After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the United States and its allies froze Russian assets at will, and ran to Syria to steal oil, but other countries did not dare to move US assets. Now, as a small African country, Chad has directly confiscated the US oil company, breaking people's perception.
American oil and gas giant ExxonMobil
Chad plundered U.S. assets, and U.S. oil companies suffered heavy losses
Chad is located in the middle of Africa, where war and civil violence rage rage, and even though the country is rich in oil reserves, more than half of the population is still struggling with poverty. But it is such a country that dares to nationalize the assets of the US oil and gas giant ExxonMobil in the country, or the decision made by the Chadian government itself, which means that the investment of US oil companies in Chad will be lost.
Chad began exporting oil two decades ago, and ExxonMobil has been operating there for more than a decade. Late last year, the oil company had intended to sell Chadian assets to a British oil company for $400 million, but Chad's dissatisfaction with some of the terms led to a disagreement. And so there is the scene today.
Moreover, ExxonMobil has a small amount of assets in the region, owning nearly half of Chad's Toba oil project, which contains seven fields and can produce a total of about 30,000 barrels per day. Importantly, the project also includes an oil pipeline from the interior of Africa to the Gulf of Guinea, which is now also owned by Chad.
U.S. Vice President Harris embarks on a tour of Africa
The influence of the United States in Africa declined, and the US vice president rushed to Africa
In the face of Chad's toughness, BP is dissatisfied, but it is difficult to reverse the decision of the Chadian government. This kind of private confiscation of other countries' assets is certainly not worth advocating internationally, but there are not many countries that dare to touch US assets in this world. If the United States does not ask, there will certainly be more countries that are dissatisfied with the United States in the future to follow Chad's example.
Seeing the gradual decline of U.S. influence in Africa, U.S. Vice President Harris set off for Africa, declaring that the focus of the trip was to increase investment in Africa and establish long-term and deep friendships with African countries. At last year's U.S.-Africa summit, the United States announced that it would invest $55 billion in Africa, but it paid lip service.
Not long ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin not only announced that he would cancel Africa's $22 billion debt, but also shipped free food to Africa, which also made the United States more worried. Especially in the context of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the United States has encountered many challenges in the Middle East and Latin America, which highlights the importance of Africa.
Second Russian-African Parliamentary Conference
The US policy toward Africa has major flaws and is difficult to capture the hearts of Africa
Since the beginning of this year, the United States has sent five waves of people to Africa, but even the United States itself is not very optimistic about the effect. First of all, the reason why the United States is optimistic about Africa is on the one hand to win over Africa to isolate Russia, and on the other hand, it is also out of domestic political needs, after all, African-American voters are an important source of votes for the Democratic Party.
As a result, the U.S. investment strategy in Africa is not sustainable, offering favors when needed, but delaying the delivery of promises. Moreover, infrastructure construction and industrial cooperation are not the strong points of the United States. Most importantly, Africa needs mutual respect, not taking sides, and U.S. cooperation based on great power competition is also quite objectionable to Africa.
The reason why Chad fell out with the United States this time is also because in the process of cooperation, the United States has planted the root cause by supporting non-governmental organizations to constantly interfere with the decision-making of the Chadian government and try to control the economic lifeline of Chad. For Africa, the United States lacks long-term accumulation, and if it still wants to use Africa as an arena for great power competition, coveting Africa's oil and gas resources, it is only a matter of time before Africa is lost.
(Editor: Zhu Yao Review: Gu Dong)