Beyond Valdez, Part 2: Bleeding Africa

A continuation of a prior post Beyond Valdez, Part 1 - regarding Exxon-Mobil's web of corruption with foreign governments and the price of oil both economic and human. Exxon's reputation just doesnt stop with the events of Kazakhstan. Exxon's hand further reaches into nations part of Africa.

Angola, a war-torn nation, still succumbs from the scars in which over 300,000 people have died and thousands still maimed by landmines and more threats of social upheaval. According to Forbes, Exxon-Mobil stake in Angola lies in the 12 million acres of off-shore area which possesses 7.5 billion barrels of crude oil.

And how does Exxon-Mobil look to get a handle on all that black gold? By the same means as they did in Kazakhstan:

Getting at that oil wasn't pretty--ExxonMobil handed hundreds of millions of dollars to the corrupt regime of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos in the late 1990s, helping to prolong Angola's ruinous civil war--but then the oil business is rarely pretty. "You kinda have to go where the oil is," deadpans Lee Raymond, ExxonMobil's chairman.

The reputation of Exxon-Mobil's oil profit's maybe linked to its ability to "diplomatically" out-manuveur other companies in securing oil fields by dealing with dictator's or the "bad guys" that run the poorest nations.

The financial stakes for an outfit like ExxonMobil are prodigious. It earned $9.5 billion after taxes extracting fossil fuels last year, four times what it netted from refining and chemicals. Without a new supply it would be reduced to earning a slim refining markup on crude it buys from well owners. Which is why ExxonMobil is willing to apply its diplomatic and economic muscle over a long period of time to get into a new oilfield

The cost? Well the $9.5 billion in profits of course. Beyond that Exxon has "generously" contributed to the well-being of the people of Angola according to the International Labor Rights Fund:

Oil companies often fear working too closely with governments of new oil powers such as Angola that ask for help in addressing social ills. Many of these nations, including Angola, have been criticized by Western nongovernmental organizations and international lending institutions for failing to explain sufficiently how they spend the billions of dollars they receive each year in oil revenue. Being seen as an arm of these governments, even in building hospitals or schools, invites criticism that an oil company is enabling financial mismanagement -- and the long-term dependency it creates.

Exxon-Mobil's flirtation with corrupt nations has become a habitual practice of the company in producing the record profits it earned despite the major outcry on the rising prices and increasing shortage of oil. The problems lies in that although Exxon has provided money to the nation's that holds deposit's of oil, in turns the other way and fails to look into how money is being funneled and for what cause.

The dependency on the oil company money creates a burden, guaranteeing money goes into the pockets of corrupt officials with the public seeing the end of the drip. In a report by the Boston Globe, despite the vast reserves of oil wealth Angola possesses, much of the population fails to see any benefits arise as a result of that wealth. Angola's small population (30 million) accounts for more oil money per capita compared to Africa's largest oil producer, Nigeria which has a population of roughly 135 million. However....

But such prosperity does not reach the majority of Angolans. Seventy percent of its population lives on less than $2 a day. Roads in the countryside are ruined. The railway system has collapsed, and the agricultural base is in tatters. The country imports almost all its sugar, after once being one of the world's largest exporters.

Furthermore:

The United States and other developed nations will depend even more on Africa's oil in the next decade; some predict that a quarter of US oil imports will come from Africa in the next decade, up from the current 15 percent.

With nations like Angola supplying much of the world's developed nations valuable oil, does it not become our responsibility that we do not take advantage of this by allowing others to suffer while our thirst is quenched? Of course, it is the responsibility of any government to see to their own people, but we further their cause by ignoring where we get the gas to fuel our vehicles and live under the umbrella of "freedom". Can we accept all this at someone else's expense? It's just very hard to give up...