NIGERIANS BE COURAGEOUS AND LETS PRAY FOR OUR LEADERS TO BE BOLD AND STAND BY THEIR WORD.
THE PROBLEM HERE IS THE EGOCENTRIC SELFISH TYPICAL AMERICAN ATTITUDE .
NIGERIA OIL IS THE FOCAL POINT
BUT WE AINT GONNA BE ANOTHER IRAQ - BULLSHIT, LIKE THE AMERICANS WILL PUT IT.
US blacklisted Nigeria over oil - US action capable of undermining bilaterial ties - FG
From Seyi Gesinde, Okey Muogbo, Clement Idoko, with Agency Reports
- 07.01.2010
THE frosty relationship between the United States and Nigeria as a result of Chinese interest in Nigeria’s oil business may be the reason for Tuesday’s blacklisting of Nigeria and placing it on the global terror watch list, Nigerian Tribune investigations have revealed.
China’s interest in Nigeria’s oil became more glaring mid last year when one of China’s three major energy companies, China’s state-owned National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), began talks with senior Nigerian officials to buy large stakes of oil blocks in Nigeria, most importantly knowing that Nigeria has some of the world’s richest oil blocks.
What the US saw as the vulnerability of Nigeria’s oil business, due to the country’s recent negotiations with China on oil business, may have, however, posed a threat to the United States (US), Nigeria being its fifth largest supplier of petroleum.
The placement of Nigeria on the terror watch list may now appear to be an effort to put pressure on Nigeria to renegotiate its stand with its Western oil partners at this time when relations with the industry are strained.
“For some time relations between the government and the international oil companies (IOCs) have been difficult, first, over funding of joint ventures, over arrears, reviewing the terms of production sharing contracts (PSCs),” said Antony Goldman, head of London-based PM Consulting and a Nigerian expert.
Part of the US problem with the Nigerian government is that the Nigerian government was not ready to renew the expired licenses of some of the Western agents who trade in Nigeria.
Giving credence to this was Goldman, who told Reuters that: “Some of these licences have come up for renewal and the government feels they are worth more than the IOCs are prepared to pay to renew them.”
Rather than cooperating with its Western business partners, Nigeria seems to be pitching its tent with China.
Goldman told Reuters that “So far, the largest investment CNOOC has made in Nigeria was a $2.69 billion stake purchased in 2006 in deepsea oil block OML-130, which operator, Total said in March (last year) had started pumping oil to reach 175,000 barrels per day output during the summer.
In another recent negotiation, it was gathered that in its bid to acquire Nigeria’s oil asset, a Chinese second largest oil firm, Sinopec Group, had also paid $7.24 billion for Swiss oil and gas firm Addax, which operates in Nigeria and other African countries.
Looking through the trend of events as they affect the long-standing oil business between Nigeria and the US, and Nigeria’s recent relationship with the Eastern powers, a US terrorism and political violence expert, J. Peter Pham, had written in his column “Strategic Interests” in the World Defense Review that the vulnerability of Nigeria’s oil infrastructure was a threat to the national interests of the United States.
Posted: at 7-01-2010 11:53 AM (15 years ago) | Upcoming |
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