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Corruption vs Corporate Social Responsibility And Community-Development Funds
“People in the world's richest countries are rightly angry at the increasing job losses and house repossessions. What is less understood is that for much longer, failures by banks and the governments that regulate them have caused untold damage to the economies of some of the poorest countries in the world.” From timber revenues to oil and gas development contracts, vast sums of cash change hands. Banks hide the heists by cabinet members of stolen revenues, and the regimes in power invest the 'country's share' of revenues form extractive resources in media worthy events of pomp and splendor. But the repression of political rights and civil liberties, violence and intimidation, and impacts from worsening poverty, and the spread of toxic environments goes on unabated. IMAGE - Of the $30 million expected from the sale of the Malibu mansion, a third will go directly to the U.S. government and the rest to a charity to benefit the people of Equatorial Guinea - October 2014.
Small Time Is Big Time, Corporate Social Responsibility And Community-Development Funds
Many small African countries are exporters of timber, or oil and gas and have been for decades. Even countries with internal strife and civil wars sometimes managed to develop offshore resources, way offshore with the help of western transnationals – mostly TOTAL, ExxonMobil, and ChevronTexaco - and with the flow of revenue, build armies, repress the majority of people, and celebrate lavishly any occasion for diplomacy.
The recent US case against Equatorial Guinea resolved in October 2014 brought to light the global awareness and effort to end extractive resource revenue funding of corruption and human rights abuses. This article deals with Equatorial Guinea, and Liberia, mostly through information ascertained perusing records at the State Department, and in the investigations by reputable groups and news organizations. Some individuals and groups are respected authors and human rights organizations living in exile.
Full map of Africa:
http://www.waado.org/NigerDelta/Nigeria_Facts/NigerianMaps/Africa_PoliticalMap.html
Autocratic Kleptocracy vs US Justice Department’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative
Bribery Of Foreign Officials vs The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
Equatorial Guinea’s tiny elite lives in luxury, everyone else lives in needless poverty. Economic mismanagement has made matters worse, with Equatorial Guinea’s economy now in recession. The billions in oil revenues that were stolen or spent unwisely represent a lost opportunity for development and a human rights tragedy. Equatorial Guinea is just south of Cameroon.
“Equatorial Guinea’s President Obiang may hope that the Africa Cup will boost his reputation. But if sports journalists and soccer fans venture beyond the stadiums, they will see evidence of ongoing human rights abuses that they can then broadcast to the world. If the authorities don’t detain them, that is, and confiscate their material.”
http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/11/14/dispatches-soccer-smokescreen-equatorial-guinea-s-abuses
Autocratic Kleptocracy Bleeding It's Democracy
Freedom House, the respected US think tank, places Equatorial Guinea alongside Burma, North Korea and Somalia on its list of the world's worst regimes, a ruthless one-party state where elections are stolen, opponents jailed and state coffers looted, control of daily life is all-pervasive and the government is accused of grotesque human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial killings.
“Press freedom is severely limited in Equatorial Guinea, despite constitutional protections. Journalists who criticize the president, his family, or the security forces face reprisals and usually exercise self-censorship. Government press censorship is authorized by a 1992 law. Opposition party and exile group websites, along with Facebook, were blocked, presumably by the government, in the lead-up to the 2013 elections. Libel remains a criminal offense. There are only a handful of private newspapers or magazines, but they face intense financial and political pressure and are unable to publish regularly. The only private radio and television network belongs to the president’s son, Teodorín. The government on occasion has imposed news blackouts about subjects such as the Arab Spring uprisings.”
University professors and teachers have reportedly lost their positions due to their political affiliations; one such professor was Enrique Nsolo Nzo, who was fired from his post at the National University of Equatorial Guinea after being beaten, detained, and released without charge on May 8, 2014 while preparing a banner for a political demonstration. The government reportedly uses informants and electronic surveillance to monitor members of the opposition, nongovernmental organizations, and journalists, including the few members of the foreign press in the country.
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2014/equatorial-guinea-0#.VIsOxmfn73E
The Freedom House Think tank website has a very useful tool, a drop down text box, easy in that once a visitor is on a particular country's page, by changing the year date in the text box, the archived human rights record and politics for any country can be viewed, at the time of published data, and all in greater detail as one goes further back in time. Any current year is enriched with new scandals, or amended DOJ investigations, new oil and gas deals, and more world scrutiny.
If one were to follow the next link, there is a story that reads like a movie. 3 European Diplomats visited the country, and by the questions posed to Obiang, the responses make the President seem almost drunk on his own Orwellian doublespeak. But the view taken in by the diplomats, and conversations are graphically described.
“We try to use the resources with all possible transparency to develop the country for the welfare of the country." That's the "dynamic democracy" of Equatorial Guinea, replete with “free elections with all the transparency possible."
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/23/equatorial-guinea-africa-corruption-kleptocracy
The Breadth Of Corruption
-According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, nearly 20% of foreign bribery cases analyzed involved the extractive industries.
-Africa loses $148 billion per year to corruption, far more than it receives in aid, according to the African Union.
-More than 60 percent of the world’s poorest people live in countries rich in natural resources, but they rarely share in the wealth.
-In Africa, an estimated $50 billion every year is lost to illicit financial flows. This is equal to 5.7 percent of Africa’s GDP, and exceeds public spending on health.
http://politicsofpoverty.oxfamamerica.org/2014/12/corruption-is-like-bad-breath-mining-extractives/
Equatorial Guinea, the small, oil-rich country has yet again stepped up to host the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) soccer tournament, which it also hosted three years ago. In 2014, when the government intimidated and detained two Financial Times journalists and confiscated their notes and equipment.
http://blogs.ft.com/the-world/2014/01/reporting-back-equatorial-guinea/
Ahead of CAN 2012, the Obiang government detained, censored, and effectively expelled German journalists for straying beyond the subject of soccer, deleting or confiscating footage.
https://cpj.org/2011/06/equatorial-guinea-deletes-german-tv-crews-footage.php
A petition regarding Journalists rights has subsequently been posted, and signed by many.
https://cpj.org/campaigns/digital-freedom/right-to-report-sign-petition.php
“The government appeared to block access to websites maintained by the domestic political opposition and exiled groups and to social media in the months leading up to the May elections. Users attempting to access these sites were redirected to the government’s official press website. The government denied responsibility for the blockage. The internet replaced broadcast media as the primary way opposition views were expressed and disseminated. The most overt criticism of the government came from the country’s community in exile. According to International Telecommunications Union statistics, 14 percent of individuals used the internet in 2012.” From Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2013 Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, United States Department of State
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/220320.pdf
But A Drop In The Bucket - In a recent settlement filed in U.S. district court in Los Angeles, in October 2014, Equatorial Guinea Second Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang agreed to give up a $30-million house with a view of the ocean, to settle corruption claims by federal prosecutors.
http://www.pipelinedreams.org/2014/10/teodoro-nguema-obiang-loses-his-malibu-mansion/
The settlement with Obiang, who is the son and heir apparent to the nation's president, is part of an expanding Justice Department effort, officials call it the "Kleptocracy Initiative", to crack down on corrupt foreign officials who steal money and use it to live the high life in the U.S.
http://www.latimes.com/local/crime/la-me-malibu-kleptocrat-20141011-story.html
Overall, the anti-corruption initiative, promoted by Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. and involving dedicated teams from the FBI and Justice Department, has seized nearly $600 million in assets from officials of Nigeria, Taiwan, South Korea, Afghanistan, Brazil, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, Justice Department officials said Friday.
Of the $30 million expected from the sale of the Malibu mansion, a third will go directly to the U.S. government and the rest to a charity to benefit the people of Equatorial Guinea.
In this brilliant video-illustration, “EG Justice and the celebrated artist, Ramon Esono Ebale explain the most relevant details of the U.S. Department of Justice cases against Teodoro Nguema Obiang Teodorin, Vice-President, Senator, and son of the president of Equatorial Guinea.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxDj1mAwFFE
Preceding the October 2014 settlement case, a joint letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, signed by the Open Society Justice Initiative and three other civil society groups, commends the US Justice Department’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative for its bid to seize over $70m in corruptly-acquired goods from Nguema Obiang, in twin legal actions filed before federal courts in California and the District of Columbia.
The joint letter submitted to Attorney General Holder urges the Justice Department to “ensure that the terms of any settlement do not undermine the Kleptocracy Initiative’s stated commitment to showing that the United States will not be a hiding place for the ill-gotten riches of the world’s corrupt leaders.”
To that end, the four groups are urging that any settlement:
1) Ensures that the Obiang family does not retain de facto control over any seized assets that are intended to benefit the people of Equatorial Guinea, as the victims of Obiang’s corrupt practices;
2) Puts in place effective protections to prevent reprisals against potential beneficiaries of the agreement;
3) Does not contain language that would in any way exonerate Teodorin Obiang; and
4) Requires the release and safe exit from Equatorial Guinea of Roberto Berardi, a former business associate of Teodorin Nguema Obiang with information that could corroborate key allegations in the Justice Department’s case. Mr. Berardi has been imprisoned in the country since January 2013 and subject to abuse.
http://www.egjustice.org/post/civil-society-urges-caution-eg-settlement
On December 3, 2014, Transparency International released its 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index, which ranks countries based on their perceived level of corruption. However, Equatorial Guinea, which for the last two years has ranked 163rd out of 174 and 177 countries, respectively, was not included in the 2014 index due to the lack of data available to analysts.
http://www.egjustice.org/post/eg-too-opaque-rank-0
“This omission from Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index confirms that Equatorial Guinea remains one of the most opaque nations in the world,” said Tutu Alicante, Executive Director of EG Justice. The people of Equatorial Guinea deserve a government that is open, accountable, democratic, and that respects fundamental human rights.
“To include a country on the index, Transparency International analyzes at least three reliable data sources from credible organizations. This year, the anticorruption organization was unable to find a third source of information for Equatorial Guinea. The absence of one single source such as the African Development Bank made it impossible to get the necessary three sources to be ranked compared to last year's available sources. Compare this to neighboring Cameroon (ranked toward the bottom of the index at 136th), where Transparency International was able to identify eight reliable data sources.”
“The absence of information and continued lack of transparency in Equatorial Guinea does not bode well for the country’s renewed bid to join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. Equatorial Guinea was accepted as an EITI candidate country in 2007, but the process ended after the EITI Board denied the country’s request for an extension to complete EITI Validation. According to Mr. Alicante, the Equatoguinean Government should take this notable absence as an indication of the progress it needs to achieve, if it is serious its EITI candidacy. It needs to start producing and publishing reliable data.”
http://www.egjustice.org/post/eg-too-opaque-rank-0
On March 11, 2009 a new report detailed resource mismanagement, the amounts of hidden money, complicit banking corruption, international and host country facades of legal reforms; all which served to blow the lid off a long held secret of entrenched rogue regimes and recurring 'civil wars'.
Astonishing Investigations: “Undue Diligence: How Banks Do Business With Corrupt Regimes”
“Undue Diligence, names some of the major banks who have done business with corrupt regimes. By accepting these customers, banks are assisting those who are using state assets to enrich themselves or brutalize their own people. This corruption denies the world's poorest people the chance to lift themselves out of poverty and leaves them dependent on aid. The report sets out what governments, regulators and banks need to do in order to tackle this complicity with corruption.”
“People in the world's richest countries are rightly angry at the increasing job losses and house repossessions. What is less understood is that for much longer, failures by banks and the governments that regulate them have caused untold damage to the economies of some of the poorest countries in the world.”
HSBC and Banco Santander hid behind bank secrecy laws in Luxembourg and Spain to frustrate US efforts to find out if Equatorial Guinea's oil revenues had been looted and laundered.
Citibank facilitated the funding of two vicious civil wars in neighboring Sierra Leone and Liberia by enabling the warlord Charles Taylor, now on trial for war crimes in the Hague, to loot timber revenues.
http://www.globalwitness.org/library/undue-diligence-how-banks-do-business-corrupt-regimes
Out Of Africa; Decades Of Third World Exploitation For Billions In Profits
From “Cocoa Fields to Oil Fields in Equatorial Guinea” By Augustin Velloso
“Until very recently, the West African country of Equatorial Guinea had always been an exporter of agricultural, timber, and mineral products. In the 1990s oil started flowing from offshore fields, and nowadays oil comprises 90% of the country’s exports.”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2003/11/01/from-cocoa-fields-to-oil-fields-in-equatorial-guinea/
From Spanish Colony To Cash Empire: Another Case Of Genocide
Equatorial Guinea achieved independence from Spain in 1968. Current president Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo seized power in 1979 after deposing and executing his uncle, the country’s first president, Francisco Macías Nguema.
“The Equatoguinean strongman and his Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) have remained firmly entrenched in power. The discovery and exploitation of offshore hydrocarbon resources has allowed Obiang to amass a vast personal fortune, bolstering his domestic position and making him largely impervious to calls from abroad to implement meaningful political reforms.”
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2012/equatorial-guinea#.VIn0bp2572Y
Encyclopedia Britannica states simply that The original inhabitants of Bioko are the Bubi, descendants of Bantu migrants from the mainland. The Bubi, unlike the other ethnic groups of the country, are a matrilineal society, wherein children inherit property from their mother. Early contacts with Europeans decimated the Bubi until only a few thousand remained early in the 20th century. During the colonial era they became the most pro-Spanish element of the African population, as they viewed the end of Spanish rule as a signal for the invasion of their island by the majority Fang. Indeed, significant numbers of mainlanders, most of them Fang, have flocked to Bioko since the mid-1960s. Following independence, Pres. Francisco Macías Nguema (ruled 1968–79), himself a Fang, harshly persecuted the Bubi people. Many Bubi, including accused separatists as well as most Bubi politicians, were killed in a campaign that some observers have called genocide.
Transfer Of Power, But Autocratic Rule Remains The Same
“In the first year of his rule Nguema murdered one sixth of the population of Equatorial Guinea. By 1975, 80,000 people were dead and a third of the country had fled. During Nguema’s presidency the country was nicknamed the Auschwitz of Africa.”
“Francisco Macias Nguema ordered the death of thousands of political opponents, closed churches, banned Christianity, and persecuted the Bubi ethnic minority – a group of the Bantu ethnic group with a long history of persecution. Like the Khmer Rouge, Nguema’s forces killed everyone who wore glasses, as he was afraid of an educated elite. Eventually, in 1975, this fear prompted him to close down all schools in the region. In paranoia, he banned the use of the world “intellectual.” By the end of his rule nearly all the educated class was executed or forced into exile.”
http://www.risefromashes.org/tag/francisco-macias-nguema/
The blog goes on to note in June 2014 that nothing has changed for the people of the country. Visit the blog, Rise From Ashes, one caring person's investigation into genocide. The September 2, 2014 post, “As American As Genocide” covers experiences of the Native Americans.
Equatorial Guinea Justice
“At current extraction rates and proven reserves, the country’s oil reserves will run out in 20 years. Thus, only a small window of opportunity exists to use oil profits to curb the nation’s widespread poverty.”
“The web page Equatorial Guinea Justice, works to promote human rights, the rule of law, transparency, and civic participation to build a just Equatorial Guinea. Equatorial Guinea, a country slightly smaller than Belgium, is the third largest oil-exporting nation in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2008, its government received $6 billion from the sale of oil and natural gas, an amount equivalent to $9000 for each of the country's 660,000 citizens. Despite this extraordinary resource wealth, however, the vast majority of Equatoguineans live in poverty on less than $2 per day.”
http://www.egjustice.org/
“Obiang dissolved the parliament in February 2008 and called legislative and municipal elections for May. A new coalition composed of the PDGE and nine smaller parties won a reported 100 percent of the vote in many districts, taking 99 out of 100 seats in the parliament amid allegations of widespread irregularities. The Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS), the sole opposition party, was reduced from two seats to one.”
“Obiang swept the November 2009 presidential elections with 95.4 percent of the vote, although as with past balloting, the election was widely regarded as rigged. The president’s main opponent, CPDS leader Plácido Micó Abogo, received less than 4 percent of the vote. The new government appointed in January 2010 included nearly all of the previous cabinet members, and the creation of many new junior minister posts increased the total size of the cabinet by 50 percent. Obiang’s son and reportedly favored successor, Teodoro (known as Teodorín) Nguema Obiang Mangue, retained the agriculture and forests portfolio, was promoted to minister of state, and became vice president of the PDGE. After the changes, members of the president’s family held 11 ministerial posts.”
“There was a dramatic increase in arbitrary arrests and police raids in the months leading up to the country’s hosting of the June 2011 meeting of the 17th African Union Summit. In addition to the detention of approximately 100 students in the city of Bata, police raided neighborhoods with high foreign-born populations. Some observers attributed the crackdown to pre-emptive government efforts to prevent any manifestations of political unrest during the summit.”
“Equatorial Guinea’s abundant oil revenues do not reach the majority of its citizens. According to the Centre for Global Development, 77 percent of the population lives on less than two dollars a day. As Human Rights Watch noted, the government spent four times as much money building facilities to host the African Union summit in 2011 than it did on education in 2008.”
Political Rights and Civil Liberties:
Equatorial Guinea is not an electoral democracy. The 2009 presidential election that resulted in President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo securing a new, seven-year term reportedly featured intimidation and harassment of the opposition by security forces and restrictions on foreign observers. Power rests firmly in the hands of Obiang and his supporters,
Obiang's PDGE regime has little tolerance for political dissent. Equatoguinean security agents closely monitor suspected Obiang opponents, including members of the CPDS.
As with politics, Obiang and his inner circle dominate Equatorial Guinea’s economic landscape, and graft is rampant. Most major business transactions cannot transpire without involving an individual connected to the regime. Transparency International’s 2011 Corruption Index ranked Equatorial Guinea 172 out of 183 countries surveyed. Information networks have all but been closed, jailed, or intimidated, and in 2014, Equatorial Guinea couldn't even be ranked.
Why haven't We Heard More On Corruption And Human Rights Abuses In Equatorial Guinea?
Although the constitution guarantees media freedom, the 1992 press law authorizes government censorship. Libel remains a criminal offense, and the government requires all journalists to register with state officials. A few private newspapers are published irregularly but face intense financial and political pressure. The government holds a monopoly on broadcast media, with the exception of RTV-Asonga, a private radio and television outlet owned by Obiang’s son.
In mid-February 2011, the Equatoguinean regime forbade media outlets from reporting on the political unrest in the Arab world, even suspending the host of a French-language radio program, Juan Pedro Mendene, for briefly mentioning Libya during a March broadcast. Mendene was then reportedly assaulted by the bodyguard of the secretary of state for radio and television information while leaving the station. In June, security personnel arrested and then deported three journalists from a German television station who had interviewed CPDS leader Plácido Micó Abogo and recorded some footage of an impoverished Malabo neighborhood.
Petro-dollars And Petro-states: The Basis For Corruption
Although oil was first discovered in the 1960’s, it was first produced offshore in 1991 from the Alba oilfied discovered by Mobil. But oil companies have a history of supplying cash and lavish gifts to leaders of countries whose oil reserves they want to exploit. Bribery of foreign officials was outlawed in 1977 under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, after SEC investigations led more than 400 U.S. companies to admit that they had made questionable or illegal payments in other countries. The act outlaws payments to foreign officials for the purpose of obtaining or keeping business.
In Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony, human rights activists said the oil companies' payments there have helped prop up Obiang, who has ruled since seizing power in a military coup in 1979. US State Department reports have for years cited the regime for human rights violations, including torture, beatings and abuse of prisoners and suspects, sometimes resulting in death.
Production of liquified natural gas (LNG) began in 1997, using wet gas from Alba field. In March 1995, Zafiro field was discovered in Block B with an eventual production rate of 100,000 bpd. Zafiro oilfield is Equatorial Guinea’s major oil producer. Additional discoveries were made on Block B, including Jade, Topacio, Amatista, Rubi and Serpentina. In 1999, a deepwater field, La Ceiba with estimated reserves as high as 300 to 500 million barrels was discovered by Triton Energy and Energy Africa in Block G of the Rio Muni Basin. In mid 2000, Chevron and Vanco Energy signed production sharing contracts for the deepwater Block L and Corisco Block respectively. http://www.mbendi.com/indy/oilg/af/eq/p0005.htm
Chevron signed a five-year Production Sharing Contract with the Republic of Equatorial Guinea in West Africa to explore for oil offshore in water up to 2,000 meters deep, and is listed with several partners as the 'operator' in many offshore blocks (Angola, Nigeria, Liberia, and Equatorial Guinea).
The offshore Block L contract area covers 4,250 sq km (1,640 square miles). The work program includes seismic acquisition and exploration drilling. Chevron, which held a 100 percent interest in the block, had plans to establish an office in Equatorial Guinea.
At the time, circa 2000, Chevron company was one of Africa's largest operators, producing more than 900,000 bpd of oil and natural gas liquids, primarily from Nigeria and Angola.
http://www.gasandoil.com/news/africa/18993c303f15a893793861b5e0c1c538
Then in 2003-2004, in a case that would last last until 2010, the corruption and bribery were exposed... and well there were a few fines, Riggs the banker went to prison, and afterwords, new leases were awarded, but in a glimmer of hope, in one bright shining moment, the Transparency Initiative was to come out of the scandal.
U.S. Oil Firms Entwined in Equatorial Guinea Deals
Riggs Probe Led to SEC Inquiry on Corruption, Profiteering By Justin Blum
Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, September 7, 2004;
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1101-2004Sep6.html
“Business activities provided a picture of how oil companies have operated in a developing country with a history of corruption. The companies paid for scholarships for children of the country's leaders, formed business ventures with government officials, hired companies linked to Obiang and rented property from government officials and their relatives, according to a U.S. Senate report released in July that reveals the companies' operations in striking detail. The report, which described the relationship between Riggs Bank of Washington and the oil firms operating in Equatorial Guinea, said the companies' actions raised concerns related to corruption and profiteering.”
“A Securities and Exchange Commission investigation included the three companies with the largest presence in the country; Exxon Mobil Corp., Amerada Hess Corp. and Marathon Oil Corp. (Texas) along with ChevronTexaco Corp., Devon Energy Corp. and CMS Energy Corp. The Senate report also cited activities of a private Ecuadoran company, Vanco Energy Co.”
“Companies' annual reports showed broadening investment in Equatorial Guinea. Since 1997, the amount of oil produced in Equatorial Guinea had increased seven times over, to about 360,000 barrels a day. The country in 2004 emerged as the third-largest producer in sub-Saharan Africa and derives most of its revenue from oil.”
Bribery Of Foreign Officials Has Been Outlawed - U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
Bribery of foreign officials was outlawed in 1977 under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, after SEC investigations led more than 400 U.S. companies to admit that they had made questionable or illegal payments in other countries. The act outlaws direct payments to foreign officials for the purpose of obtaining or keeping business.
In Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony, human rights activists said the oil companies' payments there have helped prop up Obiang, who has ruled since seizing power in a military coup in 1979. US State department reports have for years cited the regime for human rights violations, including torture, beatings and abuse of prisoners and suspects, and in more than a few cases - resulting in death.
A State Department report published in 2013 concluded that most of the money generated by the oil companies' presence has not benefited average residents in the country of 500,000. Most of the country's oil wealth "appears to be concentrated in the hands of top government officials while the majority of the population remained poor."
“The monthly minimum wage is 129,035 CFA ($260) for all workers in the country. While many formal sector companies paid more than the minimum wage, workers in the informal sector and domestic workers were not covered under the minimum wage law. By law hydrocarbon industry workers received salaries many times higher than those in other sectors. The government does not have an established poverty line and does not publish estimates of poverty. Forced labor, particularly forced child labor, occurred. Children were transported from nearby countries – primarily Nigeria, Benin, Cameroon, Togo, and Gabon – and forced to work as domestic servants, market laborers, ambulant vendors, and launderers. Women from Cameroon, Benin, and other neighboring countries were recruited for work, but some were subsequently subjected to forced labor.”
And that's that... business as usual. Bribes are still commonplace, perhaps in smaller installments, and not as conspicuously overt as before, but arrests, fines and penalties are few. Even with the best intent, the good remains mired in the bad.
The Game Is Chess, Not Checkers
Unocal, ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, BP. Devon, Marathon, Petrobas, Petronas, SINOPEC, TOTAL, Royal Dutch Shell, Gazprom, ConoccoPhillips, and subsidiaries all, have divided the world into toxic zones for the sake of not only profit, but dependence, total dependence. US players almost always have a presence, and economic investment and percent share, in deepwater, and shallow waters offshore globally, for 30 years or more. And now they are going deeper and further offshore. Western corporations may have led the way in the shale revolution but the game behind the game, remains the same.
As some may know, TOTAL and Chevron were (are) partners partners in the Yadana pipeline through Burma (Myanmar), another story of unparalleled riches and repression. The Yadana Pipeline Project and Human Rights Abuses are nearly synonymous.
TOTAL is a French company, once known as TotalFinaElf, a multi-national oil group, and a very advanced global hydrocarbon company. Just this month, TOTAL unvielled a new $9 Billion dollar production vessel, an oil storage, production and offloading unit (FPSO) for it's CLOV project (Cravo, Lirio, Orquidea and Violeta) in Angola.
http://www.ventures-africa.com/2014/12/total-unveils-9bn-drilling-vessel/
Angola is Africa’s largest oil producing country.
“CLOV went into production in July and has 34 undersea wells with maximum production capacity of 160,000 barrels of oil daily. The project covers an area of 380 square kilometres and holds an estimated reserves of 505 million barrels of oil and a 20-year life span.”
“Total’s businesses covers the entire oil and gas chain; from upstream exploration activities to downstream distribution and trade. Total is also a large-scale chemicals manufacturer.
In January 2014, Total became the first major oil and gas firm to acquire exploration rights for shale gas in the UK after it bought a 40 percent interest in two licenses in the Gainsborough Trough area of northern England for $48 million.”
Offshore Flaring
Flaring has gone around the world onshore and offshore in immense volumes, unregulated global warming, VOCs, hydrogen sulfide, and numerous toxins. Continuous flaring, goes on unabated offshore around the world. Many offshore oil and gas sites proudly boast pictures of the flaring lighting up the rig and surrounding surface ocean waters. And no doubt adding a degree or two of temperature increase.
Unless a market could be created onshore, to use the natural gas, capture was never intended by the industry. The Ogoni in the Niger Delta, just as those who lived in Ecuador during the production there, and survived, have suffered devastating health consequences. Production still goes on in Nigeria, and the environment and flora and fauna continue to be polluted by the flaring.
Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Angola, Liberia
And these countries represent only the West African drilling landscape, and has for 30 years or more. As for the eastern continent, offshore of countries like Mozambique, the blocks are being developed by Asia (mostly).
2012, Bribery And Political Clout In A Dangerous Game
In Liberia, delaying a major economic investment has real consequences. One of the poorest countries on the planet, Liberia ranked 182 out of 187 countries and territories on the U.N. Human Development Index last year. More than 80 percent of the population survives on less than $1.25 a day.
In a report, by ProPublica and Foreign Policy in February 2012 titled:
“Follow the Money: Payment Trail Reveals Challenges of Ridding Liberia of Corruption”
http://www.propublica.org/article/follow-the-money-payment-trail-reveals-challenges-of-ridding-liberia-of-cor
“Five months before she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, known as 'The Iron Lady' welcomed Chevron CEO John Watson into the executive mansion to herald one of the largest investments in her country since the end of its devastating civil war in 2003: Chevron’s purchase of the rights to explore for oil off the coast of the West African nation, adding "The hallmark of your administration has been anti-corruption, transparency, rule of law. We look forward, at Chevron, to helping you establish that high integrity method of doing business in this country."
But one of the Liberian government’s own anti-corruption watchdogs, states Chevron’s investment was tainted even before the multinational oil giant paid its first dollar. According to a report of the auditor general of the Liberian General Auditing Commission (GAC), a series of bribes was allegedly paid in 2006 and 2007 so that the legislature would grant two small firms the rights to four oil concessions off Liberia’s coast. One of those companies, which purchased rights to three offshore properties, sold its concessions to Chevron.
http://gacliberia.com/doc/nocal.pdf
The Quandary
The U.S. government, Chevron, and Liberian President Sirleaf all voiced concerns about the alleged corruption, each for their own stated reasons. The U.S. government has invested more than $84 million over the last five years in a variety of anti-corruption and good-governance programs in Liberia.”
“Chevron wanted no legal liability. And Sirleaf, who was then heading into the campaign for her second term, had made fighting corruption a major part of her election pitch. But each of these players also had other interests. Chevron wanted the lucrative oil reserves that might lie in the offshore blocks. The United States wanted a U.S. company to have access to this strategically important potential energy source. Sirleaf wanted the economic development that would come of the deal, and she wanted that development spearheaded by a company subject to America’s strict anti-corruption laws.”
Chevron's, concern was its exposure to U.S. legal action under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). "Chevron doesn’t have any liability for its pre-acquisition conduct," Philip Urofsky, a former federal prosecutor who pursued FCPA cases at the Justice Department. “As for Oranto, Broadway, and NOCAL, they are not American companies and were not subject to FCPA at the time of the payments. So the primary risk to Chevron, was these companies’ current and future actions: If there’s any ongoing conduct, then that could very much become an ongoing problem."
“After the bribes became public a tale of compromise and competing priorities depicts the difficulty in trying to root out corruption even when a Nobel-laureate president has made that one of her main goals. The United States had spent more than $84 million on and anti-corruption programs in Liberia.”
Chevron states that it's company’s engagement with the Liberian Government in relation to the offshore blocks has been made in accordance with all applicable legal and regulatory requirements. ExxonMobil has said its agreement is subject to due diligence.
Chevron later acquired 70 percent of Oranto’s stake in the offshore properties; the terms of that deal are not known. But in August 2010, Chevron was added to the allegedly bribe-tainted contract between Oranto and NOCAL that the legislature had ratified back in 2009. Chevron gained the rights to develop the three offshore blocks, and it agreed to pay almost $10 million to provide Canadian Overseas Petroleum with $55 million upfront, and up to $42 million to cover exploration and "venture" costs. A spokesman for ExxonMobil would not comment beyond saying, "The agreement is subject to due diligence and government approval."
In April 2012, Chevron began it's drilling program in the first well in these blocks off the Liberian coast, none of the individuals involved in the alleged bribery has been prosecuted in connection with the payments. The $118,400 in alleged bribes was never returned. And the contracts have not been canceled, as the auditor general recommended, but remain in place.”
When Transparency International released its December 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index; Liberia had dropped four spots from the previous year, and Robert Sirleaf, the president’s son, was named chairman of the board of NOCAL.
According to the ProPublica and Foreign Policy report, Marshall City, is a community of thatch huts on Liberia’s Atlantic coast at the terminus of a crimson mud road as of 2012, the 13,000 residents lived without running water or electricity, save for the few who could afford generators.
According to the United Nations, almost two-thirds of Liberia’s GDP is generated from fishing, agriculture, and forestry, much of it at the subsistence level. But, there are concerns for the future, the people say that the ocean is no longer producing.
But when ProPublica asked for a detailed accounting of these social development funds, to see what entities received money, both Chevron and NOCAL offered only general background on the spending. And as many predicted, or at least felt was only a matter of time, by September 22, 2013 the Iron Lady's son had to resign and account for exactly $10.5 million dollars.
The world can be thankful there are human rights watchdogs and groups, serving by their actions, working to the benefit of the many preyed upon indigenous peoples and poor peoples of all colors and displaced people (and animals, fish, entire ecosystems, the environment) and hold the corporations accountable for remediation.
From the Press Release: “Liberia: Robert A. Sirleaf Resignation”
September 23, 2013 Global Witness, All Africa
http://allafrica.com/stories/201309240800.html
“We have followed, with keen interest and indignation, the various debates regarding potential oil discovery in Liberia. We are sadly aware how our country is being rigged, and how the future of our oil industry is been mortgaged by the First Family of Liberia. While we welcome the resignation of the President's son, Mr. Robert Alvin Sirleaf, as Chairman of the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL) and Senior Advisor to the President, we believe the action is belated and is a face-saving measure. Mr. Robert Sirleaf should not had been appointed to those positions in the first place for reasons of nepotism, conflict of interest, and lack of professional competence especially with the oil industry. Furthermore, the President's insinuation that Mr. Sirleaf has resigned because he has "completed" his tasks is a mockery, and is inconsistent with good governance practices and completely at variance with reality.”
“Not a single reform has been initiated and completed at NOCAL. NOCAL is still in the form and manner when Mr. Sirleaf was appointed a member of the Board and later promoted as Chairman of the Board, nearly 4 years ago. More besides, the Petroleum Bill and the NOCAL Bill that were drafted by a "World Bank Consultant", which Mr. Sirleaf claimed in various statements as "achievements", are yet to be passed into law, and hence cannot be considered achievements or reforms.”
“Mr. Sirleaf should give full accounting of the $10.5 million social contribution from Chevron. On February 22, 2012 Big Oil, Small Country, PROPUBLICA/Foreign Policy Magazine Reported that "Marshall's future , like that of hundreds of rural towns that line the coast near the oil concessions, may depend on the deal Chevron has struck, specifically the $10.5 million in community-development funds intended to go directly to the Liberian people. Government officials have held meetings with the Marshall community, promising improvements in education and health care.”
"When a Chevron corporate responsibility team visited Liberia, President Sirleaf "emphasized to Chevron that no CSR [corporate social responsibility] funds should come through the GOL [government of Liberia] budget," an October 2010 U.S. diplomatic cable noted. The president hoped "to avoid many of the governance issues that had emerged when previous corporate development money was funneled through local government offices," according to the cable. But when ProPublica asked for a detailed accounting of these social development funds, to see what entities received money, both Chevron and NOCAL offered only general background on the spending."
Once again, keeping it all in the family. Often it seems there are two ethnic groups in these small countries, (and possibly numerous very small groups, with their own languages) but the two groups – one is the oppressor, and the family always rules the jewels, the kids get educated so they can come back and swindle the country's riches in style. And we must realize, everyone of us who buys fuel, that we are funding this oppression. And now it comes full circle.
The global transnationals have managed to change US laws so foreign owned and foreign state-owned companies (as in dictatorial regimes, autocratic democracies) can own drilling rights to minerals on US soil and in the Gulf Of Mexico.
“From Washington To Wall Street It's Like One Big Dollar Store” Jackson Browne
The Alberta pipelines for LNG export, and the LNG export facilities themselves are being driven by foreign investment from China, and Malaysia. Read my most recent article, which continues a series on 'Communists and Capitalists Working Together, Drilling The Midwest':
Pacific NorthWest LNG - North American LNG Exports - B.C. Won't Even Get The Jobs
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/12/05/18765078.php
America's Resources For America, but in China it sounds like this;
It's Our LNG!
Tomas DiFiore
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STEAM INJECTION IS LITERALLY GLOBAL WARMING
constant comments, and informative research links;
http://banslickwaterfracking.blogspot.com/
Tomas DiFiore
Many small African countries are exporters of timber, or oil and gas and have been for decades. Even countries with internal strife and civil wars sometimes managed to develop offshore resources, way offshore with the help of western transnationals – mostly TOTAL, ExxonMobil, and ChevronTexaco - and with the flow of revenue, build armies, repress the majority of people, and celebrate lavishly any occasion for diplomacy.
The recent US case against Equatorial Guinea resolved in October 2014 brought to light the global awareness and effort to end extractive resource revenue funding of corruption and human rights abuses. This article deals with Equatorial Guinea, and Liberia, mostly through information ascertained perusing records at the State Department, and in the investigations by reputable groups and news organizations. Some individuals and groups are respected authors and human rights organizations living in exile.
Full map of Africa:
http://www.waado.org/NigerDelta/Nigeria_Facts/NigerianMaps/Africa_PoliticalMap.html
Autocratic Kleptocracy vs US Justice Department’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative
Bribery Of Foreign Officials vs The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
Equatorial Guinea’s tiny elite lives in luxury, everyone else lives in needless poverty. Economic mismanagement has made matters worse, with Equatorial Guinea’s economy now in recession. The billions in oil revenues that were stolen or spent unwisely represent a lost opportunity for development and a human rights tragedy. Equatorial Guinea is just south of Cameroon.
“Equatorial Guinea’s President Obiang may hope that the Africa Cup will boost his reputation. But if sports journalists and soccer fans venture beyond the stadiums, they will see evidence of ongoing human rights abuses that they can then broadcast to the world. If the authorities don’t detain them, that is, and confiscate their material.”
http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/11/14/dispatches-soccer-smokescreen-equatorial-guinea-s-abuses
Autocratic Kleptocracy Bleeding It's Democracy
Freedom House, the respected US think tank, places Equatorial Guinea alongside Burma, North Korea and Somalia on its list of the world's worst regimes, a ruthless one-party state where elections are stolen, opponents jailed and state coffers looted, control of daily life is all-pervasive and the government is accused of grotesque human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial killings.
“Press freedom is severely limited in Equatorial Guinea, despite constitutional protections. Journalists who criticize the president, his family, or the security forces face reprisals and usually exercise self-censorship. Government press censorship is authorized by a 1992 law. Opposition party and exile group websites, along with Facebook, were blocked, presumably by the government, in the lead-up to the 2013 elections. Libel remains a criminal offense. There are only a handful of private newspapers or magazines, but they face intense financial and political pressure and are unable to publish regularly. The only private radio and television network belongs to the president’s son, Teodorín. The government on occasion has imposed news blackouts about subjects such as the Arab Spring uprisings.”
University professors and teachers have reportedly lost their positions due to their political affiliations; one such professor was Enrique Nsolo Nzo, who was fired from his post at the National University of Equatorial Guinea after being beaten, detained, and released without charge on May 8, 2014 while preparing a banner for a political demonstration. The government reportedly uses informants and electronic surveillance to monitor members of the opposition, nongovernmental organizations, and journalists, including the few members of the foreign press in the country.
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2014/equatorial-guinea-0#.VIsOxmfn73E
The Freedom House Think tank website has a very useful tool, a drop down text box, easy in that once a visitor is on a particular country's page, by changing the year date in the text box, the archived human rights record and politics for any country can be viewed, at the time of published data, and all in greater detail as one goes further back in time. Any current year is enriched with new scandals, or amended DOJ investigations, new oil and gas deals, and more world scrutiny.
If one were to follow the next link, there is a story that reads like a movie. 3 European Diplomats visited the country, and by the questions posed to Obiang, the responses make the President seem almost drunk on his own Orwellian doublespeak. But the view taken in by the diplomats, and conversations are graphically described.
“We try to use the resources with all possible transparency to develop the country for the welfare of the country." That's the "dynamic democracy" of Equatorial Guinea, replete with “free elections with all the transparency possible."
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/23/equatorial-guinea-africa-corruption-kleptocracy
The Breadth Of Corruption
-According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, nearly 20% of foreign bribery cases analyzed involved the extractive industries.
-Africa loses $148 billion per year to corruption, far more than it receives in aid, according to the African Union.
-More than 60 percent of the world’s poorest people live in countries rich in natural resources, but they rarely share in the wealth.
-In Africa, an estimated $50 billion every year is lost to illicit financial flows. This is equal to 5.7 percent of Africa’s GDP, and exceeds public spending on health.
http://politicsofpoverty.oxfamamerica.org/2014/12/corruption-is-like-bad-breath-mining-extractives/
Equatorial Guinea, the small, oil-rich country has yet again stepped up to host the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) soccer tournament, which it also hosted three years ago. In 2014, when the government intimidated and detained two Financial Times journalists and confiscated their notes and equipment.
http://blogs.ft.com/the-world/2014/01/reporting-back-equatorial-guinea/
Ahead of CAN 2012, the Obiang government detained, censored, and effectively expelled German journalists for straying beyond the subject of soccer, deleting or confiscating footage.
https://cpj.org/2011/06/equatorial-guinea-deletes-german-tv-crews-footage.php
A petition regarding Journalists rights has subsequently been posted, and signed by many.
https://cpj.org/campaigns/digital-freedom/right-to-report-sign-petition.php
“The government appeared to block access to websites maintained by the domestic political opposition and exiled groups and to social media in the months leading up to the May elections. Users attempting to access these sites were redirected to the government’s official press website. The government denied responsibility for the blockage. The internet replaced broadcast media as the primary way opposition views were expressed and disseminated. The most overt criticism of the government came from the country’s community in exile. According to International Telecommunications Union statistics, 14 percent of individuals used the internet in 2012.” From Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2013 Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, United States Department of State
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/220320.pdf
But A Drop In The Bucket - In a recent settlement filed in U.S. district court in Los Angeles, in October 2014, Equatorial Guinea Second Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang agreed to give up a $30-million house with a view of the ocean, to settle corruption claims by federal prosecutors.
http://www.pipelinedreams.org/2014/10/teodoro-nguema-obiang-loses-his-malibu-mansion/
The settlement with Obiang, who is the son and heir apparent to the nation's president, is part of an expanding Justice Department effort, officials call it the "Kleptocracy Initiative", to crack down on corrupt foreign officials who steal money and use it to live the high life in the U.S.
http://www.latimes.com/local/crime/la-me-malibu-kleptocrat-20141011-story.html
Overall, the anti-corruption initiative, promoted by Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. and involving dedicated teams from the FBI and Justice Department, has seized nearly $600 million in assets from officials of Nigeria, Taiwan, South Korea, Afghanistan, Brazil, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, Justice Department officials said Friday.
Of the $30 million expected from the sale of the Malibu mansion, a third will go directly to the U.S. government and the rest to a charity to benefit the people of Equatorial Guinea.
In this brilliant video-illustration, “EG Justice and the celebrated artist, Ramon Esono Ebale explain the most relevant details of the U.S. Department of Justice cases against Teodoro Nguema Obiang Teodorin, Vice-President, Senator, and son of the president of Equatorial Guinea.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxDj1mAwFFE
Preceding the October 2014 settlement case, a joint letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, signed by the Open Society Justice Initiative and three other civil society groups, commends the US Justice Department’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative for its bid to seize over $70m in corruptly-acquired goods from Nguema Obiang, in twin legal actions filed before federal courts in California and the District of Columbia.
The joint letter submitted to Attorney General Holder urges the Justice Department to “ensure that the terms of any settlement do not undermine the Kleptocracy Initiative’s stated commitment to showing that the United States will not be a hiding place for the ill-gotten riches of the world’s corrupt leaders.”
To that end, the four groups are urging that any settlement:
1) Ensures that the Obiang family does not retain de facto control over any seized assets that are intended to benefit the people of Equatorial Guinea, as the victims of Obiang’s corrupt practices;
2) Puts in place effective protections to prevent reprisals against potential beneficiaries of the agreement;
3) Does not contain language that would in any way exonerate Teodorin Obiang; and
4) Requires the release and safe exit from Equatorial Guinea of Roberto Berardi, a former business associate of Teodorin Nguema Obiang with information that could corroborate key allegations in the Justice Department’s case. Mr. Berardi has been imprisoned in the country since January 2013 and subject to abuse.
http://www.egjustice.org/post/civil-society-urges-caution-eg-settlement
On December 3, 2014, Transparency International released its 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index, which ranks countries based on their perceived level of corruption. However, Equatorial Guinea, which for the last two years has ranked 163rd out of 174 and 177 countries, respectively, was not included in the 2014 index due to the lack of data available to analysts.
http://www.egjustice.org/post/eg-too-opaque-rank-0
“This omission from Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index confirms that Equatorial Guinea remains one of the most opaque nations in the world,” said Tutu Alicante, Executive Director of EG Justice. The people of Equatorial Guinea deserve a government that is open, accountable, democratic, and that respects fundamental human rights.
“To include a country on the index, Transparency International analyzes at least three reliable data sources from credible organizations. This year, the anticorruption organization was unable to find a third source of information for Equatorial Guinea. The absence of one single source such as the African Development Bank made it impossible to get the necessary three sources to be ranked compared to last year's available sources. Compare this to neighboring Cameroon (ranked toward the bottom of the index at 136th), where Transparency International was able to identify eight reliable data sources.”
“The absence of information and continued lack of transparency in Equatorial Guinea does not bode well for the country’s renewed bid to join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. Equatorial Guinea was accepted as an EITI candidate country in 2007, but the process ended after the EITI Board denied the country’s request for an extension to complete EITI Validation. According to Mr. Alicante, the Equatoguinean Government should take this notable absence as an indication of the progress it needs to achieve, if it is serious its EITI candidacy. It needs to start producing and publishing reliable data.”
http://www.egjustice.org/post/eg-too-opaque-rank-0
On March 11, 2009 a new report detailed resource mismanagement, the amounts of hidden money, complicit banking corruption, international and host country facades of legal reforms; all which served to blow the lid off a long held secret of entrenched rogue regimes and recurring 'civil wars'.
Astonishing Investigations: “Undue Diligence: How Banks Do Business With Corrupt Regimes”
“Undue Diligence, names some of the major banks who have done business with corrupt regimes. By accepting these customers, banks are assisting those who are using state assets to enrich themselves or brutalize their own people. This corruption denies the world's poorest people the chance to lift themselves out of poverty and leaves them dependent on aid. The report sets out what governments, regulators and banks need to do in order to tackle this complicity with corruption.”
“People in the world's richest countries are rightly angry at the increasing job losses and house repossessions. What is less understood is that for much longer, failures by banks and the governments that regulate them have caused untold damage to the economies of some of the poorest countries in the world.”
HSBC and Banco Santander hid behind bank secrecy laws in Luxembourg and Spain to frustrate US efforts to find out if Equatorial Guinea's oil revenues had been looted and laundered.
Citibank facilitated the funding of two vicious civil wars in neighboring Sierra Leone and Liberia by enabling the warlord Charles Taylor, now on trial for war crimes in the Hague, to loot timber revenues.
http://www.globalwitness.org/library/undue-diligence-how-banks-do-business-corrupt-regimes
Out Of Africa; Decades Of Third World Exploitation For Billions In Profits
From “Cocoa Fields to Oil Fields in Equatorial Guinea” By Augustin Velloso
“Until very recently, the West African country of Equatorial Guinea had always been an exporter of agricultural, timber, and mineral products. In the 1990s oil started flowing from offshore fields, and nowadays oil comprises 90% of the country’s exports.”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2003/11/01/from-cocoa-fields-to-oil-fields-in-equatorial-guinea/
From Spanish Colony To Cash Empire: Another Case Of Genocide
Equatorial Guinea achieved independence from Spain in 1968. Current president Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo seized power in 1979 after deposing and executing his uncle, the country’s first president, Francisco Macías Nguema.
“The Equatoguinean strongman and his Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) have remained firmly entrenched in power. The discovery and exploitation of offshore hydrocarbon resources has allowed Obiang to amass a vast personal fortune, bolstering his domestic position and making him largely impervious to calls from abroad to implement meaningful political reforms.”
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2012/equatorial-guinea#.VIn0bp2572Y
Encyclopedia Britannica states simply that The original inhabitants of Bioko are the Bubi, descendants of Bantu migrants from the mainland. The Bubi, unlike the other ethnic groups of the country, are a matrilineal society, wherein children inherit property from their mother. Early contacts with Europeans decimated the Bubi until only a few thousand remained early in the 20th century. During the colonial era they became the most pro-Spanish element of the African population, as they viewed the end of Spanish rule as a signal for the invasion of their island by the majority Fang. Indeed, significant numbers of mainlanders, most of them Fang, have flocked to Bioko since the mid-1960s. Following independence, Pres. Francisco Macías Nguema (ruled 1968–79), himself a Fang, harshly persecuted the Bubi people. Many Bubi, including accused separatists as well as most Bubi politicians, were killed in a campaign that some observers have called genocide.
Transfer Of Power, But Autocratic Rule Remains The Same
“In the first year of his rule Nguema murdered one sixth of the population of Equatorial Guinea. By 1975, 80,000 people were dead and a third of the country had fled. During Nguema’s presidency the country was nicknamed the Auschwitz of Africa.”
“Francisco Macias Nguema ordered the death of thousands of political opponents, closed churches, banned Christianity, and persecuted the Bubi ethnic minority – a group of the Bantu ethnic group with a long history of persecution. Like the Khmer Rouge, Nguema’s forces killed everyone who wore glasses, as he was afraid of an educated elite. Eventually, in 1975, this fear prompted him to close down all schools in the region. In paranoia, he banned the use of the world “intellectual.” By the end of his rule nearly all the educated class was executed or forced into exile.”
http://www.risefromashes.org/tag/francisco-macias-nguema/
The blog goes on to note in June 2014 that nothing has changed for the people of the country. Visit the blog, Rise From Ashes, one caring person's investigation into genocide. The September 2, 2014 post, “As American As Genocide” covers experiences of the Native Americans.
Equatorial Guinea Justice
“At current extraction rates and proven reserves, the country’s oil reserves will run out in 20 years. Thus, only a small window of opportunity exists to use oil profits to curb the nation’s widespread poverty.”
“The web page Equatorial Guinea Justice, works to promote human rights, the rule of law, transparency, and civic participation to build a just Equatorial Guinea. Equatorial Guinea, a country slightly smaller than Belgium, is the third largest oil-exporting nation in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2008, its government received $6 billion from the sale of oil and natural gas, an amount equivalent to $9000 for each of the country's 660,000 citizens. Despite this extraordinary resource wealth, however, the vast majority of Equatoguineans live in poverty on less than $2 per day.”
http://www.egjustice.org/
“Obiang dissolved the parliament in February 2008 and called legislative and municipal elections for May. A new coalition composed of the PDGE and nine smaller parties won a reported 100 percent of the vote in many districts, taking 99 out of 100 seats in the parliament amid allegations of widespread irregularities. The Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS), the sole opposition party, was reduced from two seats to one.”
“Obiang swept the November 2009 presidential elections with 95.4 percent of the vote, although as with past balloting, the election was widely regarded as rigged. The president’s main opponent, CPDS leader Plácido Micó Abogo, received less than 4 percent of the vote. The new government appointed in January 2010 included nearly all of the previous cabinet members, and the creation of many new junior minister posts increased the total size of the cabinet by 50 percent. Obiang’s son and reportedly favored successor, Teodoro (known as Teodorín) Nguema Obiang Mangue, retained the agriculture and forests portfolio, was promoted to minister of state, and became vice president of the PDGE. After the changes, members of the president’s family held 11 ministerial posts.”
“There was a dramatic increase in arbitrary arrests and police raids in the months leading up to the country’s hosting of the June 2011 meeting of the 17th African Union Summit. In addition to the detention of approximately 100 students in the city of Bata, police raided neighborhoods with high foreign-born populations. Some observers attributed the crackdown to pre-emptive government efforts to prevent any manifestations of political unrest during the summit.”
“Equatorial Guinea’s abundant oil revenues do not reach the majority of its citizens. According to the Centre for Global Development, 77 percent of the population lives on less than two dollars a day. As Human Rights Watch noted, the government spent four times as much money building facilities to host the African Union summit in 2011 than it did on education in 2008.”
Political Rights and Civil Liberties:
Equatorial Guinea is not an electoral democracy. The 2009 presidential election that resulted in President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo securing a new, seven-year term reportedly featured intimidation and harassment of the opposition by security forces and restrictions on foreign observers. Power rests firmly in the hands of Obiang and his supporters,
Obiang's PDGE regime has little tolerance for political dissent. Equatoguinean security agents closely monitor suspected Obiang opponents, including members of the CPDS.
As with politics, Obiang and his inner circle dominate Equatorial Guinea’s economic landscape, and graft is rampant. Most major business transactions cannot transpire without involving an individual connected to the regime. Transparency International’s 2011 Corruption Index ranked Equatorial Guinea 172 out of 183 countries surveyed. Information networks have all but been closed, jailed, or intimidated, and in 2014, Equatorial Guinea couldn't even be ranked.
Why haven't We Heard More On Corruption And Human Rights Abuses In Equatorial Guinea?
Although the constitution guarantees media freedom, the 1992 press law authorizes government censorship. Libel remains a criminal offense, and the government requires all journalists to register with state officials. A few private newspapers are published irregularly but face intense financial and political pressure. The government holds a monopoly on broadcast media, with the exception of RTV-Asonga, a private radio and television outlet owned by Obiang’s son.
In mid-February 2011, the Equatoguinean regime forbade media outlets from reporting on the political unrest in the Arab world, even suspending the host of a French-language radio program, Juan Pedro Mendene, for briefly mentioning Libya during a March broadcast. Mendene was then reportedly assaulted by the bodyguard of the secretary of state for radio and television information while leaving the station. In June, security personnel arrested and then deported three journalists from a German television station who had interviewed CPDS leader Plácido Micó Abogo and recorded some footage of an impoverished Malabo neighborhood.
Petro-dollars And Petro-states: The Basis For Corruption
Although oil was first discovered in the 1960’s, it was first produced offshore in 1991 from the Alba oilfied discovered by Mobil. But oil companies have a history of supplying cash and lavish gifts to leaders of countries whose oil reserves they want to exploit. Bribery of foreign officials was outlawed in 1977 under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, after SEC investigations led more than 400 U.S. companies to admit that they had made questionable or illegal payments in other countries. The act outlaws payments to foreign officials for the purpose of obtaining or keeping business.
In Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony, human rights activists said the oil companies' payments there have helped prop up Obiang, who has ruled since seizing power in a military coup in 1979. US State Department reports have for years cited the regime for human rights violations, including torture, beatings and abuse of prisoners and suspects, sometimes resulting in death.
Production of liquified natural gas (LNG) began in 1997, using wet gas from Alba field. In March 1995, Zafiro field was discovered in Block B with an eventual production rate of 100,000 bpd. Zafiro oilfield is Equatorial Guinea’s major oil producer. Additional discoveries were made on Block B, including Jade, Topacio, Amatista, Rubi and Serpentina. In 1999, a deepwater field, La Ceiba with estimated reserves as high as 300 to 500 million barrels was discovered by Triton Energy and Energy Africa in Block G of the Rio Muni Basin. In mid 2000, Chevron and Vanco Energy signed production sharing contracts for the deepwater Block L and Corisco Block respectively. http://www.mbendi.com/indy/oilg/af/eq/p0005.htm
Chevron signed a five-year Production Sharing Contract with the Republic of Equatorial Guinea in West Africa to explore for oil offshore in water up to 2,000 meters deep, and is listed with several partners as the 'operator' in many offshore blocks (Angola, Nigeria, Liberia, and Equatorial Guinea).
The offshore Block L contract area covers 4,250 sq km (1,640 square miles). The work program includes seismic acquisition and exploration drilling. Chevron, which held a 100 percent interest in the block, had plans to establish an office in Equatorial Guinea.
At the time, circa 2000, Chevron company was one of Africa's largest operators, producing more than 900,000 bpd of oil and natural gas liquids, primarily from Nigeria and Angola.
http://www.gasandoil.com/news/africa/18993c303f15a893793861b5e0c1c538
Then in 2003-2004, in a case that would last last until 2010, the corruption and bribery were exposed... and well there were a few fines, Riggs the banker went to prison, and afterwords, new leases were awarded, but in a glimmer of hope, in one bright shining moment, the Transparency Initiative was to come out of the scandal.
U.S. Oil Firms Entwined in Equatorial Guinea Deals
Riggs Probe Led to SEC Inquiry on Corruption, Profiteering By Justin Blum
Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, September 7, 2004;
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1101-2004Sep6.html
“Business activities provided a picture of how oil companies have operated in a developing country with a history of corruption. The companies paid for scholarships for children of the country's leaders, formed business ventures with government officials, hired companies linked to Obiang and rented property from government officials and their relatives, according to a U.S. Senate report released in July that reveals the companies' operations in striking detail. The report, which described the relationship between Riggs Bank of Washington and the oil firms operating in Equatorial Guinea, said the companies' actions raised concerns related to corruption and profiteering.”
“A Securities and Exchange Commission investigation included the three companies with the largest presence in the country; Exxon Mobil Corp., Amerada Hess Corp. and Marathon Oil Corp. (Texas) along with ChevronTexaco Corp., Devon Energy Corp. and CMS Energy Corp. The Senate report also cited activities of a private Ecuadoran company, Vanco Energy Co.”
“Companies' annual reports showed broadening investment in Equatorial Guinea. Since 1997, the amount of oil produced in Equatorial Guinea had increased seven times over, to about 360,000 barrels a day. The country in 2004 emerged as the third-largest producer in sub-Saharan Africa and derives most of its revenue from oil.”
Bribery Of Foreign Officials Has Been Outlawed - U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
Bribery of foreign officials was outlawed in 1977 under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, after SEC investigations led more than 400 U.S. companies to admit that they had made questionable or illegal payments in other countries. The act outlaws direct payments to foreign officials for the purpose of obtaining or keeping business.
In Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony, human rights activists said the oil companies' payments there have helped prop up Obiang, who has ruled since seizing power in a military coup in 1979. US State department reports have for years cited the regime for human rights violations, including torture, beatings and abuse of prisoners and suspects, and in more than a few cases - resulting in death.
A State Department report published in 2013 concluded that most of the money generated by the oil companies' presence has not benefited average residents in the country of 500,000. Most of the country's oil wealth "appears to be concentrated in the hands of top government officials while the majority of the population remained poor."
“The monthly minimum wage is 129,035 CFA ($260) for all workers in the country. While many formal sector companies paid more than the minimum wage, workers in the informal sector and domestic workers were not covered under the minimum wage law. By law hydrocarbon industry workers received salaries many times higher than those in other sectors. The government does not have an established poverty line and does not publish estimates of poverty. Forced labor, particularly forced child labor, occurred. Children were transported from nearby countries – primarily Nigeria, Benin, Cameroon, Togo, and Gabon – and forced to work as domestic servants, market laborers, ambulant vendors, and launderers. Women from Cameroon, Benin, and other neighboring countries were recruited for work, but some were subsequently subjected to forced labor.”
And that's that... business as usual. Bribes are still commonplace, perhaps in smaller installments, and not as conspicuously overt as before, but arrests, fines and penalties are few. Even with the best intent, the good remains mired in the bad.
The Game Is Chess, Not Checkers
Unocal, ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, BP. Devon, Marathon, Petrobas, Petronas, SINOPEC, TOTAL, Royal Dutch Shell, Gazprom, ConoccoPhillips, and subsidiaries all, have divided the world into toxic zones for the sake of not only profit, but dependence, total dependence. US players almost always have a presence, and economic investment and percent share, in deepwater, and shallow waters offshore globally, for 30 years or more. And now they are going deeper and further offshore. Western corporations may have led the way in the shale revolution but the game behind the game, remains the same.
As some may know, TOTAL and Chevron were (are) partners partners in the Yadana pipeline through Burma (Myanmar), another story of unparalleled riches and repression. The Yadana Pipeline Project and Human Rights Abuses are nearly synonymous.
TOTAL is a French company, once known as TotalFinaElf, a multi-national oil group, and a very advanced global hydrocarbon company. Just this month, TOTAL unvielled a new $9 Billion dollar production vessel, an oil storage, production and offloading unit (FPSO) for it's CLOV project (Cravo, Lirio, Orquidea and Violeta) in Angola.
http://www.ventures-africa.com/2014/12/total-unveils-9bn-drilling-vessel/
Angola is Africa’s largest oil producing country.
“CLOV went into production in July and has 34 undersea wells with maximum production capacity of 160,000 barrels of oil daily. The project covers an area of 380 square kilometres and holds an estimated reserves of 505 million barrels of oil and a 20-year life span.”
“Total’s businesses covers the entire oil and gas chain; from upstream exploration activities to downstream distribution and trade. Total is also a large-scale chemicals manufacturer.
In January 2014, Total became the first major oil and gas firm to acquire exploration rights for shale gas in the UK after it bought a 40 percent interest in two licenses in the Gainsborough Trough area of northern England for $48 million.”
Offshore Flaring
Flaring has gone around the world onshore and offshore in immense volumes, unregulated global warming, VOCs, hydrogen sulfide, and numerous toxins. Continuous flaring, goes on unabated offshore around the world. Many offshore oil and gas sites proudly boast pictures of the flaring lighting up the rig and surrounding surface ocean waters. And no doubt adding a degree or two of temperature increase.
Unless a market could be created onshore, to use the natural gas, capture was never intended by the industry. The Ogoni in the Niger Delta, just as those who lived in Ecuador during the production there, and survived, have suffered devastating health consequences. Production still goes on in Nigeria, and the environment and flora and fauna continue to be polluted by the flaring.
Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Angola, Liberia
And these countries represent only the West African drilling landscape, and has for 30 years or more. As for the eastern continent, offshore of countries like Mozambique, the blocks are being developed by Asia (mostly).
2012, Bribery And Political Clout In A Dangerous Game
In Liberia, delaying a major economic investment has real consequences. One of the poorest countries on the planet, Liberia ranked 182 out of 187 countries and territories on the U.N. Human Development Index last year. More than 80 percent of the population survives on less than $1.25 a day.
In a report, by ProPublica and Foreign Policy in February 2012 titled:
“Follow the Money: Payment Trail Reveals Challenges of Ridding Liberia of Corruption”
http://www.propublica.org/article/follow-the-money-payment-trail-reveals-challenges-of-ridding-liberia-of-cor
“Five months before she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, known as 'The Iron Lady' welcomed Chevron CEO John Watson into the executive mansion to herald one of the largest investments in her country since the end of its devastating civil war in 2003: Chevron’s purchase of the rights to explore for oil off the coast of the West African nation, adding "The hallmark of your administration has been anti-corruption, transparency, rule of law. We look forward, at Chevron, to helping you establish that high integrity method of doing business in this country."
But one of the Liberian government’s own anti-corruption watchdogs, states Chevron’s investment was tainted even before the multinational oil giant paid its first dollar. According to a report of the auditor general of the Liberian General Auditing Commission (GAC), a series of bribes was allegedly paid in 2006 and 2007 so that the legislature would grant two small firms the rights to four oil concessions off Liberia’s coast. One of those companies, which purchased rights to three offshore properties, sold its concessions to Chevron.
http://gacliberia.com/doc/nocal.pdf
The Quandary
The U.S. government, Chevron, and Liberian President Sirleaf all voiced concerns about the alleged corruption, each for their own stated reasons. The U.S. government has invested more than $84 million over the last five years in a variety of anti-corruption and good-governance programs in Liberia.”
“Chevron wanted no legal liability. And Sirleaf, who was then heading into the campaign for her second term, had made fighting corruption a major part of her election pitch. But each of these players also had other interests. Chevron wanted the lucrative oil reserves that might lie in the offshore blocks. The United States wanted a U.S. company to have access to this strategically important potential energy source. Sirleaf wanted the economic development that would come of the deal, and she wanted that development spearheaded by a company subject to America’s strict anti-corruption laws.”
Chevron's, concern was its exposure to U.S. legal action under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). "Chevron doesn’t have any liability for its pre-acquisition conduct," Philip Urofsky, a former federal prosecutor who pursued FCPA cases at the Justice Department. “As for Oranto, Broadway, and NOCAL, they are not American companies and were not subject to FCPA at the time of the payments. So the primary risk to Chevron, was these companies’ current and future actions: If there’s any ongoing conduct, then that could very much become an ongoing problem."
“After the bribes became public a tale of compromise and competing priorities depicts the difficulty in trying to root out corruption even when a Nobel-laureate president has made that one of her main goals. The United States had spent more than $84 million on and anti-corruption programs in Liberia.”
Chevron states that it's company’s engagement with the Liberian Government in relation to the offshore blocks has been made in accordance with all applicable legal and regulatory requirements. ExxonMobil has said its agreement is subject to due diligence.
Chevron later acquired 70 percent of Oranto’s stake in the offshore properties; the terms of that deal are not known. But in August 2010, Chevron was added to the allegedly bribe-tainted contract between Oranto and NOCAL that the legislature had ratified back in 2009. Chevron gained the rights to develop the three offshore blocks, and it agreed to pay almost $10 million to provide Canadian Overseas Petroleum with $55 million upfront, and up to $42 million to cover exploration and "venture" costs. A spokesman for ExxonMobil would not comment beyond saying, "The agreement is subject to due diligence and government approval."
In April 2012, Chevron began it's drilling program in the first well in these blocks off the Liberian coast, none of the individuals involved in the alleged bribery has been prosecuted in connection with the payments. The $118,400 in alleged bribes was never returned. And the contracts have not been canceled, as the auditor general recommended, but remain in place.”
When Transparency International released its December 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index; Liberia had dropped four spots from the previous year, and Robert Sirleaf, the president’s son, was named chairman of the board of NOCAL.
According to the ProPublica and Foreign Policy report, Marshall City, is a community of thatch huts on Liberia’s Atlantic coast at the terminus of a crimson mud road as of 2012, the 13,000 residents lived without running water or electricity, save for the few who could afford generators.
According to the United Nations, almost two-thirds of Liberia’s GDP is generated from fishing, agriculture, and forestry, much of it at the subsistence level. But, there are concerns for the future, the people say that the ocean is no longer producing.
But when ProPublica asked for a detailed accounting of these social development funds, to see what entities received money, both Chevron and NOCAL offered only general background on the spending. And as many predicted, or at least felt was only a matter of time, by September 22, 2013 the Iron Lady's son had to resign and account for exactly $10.5 million dollars.
The world can be thankful there are human rights watchdogs and groups, serving by their actions, working to the benefit of the many preyed upon indigenous peoples and poor peoples of all colors and displaced people (and animals, fish, entire ecosystems, the environment) and hold the corporations accountable for remediation.
From the Press Release: “Liberia: Robert A. Sirleaf Resignation”
September 23, 2013 Global Witness, All Africa
http://allafrica.com/stories/201309240800.html
“We have followed, with keen interest and indignation, the various debates regarding potential oil discovery in Liberia. We are sadly aware how our country is being rigged, and how the future of our oil industry is been mortgaged by the First Family of Liberia. While we welcome the resignation of the President's son, Mr. Robert Alvin Sirleaf, as Chairman of the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL) and Senior Advisor to the President, we believe the action is belated and is a face-saving measure. Mr. Robert Sirleaf should not had been appointed to those positions in the first place for reasons of nepotism, conflict of interest, and lack of professional competence especially with the oil industry. Furthermore, the President's insinuation that Mr. Sirleaf has resigned because he has "completed" his tasks is a mockery, and is inconsistent with good governance practices and completely at variance with reality.”
“Not a single reform has been initiated and completed at NOCAL. NOCAL is still in the form and manner when Mr. Sirleaf was appointed a member of the Board and later promoted as Chairman of the Board, nearly 4 years ago. More besides, the Petroleum Bill and the NOCAL Bill that were drafted by a "World Bank Consultant", which Mr. Sirleaf claimed in various statements as "achievements", are yet to be passed into law, and hence cannot be considered achievements or reforms.”
“Mr. Sirleaf should give full accounting of the $10.5 million social contribution from Chevron. On February 22, 2012 Big Oil, Small Country, PROPUBLICA/Foreign Policy Magazine Reported that "Marshall's future , like that of hundreds of rural towns that line the coast near the oil concessions, may depend on the deal Chevron has struck, specifically the $10.5 million in community-development funds intended to go directly to the Liberian people. Government officials have held meetings with the Marshall community, promising improvements in education and health care.”
"When a Chevron corporate responsibility team visited Liberia, President Sirleaf "emphasized to Chevron that no CSR [corporate social responsibility] funds should come through the GOL [government of Liberia] budget," an October 2010 U.S. diplomatic cable noted. The president hoped "to avoid many of the governance issues that had emerged when previous corporate development money was funneled through local government offices," according to the cable. But when ProPublica asked for a detailed accounting of these social development funds, to see what entities received money, both Chevron and NOCAL offered only general background on the spending."
Once again, keeping it all in the family. Often it seems there are two ethnic groups in these small countries, (and possibly numerous very small groups, with their own languages) but the two groups – one is the oppressor, and the family always rules the jewels, the kids get educated so they can come back and swindle the country's riches in style. And we must realize, everyone of us who buys fuel, that we are funding this oppression. And now it comes full circle.
The global transnationals have managed to change US laws so foreign owned and foreign state-owned companies (as in dictatorial regimes, autocratic democracies) can own drilling rights to minerals on US soil and in the Gulf Of Mexico.
“From Washington To Wall Street It's Like One Big Dollar Store” Jackson Browne
The Alberta pipelines for LNG export, and the LNG export facilities themselves are being driven by foreign investment from China, and Malaysia. Read my most recent article, which continues a series on 'Communists and Capitalists Working Together, Drilling The Midwest':
Pacific NorthWest LNG - North American LNG Exports - B.C. Won't Even Get The Jobs
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/12/05/18765078.php
America's Resources For America, but in China it sounds like this;
It's Our LNG!
Tomas DiFiore
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STEAM INJECTION IS LITERALLY GLOBAL WARMING
constant comments, and informative research links;
http://banslickwaterfracking.blogspot.com/
Tomas DiFiore
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