The race for Darfur's oil - a blessing or a curse?

[rodeodance]

http://www.alertnet.org/db/blogs/1265/2007/02/7-174635-1.htm

The race for Darfur's oil - a blessing or a curse?
07 Mar 2007 17:46:00 GMT


"The main reason behind Darfur is oil. There is no other reason for this area to have blown like this," the LA Times quotes an oil industry consultant who's involved with some of Sudan's major oil companies. The consultant, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says it's going to get worse.

There have long been rumours about possible oil reserves in Darfur and how they're connected with conflict in the region. AlertNet wrote about this twist in the Darfur story back in 2005. But if the rumours are true, and it turns out there are oilfields under Darfur's deserts, it would make yet another conflict where oil seems more of a curse than a blessing.

The discovery of oil in Darfur would explain why "a seemingly barren wasteland" of Sudan has ignited such a fierce war, the paper suggests. It quotes a Khartoum analyst who says oil is what's really motivating interventions from the United States, the United Nations and Libya. And it quotes rights activists who say the hunger for oil is what's made the Khartoum government so keen to crack down on rebel demands in the region.

Meanwhile, the Sudanese government is ramping up oil exploration in the region, and has just granted three new exploration concessions. Two of them went to a Yemeni-Saudi Arabian team which has begun drilling north of where most of the fighting is Darfur is happening.......

[Mr Rabble]

1. It's all just so sickening.

It just makes me ill to know where this is all going to wind up, you know what I mean?

"Sequential wars to control the remaining oil reserves on the planet"

Please stop the ride. I want to get off.