Getting In On African Oil
A great many conservatives are seriously steamed about George Bush even thinking about sending American soldiers to fight and possibly die in some Liberian Rumble in the Jungle.
Liberal Democrats only advocate putting American soldiers in harm’s way when they perceive no US national security interest. Whenever there is such an interest, they are dependably opposed. Thus they were against the War in Iraq but are now all for Americans getting shot in Liberia by rival gangs of heavily armed thugs stoned on marijuana.
The last place in the world American soldiers should be sent to is some anarchic hell-hole in Africa. Very few African countries have any viable existence, being make-believe constructs of 19th century Western Europeans playing at building colonial empires. This is especially true of the region of West Africa. Yet if one were to try and discern an important issue of genuine national security to the United States regarding West Africa, there is only one. You guessed it: oil.
All along the coast of West Africa, oil companies are reporting the discovery of enormous amounts of offshore crude oil. This is right across the Atlantic Ocean from us. There is a lot of talk now in Washington think-tanks and on the Hill about how we badly need to replace Saudi Arabia as our, and the world’s, oil lynchpin. This is GW’s goal in the current attempt to create a stable democratic Iraq and in the near-future attempt to do the same in Iran.
Even so, we cannot be dependent for oil on the Middle East as a whole, nor, the thinking goes, upon Russia either. We need a backup, and a big one. That’s why eyes on the world map are now focusing on West Africa.
Thus the argument that political stability in West Africa is required to attract the huge capital investment necessary to extract all that oil.
You may remain less than convinced this is a strong enough case to send American soldiers to Liberia. But you should also be asking yourself, “How could I get into this and make some money in the West African oil game?”
That brings me to a tiny place called Gambia. A former British colony penetrating into Senegal as far as British gunboats could go up the Gambia River, this is a pleasant peaceful place with a stable democratically elected government, and a judicial system based on British law. It has beautiful beaches attracting a lot of tourists (many of them German women who seem to have an inordinate lusting for young Gambian men).
Gambia doesn’t have any oil. What it does have is a government that realizes crude oil must be refined in order to use it.
An privately-held American company with significant experience in private-sector infrastructure projects in West Africa, Global Management Group (GMG), has been granted the exclusive right to build, own, and operate the sole oil products storage depot in Gambia, and subsequently, a 250,000 bpd (barrels per day) crude oil refinery. The Gambian government has granted 1,000 acres of land to GMG and located it in a tax-free zone. The Gambian investment code provides for 100% foreign ownership of the depot and full repatriation of dollar profits. Financing from the African Development Bank for the refinery is currently being arranged.
Within 10 years, over 20% of US oil imports may be from Africa. No new oil refinery has been built in the US for over 20 years. Located on the tip of Africa’s western bulge right on the Atlantic, Gambia is an ideal location to process African crude to be shipped to America. Once GMG completes the oil storage depot, it gets the green light for the refinery.
I know the fellow who runs GMG, Bruce Gilfix, who once crossed the length of eastern Tibet with me. I asked him if there was any way my TTP subscribers could get in on this. After all, even a tiny piece of the profits from processing 90 million barrels of oil a year is interesting. He said yes. Strategy Advisors will put you in touch with Bruce. They can be reached at 240-988-1406.
Just remember, should you get involved and end up at one of the luxury hotels or beaches of Banjul (Gambia’s capital) someday, watch out for those German tourist ladies.