Sunday, February 26, 2012

Security for Oil

"Nice country ya got here.  It'd be a real shame if something happened to it."

Britain is hot to trot for Somalia or, to be specific, Somalia's oil.   And, it's trying to get a leg up on the competition by offering the country humanitarian aid and security assistance.  In particular the Brits are offering Somalia help in suppressing Islamist insurgents.

"Riven by two decades of conflict that have seen the emergence of a dangerous Islamic insurgency, Somalia is routinely described as the world's most comprehensively "failed" state, as well as one of its poorest. Its coastline has become a haven for pirates preying on international shipping in the Indian Ocean.

...Somali prime minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said his government had little choice but to entice western companies to Somalia by offering a slice of the country's natural resources, which include oil, gas and large reserves of uranium. "The only way we can pay [western companies] is to pay them in kind, we can pay with natural resources at the fair market value."

British commanders are currently evaluating the prospects for RAF air strikes against Somalian insurgents.

2 comments:

LeDaro said...

Brits should join Harper and US to explore fuels on the Moon. The new source of fuels, gold, platinum and much more.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/02/26/mining-on-the-moon-canada-space_n_1302106.html?ref=canada

Beijing York said...

Wasn't there an Islamic Clerics Council that had brought some long term stability to Somalia until Bush decided to root out Al Qaeda Somalia Inc? They did it by proxy - sending in Ethiopian troops and setting up a provisional government.

And as with other US/EU/NATO interventions, Somalia is reduced to failed state status again.