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afrol.com, 17 November - According to the governmental monthly, "La Gaceta", the oil production in Equatorial Guinea already has reached 200,000 barrels a day, Antonio F. Nve Ngu, spokesman of the Government, has declared. Oil production only started four years ago. Nve Ngu confirms that this production level "places Equatorial Guinea as one of the petroleum and financial empires with the most promising future and perspectives in the Central African zone, which will be translated into an increased development of the country and an improved quality of infrastructure and living standard for the inhabitants". Equatorial Guinea would indeed have the means of fulfilling these promising visions. With an oil production of 200,000 barrels a day, the country reaches one tenth of the Nigerian production (2,132,000 b/d according to the last OPEC quota). However, it has only 0.4% of Nigeria's population (450,000 as to Nigeria's 120 million). As the main reasons behind how this increase in oil production has been possible, "La Gaceta" mentions the important enhanced activities by companies like Mobil, in addition to the new oil extraction in the mouth of River Mbini by the multinational Triton. The Equatorial Guinean oil boom only started four years ago, and has already had a major impact on the national economy, such as the tripling of the GDP. On 29 October 1996, Equatorial Guinea and its partners, Mobil and the Houston-based United Meridian Corporation (UMC), celebrated the first oil production from the Zafiro field. It had only gone 18 months since its discovery. The following year, 1997, offshore petroleum production earned the country an estimated US$100 million, effectively doubling the gross domestic product overnight. Mobil's production was hovering at about 80.000 barrels a day from one single deep-water field code. Moreover, the entire oil rich zone of The Gulf of Guinea, from Angola, through Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon to Nigeria, is becoming an increasingly important energy source for the West. Angola is already supplying some 10% of US oil imports, and Nigeria is also a major source of oil for the US and Spain. International dependence of these countries is growing, and Western governments are keeping on friendly terms with whoever is ruling. As afrol.com has reported earlier, this is best illustrated by the U.S. government's sudden courting with the former arch-enemy governing in Luanda, but also by European reluctance regarding human rights in Equatorial Guinea. The boom in Equatorial Guinea keeps on growing. In March, the American Vanco Energy Company, through its subsidiary Vanco International Ltd., signed a Production Sharing Contract with the government of Equatorial Guinea for the Corisco Deep Block. The Corisco Deep Block lies offshore Rio Muni, bordering to Gabon. Vanco has a 100% interest in the block, and is the operator. Vanco is an international oil and gas exploration and production company based in Houston, Texas, with activity in Gabon, Morocco, Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal and is the leading deepwater acreage holder in West Africa. In Equatorial Guinea, where the new oil income should, in theory, insure a comfortable life for all, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has repeatedly pledged not to repeat the mistakes of neighbors, like Nigeria and Gabon, "that have squandered huge amounts of export earnings." The reality is, however, not so gloomy. All independent sources, from the Guinean opposition to the human rights agencies of the UN and the US, confirm that oil revenues only benefit the small ruling clan close to President Obiang, who rules the country as his own, personal property.
Despite having the second high GDP per capita in the region (after Gabon), the living standard of the majority Equatorial Guineans remains the poorest in the zone. Let alone the human rights situation, which only has worsened since the Government has started to protect its revenues from the potential envious. Sources: EFE, La Diáspora, La Gaceta and afrol archives
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