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Thèmes du jour :
1. Comment la Mauritanie a fait flamber son pétrole (Liberation)
(News-Bulletin de M-Net)
2. The Muddle in Mauritania--Mauritanians warm to their coup
d'etat (News-Bulletin de M-Net)
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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 09:27:43 +0300
From: "News-Bulletin de M-Net" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [M-net] Comment la Mauritanie a fait flamber son pétrole
(Liberation)
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Le News-Bulletin de Mauritanie-Net, vous informe sur les actualites de la
Mauritanie email de la rédaction : mauritanienet at gmail.com
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Comment la Mauritanie a fait flamber son pétrole
Nouakchott renégocie avantageusement les contrats d'exploitation.
par Christophe AYAD
Nouakchott envoyé spécial
Liberation QUOTIDIEN du mardi 06 juin 2006
Quel est le pays qui va connaître la plus forte croissance au monde en 2006
avec 45 % d'augmentation de son PIB ? La Mauritanie. En recevant pour la
première fois 200 millions de dollars de recettes pétrolières, le budget du
pays va presque doubler. Evidemment, un tel pactole ne peut que susciter les
convoitises et attiser les fantasmes. Comment échapper à la malédiction qui
frappe la quasi-totalité des pays africains producteurs de pétrole, où l'or
noir finance quand il ne les suscite pas des guerres civiles et
appauvrit les populations ? Comment, surtout, «gérer» une opinion publique
persuadée que le pétrole va changer sa vie quotidienne et que ses dirigeants
détournent la majeure partie des recettes ?
*Poker menteur. *Après plusieurs mois de bras de fer, le gouvernement
mauritanien et la société australienne Woodside doivent signer aujourd'hui
de nouveaux contrats de partage de pétrole, mettant un terme à un jeu de
poker menteur qui a occupé le devant de la scène pendant plusieurs mois à
Nouakchott. Tout a commencé à l'automne. La junte, arrivée au pouvoir après
avoir renversé en douceur le président Ould Taya le 3 août 2005, découvre
des avenants au contrat de partage de recettes entre l'Etat mauritanien et
Woodside, le chef de file du consortium qui exploite le puits offshore de
Chingetti, qui doit entrer en service début 2006. Difficile de se prononcer
sur ces dispositions contractuelles, extrêmement techniques, mais il semble
bien que Nouakchott y perdait fiscalement. *«Il s'agit d'une spoliation
organisée dans des conditions irrégulières»,* déclarait à *Libération* à la
mi-mars le ministre secrétaire général de la présidence. Il chiffrait alors
le préjudice global de son pays à 1,5 milliard de dollars. A ce moment-là,
le ministre du Pétrole du régime déchu, Zeidane Ould Hmeida, est sous les
verrous depuis fin janvier, inculpé de *«crimes économiques», «corruption»,
«intelligence avec une puissance étrangère».* Les journaux distillent tous
les jours des révélations sur sa fortune cachée, sa maison luxueuse et ses
nombreux 4 x 4. La production a démarré le 26 février, dans le flou
financier le plus total.
A ce moment-là, les détracteurs de la junte faisaient remarquer pour leur
part que le gouvernement venait de signer un contrat tout aussi
désavantageux avec l'allemand Wintershall et que l'ex-ministre du Pétrole
appartenait à un pouvoir auquel participaient plusieurs membres de la
nouvelle junte. Pour preuve de sa bonne volonté, le nouveau pouvoir annonce
le versement de tous les revenus pétroliers sur un seul compte dans lequel
l'Etat puise selon ses besoins et uniquement sur autorisation du Parlement.
Le reste est affecté à un fonds pour les générations futures.
Le chef de la junte, Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, dénonce à la télévision le *
«vol»* du peuple mauritanien par les nationaux corrompus et les prédateurs
étrangers. En coulisses, les négociations se poursuivent. *«Les nouvelles
autorités jouent leur réputation sur cette affaire,* explique un diplomate.
*Si elles ne parviennent pas à un nouvel accord en bonne et due forme, le
pays va passer pour un partenaire pas fiable et où il est dangereux
d'investir.»* Le 30 mars, coup de théâtre : comme l'avait révélé le
quotidien *El-Amal el-jedid,* un accord est annoncé. Les anciens avenants
sont annulés, la compagnie australienne verse à Nouakchott un bonus de 100
millions de dollars et finance un fonds annuel pour la protection de
l'environnement d'un million. Comme par magie, la junte amnistie *«tous les
faits qui ont entouré la signature de ces avenants»* sous le régime Ould
Taya. Zeidane Ould Hmeida est libéré dans la nuit et raccompagné par un
cortège de voitures de proches, qui traversent Nouakchott klaxons bloqués.
*«Mirages». **«Le problème du gouvernement, aujourd'hui,* poursuit le
diplomate occidental, *c'est de faire retomber la pression après avoir
ouvert la boîte de Pandore du nationalisme économique.»* Le chef de l'Etat
s'y est employé la semaine dernière en dénonçant les *«mirages des
ressources épuisables que constituent le pétrole et les autres ressources
minières».* Mais pendant ce temps, à l'autre bout de la planète, la police
fédérale australienne enquête sur le versement de pots-de-vin de Woodside au
gouvernement mauritanien.
=====
INFORMATION : Les articles sélectionnés pour cette revue de presse ne
reflètent pas nécessairement l'opinion du comite de gestion de
Mauritanie-Net. Nous ne nous portons pas garant de la véracité et de
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la responsabilité des seuls auteurs. Nous vous prions de bien vouloir en
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Message: 2
Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 09:41:14 +0300
From: "News-Bulletin de M-Net" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [M-net] The Muddle in Mauritania--Mauritanians warm to their
coup d'etat
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Le News-Bulletin de Mauritanie-Net, vous informe sur les actualites de la
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<---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
The Muddle in Mauritania
http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/urbang/articles/20060605.aspx
June 5, 2006: In Mauritania, the government has alerted some troops for
possible operations on the frontier with Mali, after reports of clashes in
northern Mali between Touareg tribesmen and local villagers. There are
already some 35,000 Touareg refugees from Mali living in Mauritania, and
Mauritania would prefer not to have any more. As an added incentive, the
defeated Algerian Salafist movement, a violent Islamist sect, has had some
influence among the Touareg. As a result, several countries in the region,
including Mauritania and Mali, have concluded "hot pursuit" agreements. This
became more than just a suspicion last month, as police went looking for
three Algerian Islamic terrorists who escaped from jail in April 27th. The
pursuit uncovered many other supporters of Islamic radicalism, and led to
dozens of additional arrests over the past few weeks. Apparently, several
major terror attacks were planned, including kidnapping foreigners and
attacks on security forces. Mauritania had long resisted the idea that
Islamic radicals were plentiful in the country. But the last few weeks has
revealed a far different picture. Some of the men interrogated indicated
long participation in Islamic terrorism, in one case back to the 1998
bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa. American Special Forces have been
in Mauritania, and the surrounding Sahel region, for several years, based on
intelligence indicating this was an area al Qaeda would try to use for
refuge. That is turning out to be the case.
<---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
Mauritanians warm to their coup d'etat
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
from the June 06, 2006 edition
After a bloodless takeover last year, residents and other countries express
cautious optimism. By Claire Soares | Correspondent of The Christian Science
Monitor
NOUAKCHOTT, MAURITANIA ? It sounds like the plot of a bad African spy movie.
In a little-known country on the fringes of the Sahara Desert, where oil is
just about to start flowing, the president leaves on an overseas trip and
the army seizes power.
But what seemed like a potential disaster has played out surprisingly well
in Mauritania. The notion of a "good coup d'etat" might not figure in the
21st-century diplomatic handbook, but so far, that's what Mauritania appears
to have gotten.
Nine months after a bloodless ouster of President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed
Taya, residents say they are happy the days of police harassment and
self-censorshipare over. Analysts say that a tougher line by the new
military rulers is benefiting Mauritania's oil and fish industries.
The European Union resumed aid to the nation this month, perhaps spurred by
the military junta's promise to hold elections next March, five months ahead
of schedule.
"It's a bit of a one-off case. Probably a coup was the least worst option
[for Mauritania]," says Olly Owen, an Africa analyst at Global Insight, an
independent international forecasting group. "If you look at the measures
taken by the international community, they were absolutely the weakest
measures you could take against people seizing power over the barrel of a
gun."
Residents, who poured into the streets when Taya, under fire for corruption
and cronyism, was toppled, seem pleased so far.
"Since independence, we have not had a stable democracy here. But now ... I
am optimistic. Before, there were too many secret agents and you were always
looking over your shoulder or talking in whispers," says Pape Hamath
N'Gaede, a young computer technician in the sand-blanketed capital,
Nouakchott. "We are more at ease now, and there is at least hope."
But analysts caution that Mauritania still faces challenges in avoiding the
pitfalls of leaders who overstay their welcome and turn oil resources into
sources of blight rather than economic benefit.
"There are encouraging signs that we should receive with a certain caution.
We should applaud but not read too much into them," says Kurt Shillinger, a
research fellow at the South African Institute of International Affairs.
"Any time a country goes through a coup, it's necessary to retain a healthy
dose of skepticism."
Mauritania began producing oil in February at its Chinguetti site. The oil
minister has said he expects the state to make about $200 million a year
from the offshore field. That could boost the fortunes of Mauritania's 3
million people, two-thirds of whom live on less than $2 a day.
The revenue expectations reflect a new attitude toward foreign investment.
Toward the end of his rule, as his unpopularity soared, Taya cut unfavorable
deals in the interest of maintaining allies. But the military council
insisted that Australian oil giant Woodside amend a production-sharing
agreement just as Chinguetti was about to come on line. The council argued
that the previous agreement, made by a former minister who has since been
charged with fraud, were illegal and would cost them $1 billion over 10
years. The startup was delayed until Woodside backed down.
"Foreign companies were taught a lesson - that Mauritania will stand up for
itself," says Mohamadou Dia, an accountant at an oil firm.
The Chinguetti field, discovered in 2001, is now running at a top production
of 75,000 barrels a day. State officials hope the country will produce
300,000 barrels a day by the end of the decade. That would put Mauritania on
par with Equatorial Guinea, which went from no drilling to being sub-Saharan
Africa's third-largest producer in 10 years.
But even with its oil reserves and the accompanying spike in economic
growth, Equatorial Guinea has slumped further into poverty. That weighs on
the mind of Nouakchott residents like Mr. N'Gaede. "Before oil, we had fish
and iron ore that could have helped reduce poverty," he says. "And we saw
nothing; it evaporated into thin air."
The head of the junta, Col. Ely Ould Mohamed Vall has vowed that Mauritania
will not become a hotbed of corruption. He has signed the World Bank's
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, and pledged to put oil
revenues in an account that can be clearly monitored.
But Chad, Africa's newest oil producer before Mauritania, made similar
promises in return for World Bank support. Yet less than three years after
oil started flowing, President Idriss Deby ripped up the deal that committed
the country to putting most of its oil revenues toward poverty reduction and
10 percent to a "future generations fund."
"As the recent collapse of the World Bank/Chad arrangement shows, putting
oil revenues under a separate accountability 'roof' only goes so far," says
Mr. Owen. "There's no real substitute for proper audit procedures, and
recent assessments by the IMF note that Mauritania has weak capacity in this
department."
A key issue, say analysts, is whether domestic workers are tapped in lieu of
foreign workers, whose presence has roiled Africa's top exporter, Nigeria.
The country's new oil wealth is also concentrated in a few hands. Senior
civil servants say it will take time to undo a situation in which many of
the expatriate workers live in houses owned by Taya's family, and buy cars
from their dealerships.
But progress has been made, according to a recent report from the
Brussels-based think tank, International Crisis Group (ICG). "The regime has
taken some anticorruption measures, including creating an inspector
general's office, ratifying international conventions, and investigating the
ex-oil minister. But it needs to fairly allocate public contracts, challenge
private import and distribution monopolies, and more systematically fight
trafficking," it says.
The first test for Mauritania will come on March 11, 2007, when the junta is
to hold presidential elections in which none of its members will stand.
Hugh Roberts, co-author of the ICG report, sees hope in the fact that early
on, the rulers published a calendar of steps. The first of these - a
referendum on the constitution - is due June 25."Arguably, this is more and
better than most observers initially expected last August," he says.
Even if the junta does bow out, some Mauritanians are uneasy. "I have
confidence in the current guys," says Ahmed Abeid, a black-market
money-changer. "But after elections, who knows. We have little long-term
stability."
=====
INFORMATION : Les articles sélectionnés pour cette revue de presse ne
reflètent pas nécessairement l'opinion du comite de gestion de
Mauritanie-Net. Nous ne nous portons pas garant de la véracité et de
l'objectivité des informations publiées dans ces articles qui engagent
la responsabilité des seuls auteurs. Nous vous prions de bien vouloir en
tenir compte. Merci.
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