biggest oil and gas producer in the region and therefore central to US strategy.

Forgotten in this new scramble for African resources are the people of the Niger Delta, who have received little benefit from 50 years of oil production in their midst.”
PLATFORM’s work on Nigeria aims to expose the severe impact that 50 years of oil production has had in the Niger Delta.

The Next Gulf - Preface

The Next Gulf - Chapter One

The Next Gulf - Chapter Three

A candid document, “Strategic Competition for the Continent of Africa” written by Lieutenant Colonel Gregory C. Kane of the United States Army War College (Feb 2006) analyses the emerging ‘great game’ between the US and China over Africa oil resources:”The United States is unarguably the pre-eminent nation in the world. Our economic strength provides for a high quality of life for most of our citizens, large sums of capital for public and private investment, and the ability to field a highly capable and technically advanced military force. At the same time, the United States has become the largest debtor nation; currently some $7 trillion, has under-funded future governmental obligations, and has worldwide security commitments that stretch our military to the breaking point. In order to meet our future security requirements and sustain our pre-eminent military position, the United States must pursue a foreign policy that ensures continued economic growth - without which, the government will be forced to reduce our commitments, cede resolution of issues to regional powers, or significantly reduce domestic governmental spending, currently politically unpalatable. And to secure growth, the United States needs to maintain access to natural resources and markets for American products. The largest underdeveloped market remaining in the world is the continent of Africa. We are not alone however, in that competition for Africa. China, a growing economic and diplomatic force in the world, has been aggressively pursuing economic goals on the continent and parlaying those economic ties into diplomatic clout. The competition for Africa has strategic implications for whichever country fails to establish or sustain access to that market.

Paul Rogers analyses US-Chinese geopolitical striggle for oil in “The United States vs China: the war for oil”

“As the United States military gears up for Donald Rumsfeld’s “long war”, the issue of China and its linkage with Gulf oil security is an unspoken element that comes to the surface only when such exercises as the Hawaii wargame are revealed and reported. It is a salutary reminder: while all the public emphasis is on the war on terror, China looms in US military planning as a powerful presence behind the scenes.

The “great game” now being played out in Iraq, Afghanistan and the wider region has much more to do with the twin issues of oil and China than is readily admitted. It is just one more reason why any talk of a complete US military withdrawal from Iraq is simply unthinkable.”

Chad orders oil firms to quit

Xan Rice
Monday August 28, 2006
The Guardian

Chad’s president has threatened to expel energy giants Chevron and Petronas, two of the three consortium partners in a World Bank-backed project that was meant to serve as a model for oil extraction in Africa. Idriss Déby accused the American and Malaysian companies of failing to pay £240m in taxes and told them to make plans to leave the country. He also suspended three cabinet ministers, including the oil minister, for their alleged roles in the saga. Mr Déby said that the companies, which are responsible for 60% of Chad’s 170,000 barrel a day oil production, had ignored an order to pay the outstanding taxes. “Unfortunately, the government received no reaction from the partners … the representatives of Chevron and Petronas must leave Chad and close their offices.” During his televised statement Mr Déby said Chad would assume the companies’ production responsibilities along with the main consortium partner, ExxonMobil. The decision, which is widely viewed as an attempt by the government to control its oil output, is the latest setback for the controversial £2.6bn Chad-Cameroon pipeline project. Despite Chad’s reputation for endemic corruption and opposition from human rights groups, the World Bank agreed in 2000 to back and partly finance a 620-mile pipeline that would run through Cameroon to the Atlantic coast. In return, Chad’s government agreed to use most of the oil revenues - estimated at more than £3.5bn over 25 years - to alleviate poverty. Soon after the pipeline opened in 2003 Mr Déby started accusing the oil firms of viewing the deal as “an opportunity to plunder Chad’s resources”. Chevron denied yesterday that it owed back taxes, while Malaysia’s prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, said the state-owned firm would not have knowingly underpaid taxes.