Poisoned Wells: The Dirty Politics of African Oil

289 Pages·2007·1.25 MB·English

by  Nicholas Shaxson

POISONED WELLS
THE DIRTY POLITICS OF AFRICAN OIL
Nicholas Shaxson
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POISONED WELLS
THE DIRTY POLITICS OF AFRICAN OIL
Nicholas Shaxson
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POISONEDWELLS
Copyright © Nicholas Shaxson,2007.
All rights reserved.No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in 2007 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™
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Houndmills,Basingstoke,Hampshire,England RG21 6XS.
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PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave
Macmillan division of St.Martin’s Press,LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.
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other countries.
ISBN-13:978-1-4039-7194-4
ISBN-10:1-4039-7194-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shaxson,Nicholas.
Poisoned wells:the dirty politics of African oil / Nicholas Shaxson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-4039-7194-3 (alk.Paper)
1. Petroleum industry and trade—Political aspects—Africa. 2. Petroleum
industry and trade—Moral and ethical aspects—Africa. I. Title.
HD9577.A2S53 2007
338.2’7282096—dc22
2006049259
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Letra Libre,Inc.
First edition:April 2007.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America.
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For EMMA.
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction:A Paradox of Plenty in the New Gulf 1
1. Fela Kuti:How Things Fell Apart in the Oil Boom 9
2. Pedro Motú:A Morph to Another World 27
3. Abel Abraão:Wielding the Oil Weapon 41
4. Omar Bongo:Taking the Red Pill 63
5. Eva Joly:Elf Africaine and the Rabbit Warren 83
6. André Milongo:Golden Eggs 103
7. Obiang Nguema:What Caring Neighbors Do 121
8. Fradique de Menezes:Battening Down the Hatches 145
9. Arcadi Gaydamak:Between Global Borders 165
10. Dokubo-Asari:Corroding the Soul of a Nation 189
11. Global Witness:Hooligans and Rock Stars 209
Conclusion:Drawing the Poison 223
Notes 237
Index 273
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Iwould like to single out a very small number of people,and one organi-
zation, for special thanks. The first is Alex Vines at Chatham House,
whose ability to walk unscathed through ethical minefields has always as-
tonished me,and who has helped and encouraged me in so many ways.The
second is Antony Goldman, who persuaded me to make that first trip to
Equatorial Guinea, and who has been a source of help and advice ever
since.I would also like to thank the Open Society Institute for their gener-
ous and unconditional grant,without which it would not have been possi-
ble to write this book.
I will also always remember fondly the folk at the press centre in Lu-
anda more than a decade ago:Sonia,Senhor Minvu,Vita,Rufino,Domin-
gas,Ernesto,and Lila.I should also like to give special thanks to Tio Karl
Maier,José de Oliveira,and Mário Paiva.And who could ever forget Chris
Simpson?
Over the years,a number of other people have given up their free time
to answer my foolish questions,and to help me out in other ways.They are
far too numerous to mention here, but I would like to extend particular
thanks to Antoine Lawson, the late Christine Messiant, Clotaire Hym-
boud, Patrice Yengo, Jon Walters, Ricardo Soares, Andrew Manley,
Michela Wrong,Dino Mahtani,the staff at the Nigerian Institute for In-
ternational Affairs,Gerhard Seibert,Stephen Ellis,William Wallis,Rafael
Marques, Chris Heymans, Patrick Smith, Michael Holman, Simon Foot,
Joseph Hurst-Croft, George Frynas, Ken Silverstein, Nick Chapman,
Karolina Sutton,Ella Pearce,Clive Priddle,Barnaby Philips,Lara Pawson,
Colin McLelland, and Zoe Eisenstein. Obviously, none of these people
bear any responsibility for anything here that they might disagree with.
This book contains fewer than a hundred thousand words,but I could
have written two million.This is just my personal selection of the facts; I
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Poisoned Wells
am sorry for the huge amount I have left out.I apologize to Ian Gary,for
hardly mentioning Chad,and to John Ryle,for not including a chapter on
Sudan,which would,among other things,have granted me more space to
write about China’s growing influence in Africa—a subject to which I have
not done proper justice here. Finally, I would like to grant an honorable
mention to my fine parents,without whom none of this would have been
possible.
viii
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Introduction
A PA R A D O X O F
P L E N T Y I N T H E
N E W G U L F
In 2006 Energy Intelligence published a ranking of oil companies that may
have surprised some people.1 ExxonMobil, which has a bigger market
value than Wal-Mart and Microsoft,2 was only thirteenth on this list—
smaller than two African firms, and less than one-twentieth the size of a
company called Aramco.
The ranking is not mistaken. Aramco is the Saudi Arabian state oil
company, controlling more than 260 billion barrels of liquid oil reserves,
while the two African firms are the Nigerian and Libyan state oil compa-
nies,with more than 20 billion barrels each.ExxonMobil has just 12 billion
barrels, while BP, Chevron, Total, and Shell are smaller. If you rank the
companies by market value, which excludes state oil companies whose
shares are not traded,the privately owned companies like ExxonMobil rise
to the top.Yet in the increasingly fraught global tussle for access to oil,the
ranking that matters is the one with Aramco,not ExxonMobil,at the top.
Many people cherish a view that western oil companies are agents of
imperialism, forcing weak Africans to accept dictates from London and
Washington. This was true once. But when OPEC countries like Saudi
Arabia and Iran began to flex their muscles in the 1970s, they wrested
control over their oil decisively away from the Seven Sisters—the haughty
1