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Glance at
the History and Invest at your own peril |
The news that a foreign company, Gail India
Ltd in this case, has yet again been
short-listed to develop the oil and gas
fields in Ogadenia only shows Tigrian
futility in finding investors willing to
throw away their hard earned money at a war
zone. At a time when the world is thirsty
for oil and gas and many oil companies are
prospecting all over the globe in search of
the next hidden oil and gas reserves, is
there not a reason why most of the Shells,
Exxon Mobils, and BPs of this world are
shying away to even put a bid in either of
Calub and Hilala gas fields which contains
approximately about “3.7 (trillion cubic
feet-TCF) and 1.3 TCF respectively”?.
We say to those foolish enough to even
consider putting bids on investing on the
gas fields, glance at the long history of
these fertile fields in the middle of a war
zone and invest at your own peril.
There is a long history of successive
Ethiopian regimes wanting to prospect gas
and oil in Ogadenia. Colonial desire on the
part of Ethiopia to extract gas from these
gas fields not for the benefit of the Ogaden
citizens but for their own selfish reasons
has never seized. The current Tigray led
regime in Addis Ababa explored every avenue
in attempting to find potential investors
yet every sage investor backed away from the
deal because of security reasons.
There is a long list of companies such as
Secor of America -1998, SI-Tech
International –SIL of Panama-2003, that
signed agreements with the current regime
yet could not even set foot on the gas
fields for the simple reasons of security
and personal safety.
It is worthy to mention here that even the
World Bank at one point invested and then
cancelled a $70 million loan guarantee for
the Calub and Hilala gas fields. Although
the reason given officially by the World
Bank at the time was the lack of
privatization of the government run company
managing the gas fields however those privy
to the inner workings of the Bank believe
that the main reason was the realization by
the Bank the impossibility of developing the
gas fields without resolution of some sort
of the Ogaden conflict.
It is not the first time and of course it
will not be the last time bidding processes
are put in place by the current Tigray led
militia in Addis Ababa for the Ogaden
fertile gas fields of Calub and Hilala.
However potential investors should do their
homework by looking at the political history
of Ogadenia. Good feel messages to counter
ONLF warning to potential investors by
Ethiopia’s misinformation ministry should be
considered as baseless propaganda meant to
lull potential investors’ concerns about the
insecurity prevalent in and around these gas
fields. It is the very same reason that time
and time again most of the world’s big oil
companies shied away from considering
investment in these oil fields so long as
the current colonial subjugation of the
Ogaden citizenry continues.
We stand for the development of our people
however instead of putting the cart before
the horse the Tigray regime in Addis Ababa
should first resolve the Ogaden issue. As
long as the current colonial situation in
Ogadenia exists, no investment to benefit
the few kleptomaniacs in Addis Ababa will
neither be permitted nor tolerated. We the
editorial board, applaud ONLF’s latest
warning to potential investors. We say to
the potential investor glance at the history
of Ogadenia and then invest at your own
peril.
editorial@ogaden.com
Ogaden Online Editorial
April 27, 2006 |
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