Africa: The Next Victim in Our Quest for Cheap Oil

By Scott Thill, AlterNet. Posted July 14, 2008.

Whether or not we have fully arrived at peak oil can be left to the nitpickers and bean counters to decide. What we know for sure is that the cost of black gold has exponentially risen in just a few short years, and the global economy it is built upon is currently straddling a razor waiting for the inevitable slice. That final cut may come from Nigeria, where all the major oil companies have done business, dirty and otherwise, for the last five decades, degrading the environment and depressing the general population along the way.

That disturbing feedback loop is the subject of the new book Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta, which juxtaposes the arresting graphics of award-winning photojournalist Ed Kashi with the geopolitical insights of UC Berkeley professor Michael Watts to present Africa's most populous nation as a possible epicenter for the full-blown resource wars to come. [You can watch a short multimedia presentation of Kashi's photographs on the right-hand side of this page.]

They are wars that are already well under way. In mid-June, a Shell facility was attacked by local militants, disrupting production and sending the already sky-high price of oil to further heights before coming back online a week later. Attacks like those have increased in frequency, as Nigerian factions have fought for control of the nation's lucrative petroleum resources, which are the largest in Africa.

The problem, especially as indigenous populations caught between Nigeria's prosperous rich and their oil industry's environmental devastation see it, is that viable land and resources have been wasted on a handful while the majority of the country falls into further disrepair and depression. From natural gas flares and oil spills to the destruction of native plants, animal species and other salable commodities, Nigeria's oil industry has wreaked havoc across the land and its people.

And it's only getting worse. And if you think it doesn't affect America, think again.

"The United States has been concerned with its own post-1945 global oil strategy, involving Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela," Watts explains in our interview below. "But this strategy has fallen apart, and now Africa plays a key role at a time when oil is beyond $100 a barrel."

It is a role that will only expand, as increasing demand, ass-backward environmental policy and diminishing resources send nations and multinationals scattering for control of what's left of Earth's black gold. America's disastrous war in Iraq is one example of this panic at work. President Bush's 2006 plan to establish the United States African Command (AFRICOM), an ominous Department of Defense program to network operations and combatant command across the African continent, is another such example, especially since not one African country has come forward to offer America permission to build a base on its territory. For now, AFRICOM is on the outside looking in on Africa from a base in Germany, an arrangement that can be seen both as a geopolitical reality and as a suitable metaphor for U.S.-African relations throughout history.

But the United States won't be outside Africa for long, as climate crisis and peak oil take further hold. And when it comes calling, it will most likely call on Nigeria first.

Scott Thill: What is the nature of Nigeria's oil industry, and when did it get started?

Michael Watts: Commercial oil production began in 1956, and the first exports in 1958. Since that time, perhaps $600 billion in oil revenues have been accrued by the Nigerian government. The government takes a share through a legal joint venture contract with the international oil companies of about 80 percent of the value of each barrel of oil. Since oil accounts for 90 percent of all Nigerian exports and 80 percent of government revenue, and about half of GDP, oil is the Nigerian economy. The country is a classical petro-state dependent upon one resource. The book shows how this vast wealth has been stolen: Estimates from the World Bank vary from $100 (billion) to $200 billion. It has also been wasted. The International Monetary Fund says that oil has probably not added to the standard of living of average Nigerians. This is a stunning indictment.

ST: What has been the ecological impact, especially to the immediate region?

MW: The ecological impact has been felt in the Niger Delta, which is the oil-producing region. According to the World Wildlife Fund, it is one of the most polluted places on the face of the Earth. Nigeria has the highest gas flaring rates in the world; until recently, over 80 percent was flared as a product of drilling. The consequences for carbon emissions, air pollution and public health are severe. Plus, there are roughly 300 oil spills a year, and over 7,000 since 1960.

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Scott Thill runs the online mag Morphizm.com. His writing has appeared on Salon, XLR8R, All Music Guide, Wired and others.