{"id":181118,"date":"2021-03-22T12:00:08","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T12:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=181118"},"modified":"2025-01-10T15:06:18","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T15:06:18","slug":"u-s-military-turns-somalia-into-a-failed-state-for-shell-and-exxon-mobil-to-steal-its-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/03\/u-s-military-turns-somalia-into-a-failed-state-for-shell-and-exxon-mobil-to-steal-its-oil\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Military Turns Somalia into a Failed State for Shell and Exxon-Mobil to Steal Its Oil"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
U.S. Special Forces soldier trains Somali operative. [Source: geeskaafrika.com<\/a>]<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

15 Mar 2021 – <\/em>\u201cUnited States foreign policy in Somalia has always sided with the wrong side.\u201d That\u2019s how Mohamed Haji Ingiriis, a young Somali historian studying for his doctorate at Oxford, summarized Washington\u2019s legacy there in an interview with CovertAction Magazin<\/em>e.<\/p>\n

Instead of promoting what it claims to\u2014peace, stability, \u201cnation-building\u201d\u2014the U.S. government, Ingiriis elaborates, keeps Somalia \u201cwartorn,\u201d a \u201cfailed state.\u201d The Somali people pay the cost\u2014the ultimate cost, in thousands upon thousands of deaths\u2014as a result. But not everyone loses.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A Somali woman carries wood to make a shelter in an internally displaced people (IDP) camp on December 18, 2018 as hundreds of people recently fled from southern Somalia where the U.S. conducted airstrikes against al Shebab, in Baidoa, the autonomous South West State of Somalia. [Source: somalitopnews.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cA promising new frontier for oil exploration\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Petroleum industry analysts call Somalia \u201cpromising<\/a>,\u201d \u201cone of the last<\/a> truly unexplored oil frontiers.\u201d And major firms are keen to profit there. Shell and ExxonMobil, for example, paid Mogadishu $1.7 million in 2019 for 30-year rights to offshore blocks, and Somalia launched \u201cits first offshore oil and gas exploration licensing round<\/a>\u201d last year to attract other companies.[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"
[Source: offshore.nrdigital.com<\/a>]<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Developments like these suggest Somalia\u2019s business climate is improving, after decades of conflict made it an unattractive, if not unviable, investment site. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank recently heralded the country\u2019s financial reforms, for example, citing its Petroleum Act, oil production sharing agreements, and related measures as key developments.[2]<\/sup><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

But if Somalia is open for business, it is a victory for state violence.<\/p>\n

Because to create a legal and political landscape in which oil firms can profit, the perpetually weak, unpopular Somali government had to fight to extend its reach beyond Mogadishu in order to secure control of new territories at the expense of Islamist militants like al-Shabaab. In this fight, the Somali government and its allies\u2014Ethiopia and the U.S.\u2014have brutalized the Somali public.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the fastest-growing sources of oil for the American market\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

TO CONTINUE READING THE REPORT Go to Original – covertactionmagazine.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

15 Mar 2021 – \u201cU.S. foreign policy in Somalia has always sided with the wrong side.\u201d That\u2019s how a young Somali historian studying for his doctorate at Oxford summarized Washington\u2019s legacy there. Petroleum industry analysts call Somalia \u201cpromising,\u201d \u201cone of the last truly unexplored oil frontiers.\u201d Shell and ExxonMobil paid Mogadishu $1.7 million in 2019 for 30-year rights to offshore blocks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":181120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[237,131,867,1441,232,1126,1050,1105,780,769,754,1967,95,70],"class_list":["post-181118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","tag-africa","tag-africom","tag-anglo-america","tag-big-oil","tag-capitalism","tag-hegemony","tag-imperialism","tag-military-industrial-complex","tag-military-intervention","tag-military-supremacy","tag-oil","tag-somalia","tag-us-military","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284901,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181118\/revisions\/284901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}