Growing exploitation for oil in Africa is bringing with it an increased U.S. military presence in the region. Within a decade 25 percent of U.S. oil imports will come from West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea, according to projections by the US Department of Energy and the CIA.
Africa’s total oil reserves are estimated at around 80 billion barrels (about the same as Venezuela) or around 8% of the world’s total remaining reserves. With output of more than 4 million barrels a day, sub-Saharan Africa already produces more than Iran.
Equatorial Guinea (the oil rich country which last year escaped a military coup funded partially by Mark Thatcher) currently holds the record, along with Angola, for oil prospecting permits. Over the next 20 years it could become Africa’s third-largest oil producer, with 740,000 barrels a day.
A dozen facilities for production, storage, and offshore loading of liquefied natural gas are being built across West Africa, including on Equatorial Guinea’s main island of Bioko. Africa’s largest oil producer, Nigeria, is 11th in the world and the fifth-largest supplier to companies in the United States. According to a CIA report, Nigeria plans to increase daily production from 2.6 million barrels in 2005 to 3 million barrels in 2006, reaching 4 millions barrels by 2010. Conflict over Nigerian oil this week led to disruption in supplies after sabotage to oil pipes and kidnapping of workers.
Washington has been trying to displace its rivals in the region to secure the rich oil reserves for it's own companies. Due tho their location, the bulk of these supplies can be shipped rapidly and relatively securely to U.S. ports.
Analysts say that a growing reliance on African oil would “scream out for a robust Navy presence, including warships, coastal patrol boats and maritime aircraft surveillance”. However Rear Adm. D.C. Curtis said, “We can’t afford to have a ship there 365 days a year. The days of getting an aircraft carrier off the coast are gone.”
The size of the U.S. Naval fleet is below 300, its lowest number since 1916. Curtis heads the U.S. 6th Fleet, which oversees naval responsibilities in Europe and Africa from its headquarters in Italy.
Washington is instead fashioning a military approach more in line with its “war on terrorism,” focused on lightly armored, fast moving elite forces. Washington has negotiated the rights to establish a military base patterned along these lines in São Tomé and Príncipe, an island nation in the Gulf of Guinea.
To secure its interests on the continent the U.S. government will spend $500 million over the next five years training African armies in order to prevent pro-democracy uprisings or insurgency. Last June 700 U.S. Special Forces troops and 2,100 troops from Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Morocco, Nigeria, and Tunisia joined 3,000 troops from Saharan countries in “Exercise Flintlock ’05,” ostensibly to improve border security.
[Note: With half of the worlds oil reserves having been used up during the last one hundred years, the next decade looks set to be one of increased military conflict and economic upheaval as the world's industrial nations try to come to terms with ever higher prices as demand outstrips supply. Find out more at the grassroots gathering on peak oil being held next month at the rampART in london. Email rampart at mutualaid.org if you would like to attend or would like to contribute to organising the event.]]
Equatorial Guinea (the oil rich country which last year escaped a military coup funded partially by Mark Thatcher) currently holds the record, along with Angola, for oil prospecting permits. Over the next 20 years it could become Africa’s third-largest oil producer, with 740,000 barrels a day.
A dozen facilities for production, storage, and offshore loading of liquefied natural gas are being built across West Africa, including on Equatorial Guinea’s main island of Bioko. Africa’s largest oil producer, Nigeria, is 11th in the world and the fifth-largest supplier to companies in the United States. According to a CIA report, Nigeria plans to increase daily production from 2.6 million barrels in 2005 to 3 million barrels in 2006, reaching 4 millions barrels by 2010. Conflict over Nigerian oil this week led to disruption in supplies after sabotage to oil pipes and kidnapping of workers.
Washington has been trying to displace its rivals in the region to secure the rich oil reserves for it's own companies. Due tho their location, the bulk of these supplies can be shipped rapidly and relatively securely to U.S. ports.
Analysts say that a growing reliance on African oil would “scream out for a robust Navy presence, including warships, coastal patrol boats and maritime aircraft surveillance”. However Rear Adm. D.C. Curtis said, “We can’t afford to have a ship there 365 days a year. The days of getting an aircraft carrier off the coast are gone.”
The size of the U.S. Naval fleet is below 300, its lowest number since 1916. Curtis heads the U.S. 6th Fleet, which oversees naval responsibilities in Europe and Africa from its headquarters in Italy.
Washington is instead fashioning a military approach more in line with its “war on terrorism,” focused on lightly armored, fast moving elite forces. Washington has negotiated the rights to establish a military base patterned along these lines in São Tomé and Príncipe, an island nation in the Gulf of Guinea.
To secure its interests on the continent the U.S. government will spend $500 million over the next five years training African armies in order to prevent pro-democracy uprisings or insurgency. Last June 700 U.S. Special Forces troops and 2,100 troops from Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Morocco, Nigeria, and Tunisia joined 3,000 troops from Saharan countries in “Exercise Flintlock ’05,” ostensibly to improve border security.
[Note: With half of the worlds oil reserves having been used up during the last one hundred years, the next decade looks set to be one of increased military conflict and economic upheaval as the world's industrial nations try to come to terms with ever higher prices as demand outstrips supply. Find out more at the grassroots gathering on peak oil being held next month at the rampART in london. Email rampart at mutualaid.org if you would like to attend or would like to contribute to organising the event.]]
