China selling off Kenya oil rights it got for free

By A STAFF WRITER
The EastAfrican

There was outrage among European oil exploration companies interested in Kenya when it emerged last week that the state-owned National Oil Corporation of China — CNOOC — has quietly put out notices offering to farm out to third parties some of the oil exploration blocks granted to it by President Mwai Kibaki in April last year.

The EastAfrican has seen a brochure the Chinese company distributed at the London Africa and Mediterranean Scout Check meeting recently.

In an unprecedented act of generosity, the government of Kenya last April gave the Chinese exclusive rights over a total of six out of 11 available blocks, including the hotly contested Blocks 9 and 10A in the Mandera area.

Major European oil exploration companies have protested that they were unable to access Kenya even as the country emerges as the new frontier in the ferocious global battle between Europe and China for the world’s oil resources.

So dominant has China become in the oil exploration scene in Kenya that CNOOC alone now controls 28 per cent of the total oil exploration acreage in Kenya.

The latest action by the Chinese is deeply controversial, coming only months after CNOOC refused pleas by the Ministry of Energy to partner with Cepsa of Spain or Lundin of Sweden and allow the Europeans to explore for oil in some of the acreage the Chinese were literally hoarding.

In the brochure the Chinese put out in London, they said they were willing to farm out to third parties at a fee the acreage Kenya has given them for free.

“What does the Kenya government gain in this transaction?” asked a representative of a European oil-prospecting firm that has put an application for exploration acreage.

In the brochure, CNOOC announced that it is interested in farming out a portion of its working interests in Kenya for “cash,” future cost or a combination of the two; “alternatively, a proposed swap of acreage will also be considered,” it adds.

http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/News/news26020717.htm

this will get big attention in the years to come. I posted a link to a video from China about "building socialism" a while back and no one seemed interested. Chinese officials are being ordered to watcha film about how the USSR fell apart so that they don't make the same mistake. They want to use globalization to spread 'global socialism" by having friendly relations with the third world, to combat US "global capitalism". Noam Chomsky has talked about this. CHina is very excited about all the socialists coming to power in Latin America as well.We had a speaker at our antiwar meeting a few weeks ago who is a specialist on African affairs and travels there often. Most Africans like China and view them as a positive force in the region and the world. To say the least...they definately don't view the US this way. Not only are many foreign businesses sitting on socialized property in China, not only do they own much of our debt, but now because of globalization they can expand their state owned "socialized" businesses to other countries and also go into joint ventures with Vietnamese, Cuban and other state owned busiensses to create a "global socialism". This is going to get REALLY interresting.

Thanks for the info.

Also, SOuth Africa is moving towards a socialist path with thier new budget surplus. Funding lots of social programs and pledging to stop any further privatizations and even re-nationalize some parts of the economy. They are getting really chummy with China as well...

Nuclear "power plant" development. Pakistan is in big trouble because they have to keep up but to do so they have to keep the US ties which have kept Pakistan on its knees. They're pretty uncomfortable and Musharref is very weak politically.

in the next 10 years as capitalist imperialism and global trade and pollution worsens it will push the world to the very brink and the new "Chinese lead socialism" will become more powerful than the USSR ever was..we will see it spread to Latin America and Africa..possibly some former Eastern European states and Russia, while the EU becomes the new dominant capitalist economic power possibly aligned with the US. Remember a majority in Russia and many eastern European countries want a soviet style system back and if they think the Chinese will help them gain some of the things they lost, and if we keep building bases around them and cutting off their energy supplies..they may just side with them.

in Europe, many countries are banning communist parties and the EU is considering anti-communist bills. Many communist parties all over the world as pushing their members to study the China model...I think the EU knows what is coming.

They're going to get very desperate.

Britian and others if not openly, silently supported the invasion of Iraq? Or pushing sanctions on Iran.

Latvia, Denmark, not European but Australia, and others. Also, they let our CIA conduct secret missions and many support Iran sanctions. Many of the countries cannot openly support war because too much of their population opposes it, but they can support sancitons and US military bases which strengthen our hand..

The big ones (against but silently "helped") were Germany and France who have huge energy contracts with Gazprom. By opposing the war they kept the oil flowing. Who can fault them for a little assistance.

I also think about the event this summer where Israel fired a few warning shots over a german warship; a part of the UN sanctioned military force in the Israeli/Lebanese cease fire. Why?

Well I'd say that Israel is a little bit nervous about having German Ships so close. Maybe I'm off but then again Shroeder did go to work for Gazprom and Merkl is all buddy buddy. Chirac is about the same. Then again we get oil from Russia too. It gets complicated.

how are military developments in the middle east and neighboring countries going to effect the overall outcome. I believe we are likely looking at that scenario in a sence, but ultimately what we're looking at is the creation of a new broader "UN" of sorts and this will have a big effect on the globalization of the planet.

the more the US is hated, the more countries in Africa and Latin America will allow Chinese state owned firms into their economies and form joint ventures with them. In effect these countries economies will become socialist oriented in the sense that their "commanding Heights" will be run by the state, especially as socialist or pro-Chinese governments are elected. The Chinese are doing this all without military threat. Also, since we and also Europe have signed trade agreements with China, I am not sure if China could access our or Europes market with state owned firms. They are already talking about creating state owned joint ventures with Venezuela and Cuba. Much of the foreign business in China has Chinese labor unions and/or sits on "socialized" property..so if they ever really wanted to get nasty they could probably take it or pass stringent laws on them...and they also own a lot of our debt..so if we continue on our current march over the cliff..they could do the opposite of the World Bank and rather than demand that we privatize our economy to pay off debt..demand that we let their State Owned Firms IN! The Cinese are very intelligent and I don't think they have given up on world communism. I think this is a big reason for PNAC rushing to take over the Middle East...we are trying to snatch up resources before China does....

even if you nuked every major city in CHina their population would be larger than ours. CHomsky says the US is HORRIFIED of China.

The economy of the People's Republic of China is the fourth largest in the world when measured by nominal GDP. Its economic output for 2006 was $2.68 trillion USD. <1> Its per capita GDP in 2005 was approximately US \ $1,709 (US $7,204 with PPP), still low by world standards, but rising rapidly. As of 2005, 70% of China's GDP is in the private sector. The smaller public sector is dominated by about 200 large state enterprises concentrated mostly in utilities, heavy industries, and energy resources. <2>.

Since 1978 the People's Republic of China (PRC) government has been reforming its economy from a Soviet-style centrally planned economy to a more market-oriented economy but still within the political framework, provided by the Communist Party of China. This system has been called "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" and is one type of mixed economy. These reforms started since 1978 has helped lift millions of people out of poverty, bringing the poverty rate down from 53% of population in 1981 to 8% by 2001.<1>

All rural and much city land is still under government control as are the banks and the ability to control currency. Although, private business has returned, the state still plans the economy. For example, they were afraid too many cars were being manufactured so they tripled taxes on cars and the companies building them to slow it down. If you are a marxist as the Chinese government claims to be..Marx advocated social ownership of property and the main parts of the economy..which Cina has. He never said money, income disparity, or small business would disapear. I have strong disagreements with democracy, human rights, and environmental issues in CHina but I believe they, Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela ect may have found a very formidable economic system.

They are now going through the industrial revolution. Wait for the social revolution in fifty years.

On the other hand I agree whole heartedly. And in fact Islam will continue to spread as well.

has talked about social revolution. Women and minorities are already given the limited rights that the majority Chinese men get and Hu has talked about democracy. many villages and towns elect their own officials now and housing and farming co-ops are poppoing up and democratically run as part of the new "Socialist Countryside" campaign. I believe the socialist economic system of China and South America is ultimately superior to that of the US. During the Asian recession Vietnam, Laos, and China were the only countries who kept growing at a high rate economically while all the free market capitalist countries neared collapse..

You may be giving it more credit than it deserves at the moment.

perhaps a better test would be to wait for the industrialization to end and then see if it continues to work?

It has faced some disasters lately and its not going to get better. Its banking system needs a revamping as well. They are as much at the mercy of foreign investors and markets as we are suppliers. In addition there was a movie I heard about recently called China Blue (interviews with producer on AAR) about factory conditions absolutely horrible.

the pollution and human rights are really bad. I simply meant holding power of the banking system and commanding heights of the economy was a good thing.

We are at this point unlikely to ever see direct attacks on China or Russia in my opinion.

it would be war by proxy, like during the Cold War. The wars will take place in the countries who are unfortunate enough to have the resources..