Part 1, SOMALIA: More U.S. Corporate Plunder Disguised as Humanitarianism
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The following article was sent to me by a net subscriber:
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The Los Angeles Times January 18, 1993
THE OIL FACTOR IN SOMALIA
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Four American petroleum giants had agreements with the African
nation before its civil war began. They could reap big rewards
if peace is restored.
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By Mark Fineman
Times Staff Writer
MOGADISHU, Somalia--Far beneath the surface of the tragic drama of
Somalia, four major U.S. corporations are quietly sitting on a
prospective fortune in exclusive concessions to explore and exploit
tens of millions of acres of the Somali countryside.
That land, in the opinion of geologists and industry sources,
could yield significant amounts of oil and natural gas if the
U.S.-led military mission can restore peace to the impoverished
East African nation.
According to documents obtained by The Times, nearly two-thirds
of Somalia was allocated to the American oil giants Conoco, Amoco,
Chevron and Phillips in the final years before Somalia's pro-U.S.
President Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown and the nation plunged
into chaos in January 1991. Industry sources said the companies holding
the rights to the most promising concessions are hoping that the
Bush Administration's decision to send U.S. troops to safeguard
aid shipments to Somalia will also help protect their multimillion-
dollar investments there.
Officially, the Administration and the State Department insist
that the U.S. military mission in Somalia is strictly humanitarian.
Oil industry spokesmen dismissed as "absurd" and "nonsense" allegations
by aid experts, veteran East Africa analysts and several prominent
Somalis that President Bush, a former Texas oilman, was moved to
act in Somalia, at least in part, by the U.S. corporate oil stake.
But corporate and scientific documents disclosed that the American
companies are well positioned to pursue Somalia's most promising
potential oil reserves the moment the nation is pacified. And the
State Department and U.S. military officials acknowledge that one
of those oil companies gas done more than simply sit back and
hope for peace.
Conoco Inc., the only major multinational corporation to
maintain a functioning office in Mogadishu throughout the past
two years of nationwide anarchy, has been directly involved in
the U.S. government's role in the U.N.-sponsored humanitarian
military effort.
Conoco, whose tireless exploration efforts in north-central
Somalia reportedly had yielded the most encouraging prospects
just before Siad Barre's fall, permitted its Mogadishu compound
to be transformed into a de facto U.S. embassy a few days before
the U.S. Marines landed in the capital, with Bush's special envoy
using it as his temporary headquarters. In addition, the president
of the company's subsidiary in Somalia won high official praise
for serving as the government's volunteer "facilitator" during
the months before and during the U.S. intervention.
Describing the arrangement as "a business relationship," an
official spokesman for the Houston-based parent corporation of
Conoco Somalia Ltd. said the U.S. government was paying rental
for its use of the compound, and he insisted that Conoco was
proud of resident general manager Raymond Marchand's contribution
to the U.S.-led humanitarian effort.
John Geybauer, spokesman fo Conoco Oil in Houston, said the
company was acting as "a good corporate citizen and neighbor"
in granting the U.S. government's request to be allowed to rent
the compound. The U.S. Embassy and most other buildings and
residential compounds here in the capital were rendered unusable by
vandalism and fierce artillery duels during the clan wars that have
consumed Somalia and starved its people.
In its in-house magazine last month, Conoco reprinted excerpts from
a letter of commendation for Marchand written by U.S. Marine
Brig. Gen. Frank Libutti, who has been acting as military aide
to U.S. envoy Robert B. Oakley. In the letter, Libutti praised the
oil official for his role in the initial operation to land Marines
on Mogadishu's beaches in December and concluded, "Without Raymond's
courageous contributions and selfless service, the operation
would have failed."
But the close relationship between Conoco and the U.S. intervention
force has left many Somalis and foreign development experts
deeply troubled by the blurry line between the U.S. government and
the large oil company, leading many to liken the Somalia operation
to a miniature version of Operation Desert Storm, the U.S.-led
military effort in January, 1991, to drive Iraq from Kuwait and,
more broadly, to safeguard the world's largest oil reserves.
"They sent all the wrong signals when Oakley moved into the
Conoco compound," said one expert on Somalia who worked with one
of the four major companies as they intensified their exploration
efforts in the country in the late 1980s.
"It's left everyone thinking the big question here isn't famine
relief but oil--whether the oil concessions granted under Siad
Barre will be transferred if and when peace is restored," the
expert said. "It's potentially worth billions of dollars, and
believe me, that's what the whole game is starting to look like."
Although most experts outside of Somalia laugh at the suggestion
that the nation ever could rank among the world's major oil
producers--and most maintain that the international aid mission
is intended simply to feed Somalia's starving masses--no one doubts
that there is oil in Somalia. The only question: How much?
"It's there. There's no doubt there's oil there," said Thomas
E. O'Connor, the principal petroleum engineer at the World Bank,
who headed an in-depth, three-year study of oil prospects in the
Gulf of Aden off Somalia's northern coast.
"You don't know until you study a lot further just how much is
there," O'Connor said. "But it has commercial potential. It's got
high potential...once the Somalis get their act together."
O'Connor, a professional geologist, based his conclusion on the
findings of some of the world's top petroleum geologists. In a 1991
World Bank-coordinated study, intended to encourage private
investment in the petroleum potential of eight African nations,
the geologists put Somalia and Sudan at the top of the list of
prospective oil producers.
Presenting their results at a three-day conference in London in
September, 1991, two of those geologists, an American and an Egyptian,
reported that an analysis of nine exploratory wells drilled in
Somalia indicated that the region is "situated within the oil
window, and this [is] highly prospective for gas and oil." A report
by a third geologist, Z.R. Beydoun, said offshore sites possess "the
geological parameters conducive to the generation, expulsion and
trapping of significant amounts of oil and gas."
(to be continued)
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This is one of countless stories unveiling the subverted, corrupt
and fascistic state of our theoretically democratic Government.
This story makes it disgustingly obvious that true patriotism is not
the waving of flags, the tying of yellow ribbons and the mindless
supporting of our Government, just because it happens to be ours.
You don't support cancer just because you happen to have it.
True patriotism is telling the truth to the people of our country
in order that they may unite to conquer this anti-democratic cancer
that is gradually destroying ours and our children's freedom.
So please post the installments of this ongoing series to
computer bulletin boards, and post hardcopies in public places,
both on and off campus. That would be a truly patriotic deed.
