Africa: US Oil's New Target

In America a horror scenario appears to be looming. At some point in the next twenty years America’s indigenous oil supply will have run out, all the oil wells having been pumped dry.

Securing an alternative energy supply is therefore an issue of urgency for America, which leads the world in per capita energy consumption. For the world’s military superpower, whose weaponry relies on access to a secure oil supply, the issue is also a matter of national security. America’s demand for oil is constantly exceeding supply and more than half the oil required by America now comes from overseas. At the same time it has to compete with an increasingly successful and aggressive major competitor in the global hunt for oil – China.

The invasion of Iraq has not relieved the situation as the price of crude oil remains high and has left the oil markets nervous and in turn, making prices unstable. The American military in Iraq is currently importing the oil it needs. America has therefore set its sights on Africa, which, according to a White House national energy policy document, is predicted to be – together with Latin America – “one of the fastest growing sources of oil and gas” for the future American market. The whole of the coastal sweep of West Africa has become an “oil Dorado”. Sao Tomé, in the Gulf of Guinea and the second smallest country in Africa, is just one example of the region’s potential. Off the coast of this tiny nation lies 24 billion barrels of black gold and some oil industry experts have even described it as a second Kuwait. Oil interests from across the world have now flocked to the nation.

Meanwhile, since the summer of 2004, oil from Chad has been flowing to the coast of Cameroon. The construction of the pipeline and the establishment of conveyor systems represent the largest investment project currently underway in Africa, a project run primarily by US giant Exxon Mobil. Currently 75% of Chad’s nine million people exist on less than less than 90c a day. It is hoped that petrodollars will transform the country.
The program also investigates how, in order to secure itself against any threats to these new supply sources, and in a merging of foreign and energy policy, the Pentagon plans to secure its new sources by means of military and marine bases in West Africa.

http://www.sbs.com.au/whatson/index.php3?id=1104