Obama Visits Africa's "Oil Gulf"

[jakeXT]

President Barack Obama makes his historic visit to Africa. Born of a Kenyan economist father, Obama will go not to his ancestral lands but to Ghana, Africa's newest oil state.

Oil was discovered in Ghana just in 2007. A wide swath of the Atlantic's Western shores, the area stretching from Morocco to Angola is becoming Africa's "Oil Gulf". Oil-producing countries in Africa, including those in the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea, now provide 24 percent of US oil imports. Africa has outstripped the Middle East as an oil supplier to America. Increasingly, Africa's oil is being produced offshore.

Off Ghana's deep Atlantic shores, the Texas-based, Kosmos Energy already controls the Jubilee Fields, one of the largest oil finds in West Africa in the past decade, which is predicted to hold 1.2 billion barrels of oil. In May, 2009 Kosmos began to draw bids for shares of its stake in the oil-rich fields. Global energy players--Chevron Corp, Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, China National Offshore Oil Company and British Petroleum--all with a focused eye on Africa, and a bloodied record on the continent are beginning to circle like vultures. After all, the deadline for Kosmos Energy Bids is July 17, a week after Obama's visit to Ghana.

With heightened interest in Africa's oil, the US has moved to strengthen its military (and naval) presence in Africa's "Oil Gulf." In October 2008, the US Africa Command was officially established. Transplanting a framework from the Middle East, US military assets would be aimed at securing Africa's oil and seeking so-called "terrorists". The US Africa Command claims to "help Africans help themselves." The command lists humanitarian missions like dental clinics, building of schools, wells, etc. What is more opaque is the intent to train and arm proxy militaries that can secure and sustain the ever-present fix for the United States' addiction to fossil fuels.

...

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090720/woods

[Dr_Willie_Feelgood]

1. The more things change...

The more they stay the same!

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!

[jwirr]

2. And regardless of his motives - sooner or later the oil companies

will upset the apple cart. Some future pResident will sell out to them.

[babylonsister]

3. FAIL! Obama went to Ghana because it's the model of democracy

on the continent, not for any other nefarious reasons.

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/07/the_obama_speech_newt_and_rove_and_america_could_love.php

snip//

It's telling that Obama made his first Sub-Saharan African visit--he was in Cairo earlier this year--to Ghana and not his father's native Kenya. Ghana has stood out as a model democracy on the continent and situated in the country's west, it was, as I mentioned above, a key departure point for the shipment of slaves. To have gone to Nairobi would have been sheer vanity, bestowing an honor on a once-thriving democracy turned undemocratic mess simply because his father had come from there. In time, Obama will surely visit Kenya and the pilgrammage will be stirring. But the Ghana visit he made today will be the more historic.

[jakeXT]

4. Sure

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edit to add:

Try to catch all the co2 in the top banner ad on some pages of the atlantic and you land here http://www.shell.us/energytalk/

[babylonsister]

5. You can try to connect Obama to oil in Africa all day long, but

I don't even see his name mentioned in the tripe you posted here. He's not idiot son as much as you might wish to cast him in the same light.

As for ads on websites, since you haven't donated to DU, you're probably seeing many on here that counter DU's reason for being, but that's the way it works to keep sites running.

[jakeXT]

7. I hope it stays a good Government

A recent large oil discovery in Ghana has the potential to consolidate the country's governance gains and improve the well-being of its population, but it could also breed corruption (Oxfam). "Geology is not destiny," concludes a December 2008 working paper from the Brookings Institution on the challenge of diversifying African resource-rich economies. It argues that though such economies are at a disadvantage, smart public policy decisions will enable African governments to avoid the natural resource curse. According to the International Monetary Fund, Ghana is actively pursuing policies that encourage sound fiscal management. The new military ruler of Guinea has pledged his intolerance for corruption. "I want to warn anyone who thinks they can try to corrupt me. ... Money is of no interest to us," he told the Associated Pres

http://www.cfr.org/publication/18254/tale_of_two_africas.html


I remember Marc Faber talking about Sudan: "The Americans are not there because of Human Rights and the Chinese are not there because of the landscape"

Just because Obama has no connections to oil like Cheney, he still has to protect US interests.

[psychmommy]

6. many aa's go to ghana when they visit africa.

it is a port city and the center of the slave trade in africa. although it is an ugly part of our past it is our past. there are the cells where slaves were held and the places where they were auctioned off. it may mean nothing to you but, for the pres and his family it holds a great significance. there is more to life than oil or money. africa is the motherland for us and despite what we see on tv, it is a beautiful continent and a connection to a past stolen from us.

[jakeXT]

8. US seeks to underpin oil supply from Africa

US seeks to underpin oil supply from Africa

By William Wallis

Published: July 12 2009 19:28 | Last updated: July 12 2009 19:28

The US is increasingly reliant on oil from West Africa for its daily energy needs and forecasts that up to 25 per cent of imports will hail from the Gulf of Guinea by 2015.

Ghana, which discovered oil offshore only recently, is set to become a producer next year. Some Ghanaians say Barack Obama’s choice of the country for his first presidential visit to sub-Saharan Africa was partly related to ambitions to ensure an interest in the country’s estimated 3-4bn barrel reserves. The US is still Africa’s foremost trading partner ahead of the European Union and China. But the vast majority of US investment in Africa is in oil and gas, and to a lesser extent mining. Given its growing strategic importance to the US economy, African security has become a growing priority for Washington too, with spending on training and operations rising to nearly $1bn in recent years.

In 2008, George W. Bush launched the first separate command structure for Africa, but neither he nor Mr Obama have persuaded any African country to host the base. Only Liberia has offered and for now Africom is in Germany. There has been widespread opposition on the continent to the militarisation of relations and suspicion that the US wants to pursue the war on terror and fend off rivalry for resources from China.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/12631f44-6f0a-11de-9109-00144feabdc0.html


We will see how this plays out in the future