posted
The recently concluded AU conference brings to mind the issues that are immediately relevant to the African continent and maybe its overseas populations.
The local and international news have been full of the idea of a supra-national Pan African government revived[Nkrumah's original idea for supranational institutions such as a Pan-African High Command(army), Pan-African banks, etc.] by Kaddafi of Libya. We are told that there are some states that endorsed the idea and wanted to implement such as soon as possible(Senegal, Gabon, e.g.) and others that wanted to move more cautiously--starting with strengthening regional organisations such as SADEC,ECOWAS, etc.
Maybe we are not getting the full details from the international news organisations but both approaches are adoptable according to specific issues--without any need for controversy.
There is an urgent need for continental creation of institutions such as research institutes in scientific research, medical research, archaeology, etc. Think of the fact that a continent of some 900 million people cannot yet fund at least 3 supranational research institutes in Egyptology and African archaelogy to match those of much smaller population centres such France, Britain and Germany.
In fact, there is no need for much debate in terms of the kind of model to implement. Nkrumah of post-independence Ghana thought up the idea of African unity but his idea was borrowed by Europe and is now fully implemented by the European Union.
The immediate considerations for the EU were a single currency--now stronger than the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen and is perhaps the world's safest reserve currency--and the free movement of peoples from one end of Europe to the other. Hence lots of Polish people have been flooding into the U.K and Ireland in search of jobs and higher salaries. Many younger French people move to Britain for jobs while the retired or wealthier British seek residence in France and Spain. [Just check out the real estate section of the Financial Times to get the point]
To effect the free movements of people in Europe I believe that there's even an European EU passport. [In fact migrant Africans appreciate this because they can move from European country to country looking for jobs.]
So the question then is: why the big debate over the need to establish supranational units in Africa. This lack is most glaringly obvious over the shameful admission by African governments that they don't have the resources to send an effective contingent of only 20,000 men to do guard duty in Darfur, Sudan. Note that the U.S. has been quick to state that Africa cannot produce the needed forces for Darfur--therefore the U.N.--effectively a kind of World Government headed by the U.S. and the E.U--should do the job.
What is needed to get things moving would be the creation of a strong capital-providing African Central Bank with any number of regional branches. The problem here is that the only bank of that nature in Africa is the African Development Bank which is not an independent bank capitalised with African capital but one which is not much more than an appendage of Western capital producing units. Thus its agenda is dictated from Euro-America.
It is such a bank in consort with local African banks and governments that can fund development at all levels from infrastructure development to scientific research at the supranational level.
At the level that applies to most people, the problem of Africa boils down to 3 main issues: 1) weak inconvertible currencies--which means that goods imported into Africa must be paid for in Euro-American currencies, 2)high exchange rates--thereby leading to very low salaries in real economic terms, 3) high unmeployment rates--thereby leading to individuals hell-bent on getting to the high income, hard currency zomes of Europe and North America.
African governments take this situation as almost natural and that nothing can be done about it. They just seem to be mortally afraid of developing continental institutions in media[the BBC, Reuters, AP, RFI, etc. all dominate news dissemination about Africa], allowing the free movement of peoples[Europeans fly into places like Namibia at will while Africans must obtain visas; Africans in transit in Senegal and South Africa must obtain transit visas before embarking on their travel. Africans are routinely expelled from places like Ivory Coast, South Africa and Morocco], donating funds for suprantional research units for medical research into malaria and other ailments. Just terrified and transfixed, and waiting in robotic fashion for advice and orders from Europe and America[note France and the U.S. have troops stationed in Africa with hardly a shudder of embarrasment from African governments.]
African governments don't seem to have the will to demand payment for their products in African currencies such as the South African rand--which could easily become the reserve currency for all of Southern Africa including Zimbabwe. A single African currency that could be used for both intra-African and intra-continental trade would go a long way towards solving many of the problems that affect the continent.
The point is that when recources are relatively scarce conflicts invariably arise: politically ambitious men seek to seize governmental power and can easily recruit the unemployed and disgruntled to commit the necessary violence to attain their goals.
Question: why then don't African governments seeing the economic and political advantages that accrue to large supranational units such as the European Union, USA, China(1.3 billion people of different languages and cultures), Russia and Canada, don't just copy--with modifications--the E.U protocols?
Answer: the ruling groups that in power in most African countries have been already bought--like cheap goods--by the West. Such governments just don't want to wean themselves from the cheap fixes thrown to them by the EU and the USA.
So as usual the AU conference--despite Kadaffi's flamboyant entrance with a caravan of vehicles that traversed the Sahara all the way to Ghana--would amount to not much more than a waste of funds on silly chatter engaged in by platoons of "trousered negroes"[term used by British colonialists for Africans who were quick to wear European clothing]with little knowledge of anything beyond what was imparted tgo them by Western style education.
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
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The need for supranational units in a Western-dominated globalised world is borne out by the fact that the average African country of 53 such units has a population of less than 20 million with a a substantial number having populations of less than 12 million people. Consider the minuscule populations of places like Cape Verde, Lesotho, Gambia, Bostwana, Gabon, Mauritius, Reunion, Malawi, Eritrea, Swaziland, Togo, Liberia, etc.
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posted
Perhaps all of the immediate national problems should be fixed before anyone can start talking about "supranational".
Posts: 26320 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
To D, You are right in that ecah item to be "fixed" should be looked at on a case by case basis. The reason being that some items are more effciently fixed only when looked at supranationally. Examples are i) research centres, 2) energy sources, 3) agricultural planning, 4)normalisation standards and criteria for education.
Again, as I said, why reinvent the wheel. The idea of continental unity was first formulated Nkrumah then later borrowed and implemented by Europe in the form of the EU. The EU is working at the practical graassroots level: a single currency--everybody likes that; no hassles cross-border travel for job seeking--everybody likes that; supra-national European research entities such as CERN(particle physics research), etc, etc.
How would you like it if the U.S. were 50 independent nations with their own currencies and passports?
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
^ Yes, the EU was easy to form since most if not all European nations are more stable than those of Africa.
I think before any political supranational plan can come to fruition, African nations individually need to end its own poltical corruption first.
Posts: 26320 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
Africa do not need an African Union. Many African still believes in tribalism and most are not democratic.
Posts: 2088 | Registered: Feb 2007
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posted
An essentially nonsensical comment. Africans in general belong to "ethnicities", not "tribes"--a pejorative Eurocentric term--and for most it doesn't mean anything except each ethnicity comes in principle with a language. Ethnicity is overcome in many places with people also speaking the languages of other groups. In some places too there is a lot of intermarriage which means that people just don't care about ethnicity. It is just that selfish politicians often seek to exploit ethnic identities.
The U.S. is perhaps one of the most "tribal" places in the world with a long ongoing "tribal" conflict between whites and blacks. Throw in the sub-conflicts involving Native Americans, Asians, Hispanics(Cubans, Dominicans, Mexicans--each maintaining a specific "tribal" identity), Philippinos, Italians, etc. Yet its 50 states are all united under the greenback and one flag.
And corruption--the U.S. is perhaps the most openly coorupt nation in the world. Think of how its politicians and bought over with money. Think of the political pandering all plays off one "tribal identity" against others: gays, women, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Jews, etc.
What saves the U.S. is that it prints money not only for itself but for the whole world. African nations just don't have that kind of luxury.
Point is that human beings are human beings: they identify first with themselves, next with their families, then their ethnicities(or state or region), then their races--if there are different designated races--then their nation.
So the comments made in reply to my post are just moot.
The question is: what are the optimal modalities that would create the optimal conditions for the peoples of Africa? Free movement of peoples and goods transacted with one currency would seem to fit the bill--as it does for the U.S., China, Europe, Russia, etc. A supranational arbitration body would be necessary for this--hence the need for a supranational governing body.
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
Actually, the result of this was very interesting:
quote: A disappointed Libyan leader, Col. Muammar Gaddafi, left the AU Summit in Accra, Ghana, prematurely on Tuesday night after the majority of African leaders, including President Yoweri Museveni, rejected a call for the immediate creation of a United States of Africa.
The leaders only agreed to set up a committee to establish a roadmap and a time frame for a union government, according to the final declaration, reached after three days of behind-closed-doors debates.
They also agreed to carry out detailed studies to identify the "contents of the union government concept and its relations with national governments" as well as its "domains of competence and the impact of its establishment on the sovereignty of member states".
While emphasising that a United States of Africa was the AU's ultimate goal, the leaders committed themselves to accelerate the economic integration of regional blocs.
"We reintegrate our earlier decision on the rationalisation and strengthening of the regional economic communities and the harmonisation of their activities so as to lead to the creation of an African common market," the Accra Declaration reads.
"Regional economic communities, where possible, should be encouraged to engage in political integration," was added, at the instigation of Uganda.
Museveni had earlier pleaded for the strengthening of regional blocs such as the East African Community, arguing that Africa was too diverse for one government.
"While economically I support integration with everybody, politically we should only integrate with people who are either similar or compatible with us," he told the gathering on Monday.
"Insisting on political integration at the continental level will bring together incompatible linkages that may create tension rather than cohesion."
Uganda also insisted on involving the African people, including those in the Diaspora, in the processes leading to the formation of the union government.
"Whatever happens in relation to a continental government must be people-driven, a bottom-up approach," Museveni told The New Vision at the end of the summit.
In his closing address, AU chairman and Ghanaian President John Kufuor said the gathering had not produced winners or losers.
"We met in the debates with a commonality of perspective, a common vision in principle for the realisation of a union government.
"On that, there have been no differences and that will be welcome and reassuring for the African people who are awaiting the outcome of our debate."
But delegates present said heated debates had preceded the final outcome, with the summit split between Gaddafi and his allies, who insisted on the immediate formation of a continental government, and the rest of the continent, which supported gradual integration through regional blocs.
Gaddafi's allies, according to sources, included Senegal, Mali, Guinea-Conakry, Guinea-Bissau, Togo and Gabon.
The Libyan leader, dressed in a golden tunic and wearing sunglasses most of the time, reportedly angered several delegations by stating that he helped them in their liberation struggles and knew their countries better than them, accusing those who opposed his scheme of not being interested in developing.
He allegedly also caused unease when he proposed the immediate creation of continental ministries, beginning with a ministry of defence, which he proposed to head himself.
Surprisingly, some of Gaddafi's natural allies, such as Sudan, rejected the idea of a continental government now, arguing that they faced many problems which they were not even able to solve at a national level.
The majority of AU member states, led by Ethiopia, Uganda and South Africa, called the creation of a United States of Africa premature and unrealistic, arguing that it would require a change of constitution and a referendum.
Instead, leaders like Museveni proposed to move step by step, starting with building infrastructure across the continent and increasing trade among themselves.
Others noted that African countries had different levels of economic and political development, and lacked shared values such as democracy, good governance, respect for human rights and the rule of law. The dominant view can best be summarised by the statement of Botswana.
"It is a fallacy to talk of economic and political integration when the fundamentals among our countries are not the same," minister of foreign affairs Mompati Merafhe told the summit.
"Desirable as this union is, it would be imprudent to assume that it can be achieved overnight. We need to have an evolutionary process, not a revolutionary process. History is replete with rushed failures; we need not make the same mistakes."
Actually both positions are correct: the radical one and the more cautious conservative one.
The supposed split--again one has to be cautious about the news put out about the conference--reminds one of the 2 camps when Nkrumah proposed a Pan-African Union government many years ago. The more radical African governments supported him while those allied with the West opposed him.
What is very evident though--if reports are accurate--is the fact that there was no recognition that there is an immediate need for supranational entities such as the following:
1) A contintental media to perform the same function that the BBC and RFI(Radio France Internationale) presently do for the whole African continent and beyond. The news that Africans hear every day aout Africa comes from the British Broadcasting Corporation--a government run news entity.
In terms of television international and continental news that Africans view come f rom BBC and CNN.
Surely there can be pooling of resources to set set media entitities that match in scope those like BBC and CNN that offer the news but from the points of view and interests of the West.
Libya, Nigeria and South Africa could have proposed something concrete in this regard.
2)Nkrumah proposed a supranational High Command to perform the same functions that NATO does for the West. There are AU forces but it is an embarassment because Africa's Bantustan governments keep saying that they don't have the resources to police the continent as they should.
This military weakness gives the green light for a miliarily aggressive West--led by the U.S. using the UN as cover--to propose UN troops for Darfur.
Who knows what goes on behind closed doors? After all Ethiopia, which is close to Sudan, has a population of some 80 million people and can easily provide 20,000 troops for simple guard duty in Darfur. Nigeria(140 million) can easily provide another 20,000 troops, etc.
Kaddafi has enough spare cash to transport the troops over and help pay their salaries. But even so, such troops could easily be transformed into UN troops for Darfur. So there must be something missing here.
3) The AU attendees just do not recognise the need for a supra-national judiciary that would protect the rights of citizens in the AU member countries. Journalists especially! Stupidly self-absorbed and vain African heads of state have forced their judiciaries to promulgate laws that forbid journalist from publishing matters critical of the President, plus the comical law that prohibits journalists from "insulting the President". Recent case in point: the arrests of some journalists in Mali recently for "slandering the president". The worse thing that can happen to any country is to give lots of power to ordinary and ignorant persons. Another case in point Charles Taylor being tried by the Europeans at the Hague; and the on going legal problematic of Hissene Habre now holed up in Dakar.
4) There seems to have been little recognition of the need for supra-national entities to engage in scientific, medical and technological research. Libya, Nigeria, Gabon, Angola and South Africa with at least $300 million per annum to run such research centres.
5)And there was apparently little discussion on how to create a a strongly capitalised African central bank that would have the authority to issue a strong and convertible African currency. After all, capital is just ordinary paper, confidence, and a few signatures.
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Actually both positions are correct: the radical one and the more cautious conservative one.
The supposed split--again one has to be cautious about the news put out about the conference--reminds one of the 2 camps when Nkrumah proposed a Pan-African Union government many years ago. The more radical African governments supported him while those allied with the West opposed him.
What is very evident though--if reports are accurate--is the fact that there was no recognition that there is an immediate need for supranational entities such as the following:
1) A contintental media to perform the same function that the BBC and RFI(Radio France Internationale) presently do for the whole African continent and beyond. The news that Africans hear every day aout Africa comes from the British Broadcasting Corporation--a government run news entity.
In terms of television international and continental news that Africans view come f rom BBC and CNN.
Surely there can be pooling of resources to set set media entitities that match in scope those like BBC and CNN that offer the news but from the points of view and interests of
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
Actually both positions are correct: the radical one and the more cautious conservative one.
The supposed split--again one has to be cautious about the news put out about the conference--reminds one of the 2 camps when Nkrumah proposed a Pan-African Union government many years ago. The more radical African governments supported him while those allied with the West opposed him.
What is very evident though--if reports are accurate--is the fact that there was no recognition that there is an immediate need for supranational entities such as the following:
1) A contintental media to perform the same function that the BBC and RFI(Radio France Internationale) presently do for the whole African continent and beyond. The news that Africans hear every day aout Africa comes from the British Broadcasting Corporation--a government run news entity.
In terms of television international and continental news that Africans view come f rom BBC and CNN.
Surely there can be pooling of resources to set set media entitities that match in scope those like BBC and CNN that offer the news but from the points of view and interests of the West.
Libya, Nigeria and South Africa could have proposed something concrete in this regard.
2)Nkrumah proposed a supranational High Command to perform the same functions that NATO does for the West. There are AU forces but it is an embarassment because Africa's Bantustan governments keep saying that they don't have the resources to police the continent as they should.
This military weakness gives the green light for a miliarily aggressive West--led by the U.S. using the UN as cover--to propose UN troops for Darfur.
Who knows what goes on behind closed doors? After all Ethiopia, which is close to Sudan, has a population of some 80 million people and can easily provide 20,000 troops for simple guard duty in Darfur. Nigeria(140 million) can easily provide another 20,000 troops, etc.
Kaddafi has enough spare cash to transport the troops over and help pay their salaries. But even so, such troops could easily be transformed into UN troops for Darfur. So there must be something missing here.
3) The AU attendees just do not recognise the need for a supra-national judiciary that would protect the rights of citizens in the AU member countries. Journalists especially! Stupidly self-absorbed and vain African heads of state have forced their judiciaries to promulgate laws that forbid journalist from publishing matters critical of the President, plus the comical law that prohibits journalists from "insulting the President". Recent case in point: the arrests of some journalists in Mali recently for "slandering the president". The worse thing that can happen to any country is to give lots of power to ordinary and ignorant persons. Another case in point Charles Taylor being tried by the Europeans at the Hague; and the on going legal problematic of Hissene Habre now holed up in Dakar.
4) There seems to have been little recognition of the need for supra-national entities to engage in scientific, medical and technological research. Libya, Nigeria, Gabon, Angola and South Africa with at least $300 million per annum to run such research centres.
5)And there was apparently little discussion on how to create a a strongly capitalised African central bank that would have the authority to issue a strong and convertible African currency. After all, capital is just ordinary paper, confidence, and a few signatures.
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It's only because you tend to have interesting observations on the present state of the continent that the Ancient Egyptian, Kushites and other historical noteworthies once knew as home.
And since you took time to "post the news" your doing so was acknowledged by my follow-up.
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
Stop jumping on the USA. God has blessed the USA and that's why it is in good shape.
The real reason Africa cannot unify is because there are too many foreign interests pulling it in different directions. These foreign entities are in opposition and their African "colonies" are in opposition. The smaller regional trading blocs in Africa who were colonized by the same powers will do better.
The newest colonizer is China.
And the thing that will influence the next 3 decades in Africa , especially West Africa most of all is........
More and more of it is being found especially on Africa's west coast.
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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DAKAR, 23 February 2006 (IRIN) - On the eve of Mauritania’s oil production launch, the transitional government has installed a committee to oversee the use of revenue from oil and other natural resources to ensure it benefits the people.
“The time has come” for the average citizen to reap the benefits of the nation’s resources, the head of government said on Wednesday at an opening ceremony in the capital Nouakchott.
With Mauritania set to begin pumping oil any day, the world is watching to see whether the country will achieve what many others have pledged and failed to do - ensure that oil money reduces poverty and improves the lives of the masses.
In inaugurating the committee, Prime Minister Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar said: “The government is determined to take the necessary measures to prevent [the misuse of revenues as seen in other countries] and to guarantee that natural resource income contribute to economic development and the reduction of poverty.”
He said: “The time has come for the Mauritanian citizen to be able to gain from the exploitation of [the country’s] natural wealth on the basis of fairness and equality.”
In addition to its newfound oil stores, Mauritania has mineral resources such as iron ore and copper, and some of the richest fishing waters in the region. But the country’s wealth historically has not meant big benefits for the general population.
The new committee is part of the government’s endorsement of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative - an international mechanism for improving transparency and accountability in the use of natural resources. Analysts say the junta’s oft-stated commitment to EITI is a good sign, but that there must be national enforcement mechanisms in place for it to really count.
Since seizing power in a bloodless coup in August 2005, the junta has repeatedly vowed to bring forth a new era of openness and transparent democracy.
The committee comprises representatives of government, the oil industry and civil society, including the press, unions and NGOs. The initial makeup drew criticism from local and international observers who said while the process is laudable local civil society was not adequately represented. But on Thursday sources in Nouakchott said after appeals to the government, two civil society representatives were added to the panel, including one from a local NGO coalition.
Mauritania’s Chinguetti offshore oil field, in the Atlantic Ocean about 70 kilometres from Nouakchott, is expected to produce 75,000 barrels per day. Oil exploration is underway and more reserves are expected to be tapped in the coming years.
Mauritanians could use a boost from a fair share of petrodollars. Abject poverty is rampant in the Sahel country of some 2.9 million people, over half of whom live on subsistence agriculture and livestock.
But if precedent in the region is anything to go by, significantly improving the people’s living conditions through oil revenues would be quite a feat. Nigeria’s oil-producing south is one of the poorest regions in the country, and the government of Chad - one of Africa’s newest oil-producers - recently gutted a World Bank-backed framework meant to ensure that oil money benefit the poor and future generations. In a host of other countries, including Angola and Equatorial Guinea, oil has been far from a blessing for most.
The transitional government’s launching of the national EITI committee is another public demonstration of commitment to openness and good governance. Analysts say the thing to watch will be whether amid a booming oil trade, the junta will stick to its promise of handing power over to an elected civilian government by March 2007.
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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Senegal, Gambia and Guinea Bissau join vast new oil economies By Kofi Akosah-Sarpong
23-02-04 As the West African sub-region oil and gas potential opens up due to advanced technology, three West African countries-Senegal, Gambia and Guinea Bissau are joining regional states in the vast new oil economies currently brewing in the Gulf of Guinea. Republic of Congo's President Denis Sassou-Nguesso expressed high hopes about the increasing discovery of vast new oil reserves off the Gulf of Guinea and its implications to bring prosperity to the whole of West Africa when he said, "Our nation is working hard to attract joint investments by oil firms as part of our overall plan for development." Until recently Africa's three countries, Nigeria, Gabon and Angola, were tapping Africa's wealth. "Now the whole region from the Bight of Biafra in Nigeria to the Cabinda enclave in Angola is being viewed as a vast pool of oil," a United States official has said, as his country shift its energy focus to the Gulf of Guinea oil boom.
Senegal After 50 years of preparation, Senegal is now ready to become the next African oil and gas success story. For long lesser known, Senegal is one African state emerging to become the next significant oil producer, joining the fast emerging Gulf of Guinea oil and gas boom. Senegal has demonstrated it possesses many of the critical elements necessary for large-scale oil production. World-class source rocks exist and are mature and generative. Multiple play types exist, but many exploration wells were either drilled in lower potential plays or poorly sealed reservoirs. Recent work is focusing current exploration on higher potential play types in an effort to find significant reserve volumes believed to be present.
Petroleum exploration in Senegal began 50 years ago in 1952 with a surface geology survey resulting in the first exploration well being drilled in 1953. Since that time, nearly 150 wells have been drilled in the search for economic hydrocarbons. During the 1950s petroleum prospecting started and in the 1960s and 1970s a number of small fields were discovered. However, most of these were designated uneconomical at the time and not exploited. In the late 1970s, offshore exploration started again and a field of heavy crude oil of 1 bn barrels was discovered. Most wells failed, but there have been some small successes along the way.
According to J. Dombrowski, exploration manager of Fortesa International, a Texas-based oil company involved in the Senegalese exploration, "Discovery of 600-1,000 mm barrels of biodegraded oil in the Casamance salt basin of southern Senegal attests to a prolific petroleum system in the offshore environment. Sustained oil and gas production from the onshore Diam Niadio field and its satellites produced over 7 bn cf between 1986-1999. A discovery on trend with Diam Niadio in a new, but older reservoir, is about to go online and re-establish Senegal as a producing country." Of particular interest are the results of basin modelling conducted in select offshore and onshore areas. Capable of generating significant volumes of oil, it appears, are both offshore and onshore areas, with the upstream oil industry becoming increasingly important to the Senegalese economy. "Localized "hot spots" may be more gas prone.
Four Play Trends have been identified, evaluated and ranked. A re-examination of past wells and the plays they were drilled in has led to new insight as to which plays are most effective for trapping large volumes of hydrocarbons. This re-examination showed many wells (greater than 80 %) were drilled in the "leaky" part of the Near Shore/Deltaic Play Trend. “The best reservoirs are in the Slope Fan Play Trend," Dombrowski said, adding, "Future exploration should and will target deep-water Slope Fan Play opportunities. Another high potential play being developed is the Carbonate Bank/Reef Play Trend. This play trend is present all along the NW margin of Africa, and is often discussed as an exploration target. There have been very few tests of this play. Senegal is optimally positioned to test this play since it is the only local along the entire margin where the play trend comes onshore and could be drilled with relative low cost."
In 1981, Societe des Petroles du Senegal (Petrosen), the national oil company, was created by the government and is responsible for all hydrocarbon exploration activities. So far only one gas field-Diam Niadio 14-has been discovered. The gas is exported by pipeline to the Societe Nationale d'Electricite for its gas power stations. Current gas reserves are estimated to be 3 bn cm. According to the United States Department of Energy, Senegal produced and consumed 1.4 bn barrels of dry gas. Exploration is continuing offshore and onshore. The major exploration companies involved in Senegal include Vanco Energy, Roc Oil Company, Fusion Oil and Gas and Benton Oil and Gas.
Onshore Tullow Oil holds the Sebikhotane permit on the Dakar Peninsula in association with Petrosen and Saim. Tullow have subsequently withdrawn its interest in the Block. In 1960, the French-firm TotalFinaElf discovered the Dome Flore and Gea fields, which contains estimated reserves of 700 mm barrels of heavy crude, in waters offshore southern Senegal. The field lies in waters originally claimed by Senegal and Guinea-Bissau. An independent tribunal ruled in 1985 that the borders established by the colonial powers (France and Portugal) were still valid. Guinea-Bissau rejected the decision, and the country lodged an appeal with the International Court of Justice. In 1991, the ICJ upheld the Franco-Portuguese agreement that had established the then colonies' maritime boundaries.
Guinea-Bissau accepted the ruling, and in 1995 Senegal and Guinea-Bissau established the Agence de Gestion et de Cooperation (AGC) for the joint-development of oil and exploration and fishing in the disputed area. In accordance with the ICJ decision, the countries will split any proceeds earned from oil in the area, with Senegal receiving 85 % of the profits and Guinea-Bissau 15 %. If new oil reserves are later discovered the agreement would be revised accordingly. In May 1998, United States' Benton Oil and Gas signed an oil exploration/production agreement with the AGC to drill on the Dome Flore field. The AGC agreement on the sharing of oil resources was revised in August 2000. Under terms of the revision, Dakar is granted an 80 % interest and -Bissau will receive 20 %.
In February 2000, the Australian firm Fusion Oil & Gas was awarded one of four deepwater areas administered by the AGC. Fusion entered into an exclusive Technical Cooperation Agreement (TCA) with the AGC in December 1997. The TCA established a framework for a re-evaluation of the deepwater portion of the AGC area, in return for the opportunity to acquire acreage. The technical report has been completed and a license application is awaiting ratification by the AGC authorities. In December 1997, Benton signed a memorandum of understanding with Petrosen for a 45 % interest and operation of the onshore Thies block Benton also acquired from Petrosen the exclusive rights to evaluate and reprocess geophysical data for Senegal's shallow near-offshore acreage, and to choose certain blocks for further data acquisition and exploration drilling.
Benton's working interest in any offshore discovery will be 85 % with the remainder held by Petrosen. Vanco Energy, the Texas-based oil venture, signed a production sharing agreement (PSA) with the government of Senegal in October 1999. The PSA is for the Dakar Offshore Profond permit, a 7.9 mm acre (32,000 sq km), deepwater block that extends from Senegal's offshore boundary with Gambia to the Mauritanian border. The license is the largest concession to date in offshore Senegal, and the country's first deepwater award. Vanco is operator of the concession with a 90 % interest and Petrosen holds the remaining 10 %. Australia's Roc Oil signed a PSC with Senegal's Ministry of Energy and Mines in October 1999. The PSC gives Roc and Petrosen exclusive rights to explore the Casamance Offshore Blocks I, II and III for an initial period of three years, renewable for up to an additional four years.
The blocks, located offshore southern Senegal, cover a total area of 2 mm acres (8,187 sq km). Roc currently holds a 92.5 % interest (Petrosen 7.5 %) in the PSC but is currently in the process of assigning part of this interest to a third party. In accordance with economic structural reforms mandated by the ESAF and to increase the interest in hydrocarbon exploration in the country, Senegal issued a revised hydrocarbon law in 1998. The new code revised terms of exploration permit, including the length that a permit can be held and the provisions concerning extensions of permit licenses.
Guinea Bissau Already involved with Senegal in some exploration, Guinea-Bissau, a newcomer in the West African oil boom, has launched a licensing round at the end of 2001, following encouraging marine seismic surveys supported by the World Bank conducted during the 1980's. With its maritime border agreement with Senegal ratified in 1993, in December 1995 Bissau carried out joint oil exploration in the area estimated to have an offshore oil production potential of 7 mm tpy, although this is still in the exploration phase. Bissau has a small upstream oil industry that has been hindered in the past by civil unrest and border disputes with neighbouring Senegal. There is good potential for the upstream oil industry in Guinea-Bissau. The area offshore can be considered under-explored as only 10 wells have been drilled in this area during 40 years of exploration. The entire basin contains known source potential with the central portion of the area being the most prospective. There has been active exploration offshore Guinea-Bissau since the late 1960's when Esso drilled six wells.
Exploration has taken place since the early 1960s with a number of licensing rounds to promote the offshore acreage. The British's Premier Oil has teamed up with Canada's Petrobank and the Guinea-Bissau's state-owned oil company PetroGuin to drill an exploration well on the country's Block 2. In 1974, Guinea-Bissau gained its independence from Portugal and since then exploration has been frequently affected by civil unrest. Offshore exploration has been hampered by a boundary dispute with Senegal, which was not resolved until 1993. There have been intermittent drives to promote the offshore and a number of international companies have been involved in offshore exploration during the last 40 years. Amongst them are Esso, Elf, Pecten, Lasmo, Sipetrol of Chile, West Oil, Fusion Oil and Gas, Benton Oil and Gas and Petrobank Energy and Resources.
With the election of President Koumba Yala in February 2000, there has been another focus on the upstream oil industry. A licensing round is planned for the fourth quarter of 2000. PetroGuin, in association with First Exchange Corporation, is offering six of the existing seven offshore blocks to international bidders. Petrobank Energy and Resources currently hold the rights to the seventh block, Block 2 or Sinapa. On June 29, 2001 Petrobank announced that it has partnered with Premier Oil to drill an exploration well on Petrobank's Block 2 offshore Guinea-Bissau. Through funding 100 % of the cost of the exploration well, Premier will earn a 55 % interest in the Block, Petrobank will retain a 15 % interest with the remaining 30 % held by PetroGuin.
Premier will assume operatorship of the Block and drilled the well during the second quarter of 2002. The partners had earlier formally signed an agreement to begin work on offshore Blocks 4A and 5A immediately south of and adjacent to Block 2. The initial work commitment for the new blocks entails seismic reprocessing. The blocks contain several salt piercement structures similar to the main exploration target on Block 2. Combined, the three blocks comprise over 1.4 mm acres and lie approximately 80 miles offshore in water depths of 30 feet to over 3,000 feet. Ownership of the new blocks reflects the new Block 2 ownership interests.
Gambia Gambia has an infant upstream oil industry and exploration for hydrocarbons is taking place offshore Banjul. In 1998, West Oil held an offshore block under a Technical Cooperation Agreement (TCA) and Planet Energy held the rights to two blocks, Block A offshore and Block B onshore. In October 1999, Fusion Oil and Gas NL, with 90 % and Gambia 10 %, signed a Petroleum Production Licence (PPL) for the deepwater offshore block off Banjul, previously held by West Oil. Fusion carried out an in-depth study of the data available for the deepwater areas offshore Gambia. The license covers an area of approximately 5,000 km. West Oil collected much of this data under their TCA agreement with Gambian government. In December 1999, 1,000 km 2-D seismic survey was shot over the block. Processing of the lines was completed in London. UK in February 2000.
The license has been issued for six years during which time Fusion will undertake an extensive exploration campaign involving seismic acquisition and the drilling of two wells. It is believed that offshore Gambia has good prospectivity for hydrocarbons. The area marks the northern extent of the Casamance-Bissau sub-basin, which forms part of the Mauritania-Senegal-Gambia-Guinea-Bissau coastal basin. It is characterized by prominent halokinetic deformation and there are proven petroleum systems in the area (the Dome Flore Field in the nearby Senegal/Guinea Bissau Common Zone has approximately 900 mm barrels of shallow, biodegraded oil-in-place). A satellite seep detection study has been commissioned from UK consultants, NPA Group, and reveals an alignment of distinctive, repeatable, petroleum seepage anomalies in Gambian deepwater. This alignment corresponds to a significant Tertiary fault and overlying present day seabed canyon, and therefore is taken to be indicative of ongoing active petroleum generation.
Licensing rounds have recently been conducted covering acreage offshore Senegal adjacent to Gambia, and further south in the Senegal/Guinea Bissau Common Zone. The results of these rounds have yet to be announced, but immediately to the north of the Fusion permit, Vanco has recently signed a deepwater license in Senegal while to the south Roc Oil has acquired a shallow water license in the Casamance area of Senegal. To the north virtually the whole of offshore Mauritania is now licensed and there has been a recent spate of licensing activity in Morocco. The upsurge in industry activity in Northwest Africa is as a result of deepwater exploration success elsewhere in West Africa (10 bn barrels discovered since 1994) and the recognition on seismic data of similar turbiditic reservoirs that have proven to be so successful in Angola, Nigeria, Congo and most recently Rio Muni in Equatorial Guinea.
Deepwater plays have yet to be tested in Northwest Africa. The first deepwater wells in the region are anticipated in Fusion's Mauritanian acreage, which although in a different sub-basin, will have a significant bearing on the prospectivity of Gambia license. Fusion managing director Alan Stein has said that "the company is particularly pleased to sign this license with the Republic of Gambia since it marks the end of a two year period during which Fusion worked very closely with Gambian Department of Trade, Industry and Employment to evaluate all the historical data acquired by previous exploration companies. The results of these studies have revealed significant, previously unrecognised deepwater exploration potential and have enabled Fusion to embark upon a fast-track exploration programme which will commence within weeks of signing the license."
Lamin Kaba Jawara, Gambia's Commissioner for Petroleum, added that, "As a result of the TCA Gambia has been sufficiently encouraged to enter into an agreement with Veritas regarding the acquisition of a new speculative survey over vacant acreage to coincide with the survey planned by Fusion later in the year. The Department of State for Trade Industry and Employment looks forward with confidence to continuing our work with Fusion to fully evaluate the prospectivity of our deepwater acreage." Banjul recently signed a PPL with Britain's Planet Oil in conjunction with Balmain Resources over offshore acreage. While Planet Oil is the operator, Balmain Resources has a 10 % interest in the acreage that has four potentially viable prospects with probable oil reserves exceeding 100 mm barrels. The largest prospect, G-8, is estimated to have oil in place reserves of up to 1.4 bn barrels.
Gambia lies entirely within the geological boundaries of the Senegal Basin, which is the largest of the West African passive continental margin basins. The most recently completed comprehensive evaluation of the area incorporated new seismic, magnetic and gravity data acquired in 1990-91 together with reprocessed pre-existing seismic and geological data. Numerous structural and stratigraphic traps were identified in Mesozoic and Palaeozoic sequences which were interpreted to have potential high quality reservoir rocks,effective seals, access to mature organic source beds and a timely hydrocarbon migration history.
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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/noticias.info/ India is offering credit of up to $1 billion to build power projects, railways, refineries and even stadiums in oil-rich but poor West African nations, as it seeks to quench its growing thirst for foreign oil, reports Reuters (11/24).
India, which imports 70 percent of its crude, has devised a multi-pronged strategy to ensure future oil supplies from overseas oil and gas properties. While political weight has been key, India is now also offering financial and industrial assistance. Talmiz Ahmad, a senior India oil ministry official, told Reuters that "West Africa is a long-term investment destination for India." Ahmad said India will offer commercial partnerships and joint ventures to a group of African countries in oil, roads, railways, IT, power and ports under the partnership development initiative. "This model is definitely worth pursuing," he said, noting the Africans now seem to realize the spoils of their oil should go into infrastructure instead of the pockets of oil majors.
The BBC (11/24) writes a recent $6 billion infrastructure deal agreed in Nigeria by ONGC Mittal Energy, a joint venture between India's state-run ONGC and Mittal, the world's largest steel firm, is seen as one of the first examples of India's new approach in West Africa. ONGC has already carried out similar infrastructure deals in Sudan, where it built a $259 million pipeline in exchange for exploration rights in the Greater Nile oil region. "This project [the Sudan deal] is probably the best example of what ONGC can do if it is given an opportunity in any country," said ONGC Chairman and Managing Director, Subir Raha.
Reuters (11/24) further notes that India will now look to a group of eight West African countries in a special cooperation model called the Team-9 initiative, under which India offers credit for projects set up by Indian companies through the Export Import Bank of India. Team-9 countries include Burkina Faso, Chad, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mali and Senegal. Ahmad said Sao Tome, Niger, Democratic Republic of Congo and Congo Brazzaville would also be approached by India.
Financial assistance for infrastructure is an important aspect of any oil deal with developing African countries, Raha said. Financial assistance is not new in the oil industry, but India's willingness to offer such help to countries that struggle to secure credit privately is a positive step, said Praveen Martis, an analyst with British consulting firm Wood Mackenzie. "These kinds of assistance are no doubt helpful. The Chinese have been doing it in countries like Sudan and Kazakhstan, where they have a substantial oil equity investment in the region, for quite a while now," Martis said. "There is a risk factor in this, but it could be worth it if it helps Indian oil companies in strengthening relationships with the host countries and, in turn, offering a better chance in securing assets in these countries," he added.
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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ABIDJAN: Western and emerging Asian powers so keen to diversify oil supply sources to feed growing needs have recast their attention to west Africa following the latest discovery of new potential reserves.
British oil and gas company Tullow Oil last week announced that it had discovered up to 600 million barrels of oil on the West Cape Three Points block off Ghana's coast.
But the figures fall below that of regional oil giant, Nigeria with its reserves of 36.24 billion barrels, or that of Angola which has proven reserves of more than 5.4 billion barrels of crude oil.
Of the 2.7 million barrels per day produced in Africa, 2.6 million come from Nigeria alone, according to the continental African Petroleum Producers Association (APPA).
But at the global level, west Africa remains a modest player in the oil sector.
It represents less than a third of the total Africa production, which in itself is less than 12 per cent of world production, far behind the Middle East Russia and Brazil.
But with geo-political uncertainties and the emergence of Asian economies such as India and China, any oil reserves make the so-called "black gold" a rare and expensive commodity.
"It is becoming more and more difficult to work in the Middle East. The whole world as a result, is diversifying the supply sources, and the rush is general, in Africa as is everywhere," an expert in the oil sector said in Abidjan.
Between 2004 and 2007, African oil production climbed from seven million barrels per day (bpd) to 9.5 million bpd. And Africa is now the top production area for the French oil giant and world's number four Total.
Nigeria aims at boosting its production to four million bpd in 2010 from the current 2.6 million, but with the violence that has hit its key production zones of the Niger Delta, production had dropped by 25 percent.
Beyond Nigeria, "we see a great potential out there. Equatorial Guinea, Mauritania and others ...are expected to offer growing supplies in the coming years," said David Fife, a petroleum analyst with the International Energy Agency in Paris.
"We see the west African oil production adding one million barrel per day by 2012, so it's quite a significant increase," he said.
Generally speaking, "we see a very strong growth of West Africa's oil supply in the next two to five years. It has been mainly driven by Angola and deep water oil fields in Nigeria."
The potential arouses the interest especially of the United States, which imports more half of its oil needs and expects to pump 25 per cent of its requirements from Africa in 2015, up from less than 15 per cent it notched in 2003.
Despite its limited refining capacities, competition rages on along the Atlantic coast for African oil.
In Guinea, an American firm Hyperdynamic has found offshore oil.
In nearby Guinea-Bissau where oil deposits were sited in August 2006, an oil exploration deal has been signed with Brazil.
Mauritania started pumping oil in February 2006, under a deal clinched with an Australian firm, Woodside.
Sierra Leone announced this week that in this second most impoverished country in the world that Spanish company Repsol and Australia's Woodside had discovered oil and drilling should start in 2008.
Senegal's Petrosen and the United Arab Emirates' Kampac Oil in September 2005 signed a prospection agreement for offshore oil and gas off the northern Senegalese city of Saint Louis.
In Ivory Coast a litany of investors are busy at work among them European, American, Australian, Russian and Chinese.
But Fife estimates that Ghanaian new found reserves might not be exploited "before five or 10 years."
In Ghana, President John Kufuor is delighted at the discovery, but sceptics fear it could be a "curse" to fuel corruption and unrest.
West Africa remains the most poverty stricken region in the world, with 23 of its countries sitting on the bottom of the UN human development index on poverty.
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Bettyboo: Africa do not need an African Union. Many African still believes in tribalism and most are not democratic.
As it has been explained ad-nasium, the vast majority of groups in Africa are NOT "tribes" but ethnicities! The "tribal" label was a European pejorative (as Doug said). This would be the equivalent of calling European ethnic groups like Dutch and Swedes "tribes"!
Second, most of the governments that are undemocrated ended up that way in the first place, because of Europeans!
We've explained this to you before Hore, I mean 'Bettyboo'. I don't know why you keep forgetting. Posts: 26320 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
We are in the process of having a CSME(Caribbean Single Market and Economy). The CARICOM nations of the West Indies have had this in the works for the past 18 years. Phase I will take place begining January 2008 and will implement most of the legislative, executative, issues. Some countries are holding out on certain aspects(like the Bahamas on a single currency and free movement of people). More and move the world is moving towards a regional block ecomonic governmental regime.
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