Posted on 08/26/2006 4:12:24 PM PDT by thackney
Isn't Al Gore the "President of chad"?
Hope that gives them enough time to set the charges on the well heads and any other equipment of value.
Chad may be the gayest name for a country ever.
Connecting the dots is getting somewhat upsetting.
"Landlocked Chad, which began pumping crude in 2003, produces around 160,000-170,000 bpd but most of its people remain poor."
surprise surprise. Only in the media does anyone assume that government does not exist to enrich and empower itself and those who run it.
What are the odds.
Looks like China is involved behind the scenes.
well they are also probably following events in south america, with foreign oil multinationals having their contracts voided or re-written in a few countries. The tell on china will be whether any chinese state investment in chad's oil industry is announced in the next year or so.
Presumably the investors in a project like the one in chad price in eventual nationalization of their work. The major oils aren't any babes in the woods.
Red Storm Rising.
It sounds like Chad doesn't like the old 1/8th lease and wants a do-over. In the real world, Chad would simply offer to buy back in for a higher percentage.
That's the Real world. "Governments" don't operate in the Real World. They just take what they want. The Comanche Nation did the same thing around here. +8% with the wave of a hand. LOL .... there's a lot of that going around.
Connecting the dots is getting much easier. I think the Venezuelan model has teeth. State owned oil equals Communism at the worst, socialism at the best.
Second benefit is International political muscle...especially against the west.
If I was Chevron I would have hired an army and thrown the government out. I would bet every dollar spent to date to find this oil came from them and now they get dumped because China got someone in their pocket.
Chad? Where's Jeremy on this outrageous order?
more likely in chad's case is simple kleptocratism. I don't know chad politics, or if the crowd which doubtless got rich on bribes/graft when the contract was done in the first place is out of power now or not, but now that there is a viable and operating pipline with real revenues, obviously they are going to steal what they can.
Outside of north africa, as far as I can tell the vast majority of their governments are some of the worst examples of despotism, and the conditions for that to change simply don't exist. The foreign aid (read as Bribes) we give african governments and the loans we give then forgive are simply robbed. The most curious thing is Chinese investment in african natural resources in a number of countries. Wonder when we will see an african country nationalizing a chinese investment.
Whatever Chad received it was return on zero investment with zero risk, and they feel cheated. No wonder Africa is such a hopeless sh'thole.
Anther Nigeria in the making.
The BPD was a drop in the bucket, but who knows what the long term was on the find.
The private army idea has been tried and has had some success and some failure. The South Africans and Brits keeps a close eye on their folks in the business. The USA would come down hard on someone here. But that said there are folks out there today that could field a force that could take down a Chad in no time.
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