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Here are some very interesting articles I found about Somalia and oil.... Enjoy D ================== Copyright 1994 Toronto Star Newspapers, Ltd. � The Toronto Star April 8, 1994, Friday, FINAL EDITION SECTION: ENTERTAINMENT; Pg. B10 LENGTH: 321 words HEADLINE: Somalia-oil link tops censorship list TV ignored U.S. motives, says journalism group BYLINE: BY ANTONIA ZERBISIAS TORONTO STARMEDIA CENSORSHIP REPORT CANADA BODY: A story about how U.S. oil corporations anxious to protect their interests were driving American peacekeeping efforts in Somalia last year has been selected by Project Censored Canada as the least-reported story of 1993. The Los Angeles Times report by Mark Fineman, first reprinted in The Star and then followed up by The Globe and Mail and Peace Magazine, was among 111 nominated stories submitted to the project, sponsored by the Canadian Association of Journalists and Simon Fraser University's School of Communication. Project Censored yesterday published its Top 10 list of under-reported stories in Canada, stories that judges from media, academia and public life selected on the basis of their significance to great numbers of people and how much coverage they received. "Though the Somalia story did make mainstream newspapers such as The Star and The Globe, none of the (television) networks picked it up; therefore, it constitutes an underreported story," said Bill Doskoch, the journalist association's representative to the project. "True, some of these stories came to light in mainstream media but it's interesting that, when the stories challenge rather than support conventional wisdom, the rest of the media pack is nowhere to be found." Other stories in the Top 10 include: * A piece from This Magazine revealing how Brian Mulroney's Tories "revamped" a 21-year tax rule and "forgave the wealthy millions owed in tax." * An Ottawa Citizen report on how Canadian companies are doing business with Indonesia despite its "questionable" human rights record. * A story from Canadian Press describing how Canadian corporate interests have hijacked the environmental agenda in order to blunt criticism from environmentalists. Doskoch said that while the list is not "a damning indictment" of Canada's media, too many important stories are not getting the play their significance merits. ======================== Copyright 1993 Toronto Star Newspapers, Ltd. � The Toronto Star January 26, 1993, Tuesday, AM SECTION: LETTER; Pg. A18 LENGTH: 106 words HEADLINE: Somalia oil rumors go back to the 1960s BODY: � ���Re Oil firms hope to cash in on Somali peace (Jan. 20). When I was the attorney-general of Somalia, in the '60s, there were widespread and repeated rumors that American oil prospectors had actually found plenty of oil in remote areas of the country. It was said that the discovery had been kept a secret but locations well identified for possible use in case of future needs if the gulf became a troubled area. For the sake of that fascinating country (where I grew up) I can only hope that there is no substance to the rumors and that not a single drop of oil is found under that soil. SERGIO CIANO Willowdale LOAD-DATE: May 12, 1999 ========================== Copyright 1993 Toronto Star Newspapers, Ltd. � The Toronto Star January 20, 1993, Wednesday, AM SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A1 LENGTH: 1231 words HEADLINE: Oil firms hope to cash in on Somali peace BYLINE: By Mark Fineman Special to The Star DATELINE: MOGADISHU BODY: � ���MOGADISHU - Far beneath the surface of the tragic drama of Somalia, four major U.S. oil companies are sitting on a prospective fortune in exclusive concessions to explore and exploit the Somali countryside. The land, in the opinion of geologists and industry sources, could yield significant amounts of oil and natural gas if the U.S.-led military mission can restore peace to the impoverished East African nation. Nearly two-thirds of Somalia was allocated to the American oil giants Conoco, Amoco, Chevron and Phillips in the final years before President Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown and the nation plunged into chaos in January, 1991, according to documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times. Industry sources said the companies are hoping the decision to send U.S. troops to safeguard aid shipments to Somalia will also help protect their multimillion-dollar investments. Officially, President George Bush's administration and the state department insist the U.S. military mission in Somalia is strictly humanitarian. Oil industry officials dismissed as "absurd" and "nonsense" allegations by aid experts, veteran East Africa analysts and several prominent Somalis that Bush, a former Texas oilman, was moved to act in Somalia at least in part by the U.S. corporate oil stake. But corporate and scientific documents disclose that the American companies are well-positioned to pursue Somalia's most promising potential oil reserves the moment the nation is pacified. And the state department and U.S. military officials acknowledge that one of those oil companies has done more than simply sit back and hope for peace. Conoco Inc., the only major multinational corporation to maintain a functioning office in Mogadishu throughout the past two years of nationwide anarchy, has been directly involved in the U.S. government's role in the U.N.-sponsored humanitarian military effort. Conoco's exploration efforts in north-central Somalia reportedly had yielded the most encouraging prospects just before Siad Barre's fall. Its Mogadishu corporate compound was transformed into a de facto American embassy a few days before the U.S. Marines landed in the capital. Bush's special envoy used it as his temporary headquarters. In addition, the president of the company's subsidiary in Somalia won high official praise for serving as the government's volunteer "facilitator" during the months before and during the U.S. intervention. Describing the arrangement as "a business relationship," John Geybauer, spokesperson for Conoco Oil in Houston, said the company was acting as "a good corporate citizen and neighbor" in granting the U.S. government's request to be allowed to rent the compound. But the close relationship between Conoco and the U.S. intervention force has left many Somalis and foreign development experts deeply troubled by the blurred line between the U.S. government and the large oil company. Many liken the Somalia operation to a miniature version of Operation Desert Storm, the U.S.-led military effort in January, 1991, to drive Iraq from Kuwait and, more broadly, safeguard the world's largest oil reserves. Although most oil experts outside Somalia laugh at the suggestion that the nation ever could rank among the world's major oil producers - and most maintain the international aid mission is intended simply to feed Somalia's starving masses - no one doubts there is oil in Somalia. The only question is how much? "It's there. There's no doubt there's oil there," said Thomas O'Connor, the principal petroleum engineer for the World Bank who headed an in-depth, three-year study of oil prospects in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia's northern coast. O'Connor, a professional geologist, based his conclusion on the findings of some of the world's top petroleum geologists. In a 1991 World Bank co-ordinated study, intended to encourage private investment in the petroleum potential of eight African nations, the geologists put Somalia and Sudan at the top of the list of prospective commercial oil producers. Presenting their results during a three-day conference in London in September, 1991, two of those geologists reported that an analysis of nine exploratory wells indicated the region is "situated within the oil window, and thus are highly prospective for gas and oil." A report by a third geologist said offshore sites possess "the geological parameters conducive to the generation, expulsion and trapping of significant amounts of oil and gas." Beginning in 1986, Conoco, along with Amoco, Chevron, Phillips and, briefly, Shell all sought and obtained exploration licences for northern Somalia from Siad Barre's government. Somalia was soon carved up into concessional blocs, with Conoco, Amoco and Chevron winning the right to explore and exploit the most promising ones. The companies' interest in Somalia clearly pre-dated the World Bank study. It was grounded in the findings of another, highly successful exploration effort by the Texas-based Hunt Oil Corp. across the Gulf of Aden in the Arabian Peninsula nation of Yemen. Geologists disclosed in the mid-1980s that the estimated 1 billion barrels of Yemeni oil reserves were part of a great underground rift, or valley, that arced into and across northern Somalia. Hunt's Yemeni operation, which is now yielding nearly 200,000 barrels of oil a day, and their implications for the entire region were not lost on Bush, who was then vice president. In fact, Bush witnessed it first-hand in April, 1986, when he officially dedicated Hunt's new $18 million refinery near the ancient Yemeni town of Marib. In remarks during the event, Bush emphasized the critical value of supporting U.S. corporate efforts to develop and safeguard potential oil reserves in the region. Of the four U.S. companies holding the Siad Barre-era oil concessions, Conoco is believed to be the only one that negotiated what spokesperson Geybauer called "a standstill agreement" with an interim government set up by one of Mogadishu's two principal warlords, Ali Mahdi Mohamed. Industry sources said the other U.S. companies with contracts in Somalia cited force majeure (superior power), a legal term asserting that they were forced by the war to abandon their exploration efforts and would return as soon as peace is restored. "It's going to be very interesting to see whether these agreements are still good," said Mohamed Jirdeh, a prominent Somali businessman in Mogadishu who is familiar with the oil-concession agreements. "Whatever Siad did, all those records and contracts, all disappeared after he fled . . . And this period has brought with it a deep change of our society. "Our country is now very weak and, of course, the American oil companies are very strong. This has to be handled very diplomatically, and I think the American government must move out of the oil business, or at least make clear that there is a definite line separating the two, if they want to maintain a long-term relationship here." Meanwhile, the first American combat troops flew home from Somalia yesterday with excitement, relief and a feeling that they brought some stability to the country, the Associated Press reports. Col. Fred Peck said he did not know when more of the 24,715 American troops would be withdrawn. LOS ANGELES TIMES LOAD-DATE: May 12, 1999 ==================================== ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
