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LUANDA, May 19 (Reuters) - Oil industry leaders will converge on the Angolan capital Luanda this week for talks on how best to exploit resources from the world's poorest continent where few Africans benefit from its oil wealth. Their attention will focus on the Gulf of Guinea countries - Nigeria, Equitorial Guinea, Chad, Cameroon, Gabon, the Republic of Congo and Angola - a region dubbed the new Middle East Gulf because of its immense untapped resources.
'The Gulf of Guinea has potentially the largest oil reserves as far as offshore deep water oil is concerned,' said Obiajulu Okuh, an organiser for the annual Africa Oil & Gas conference set to open in Luanda on Tuesday.
The United States, which is keen to find energy sources outside the volatile Middle East, is sending a high-level delegation of government officials and oil executives. Africa accounts for 15 percent of U.S. oil imports, a figure experts say will rise to 25 percent by 2015. U.S. imports from Angola rose to $3.2 billion in 2002 from $2.3 billion in 1998. Angola accounts for 16.7 percent of all U.S. imports from Africa. Kevin Murphy, deputy assistant secretary for energy, environment and materials in the U.S. Department of Commerce, is scheduled to chair a session on African oil trade finance.
The U.S. group also includes executives from oil giants Chevron Texaco, Exxon Mobil, Conoco Phillips and oilfield services company Halliburton. Chevron Texaco and Exxon Mobil are already major players in Angola's lucrative offshore oilfields.
Despite immense oil wealth in countries such as Angola and Nigeria, most of their citizens live in poverty. The conference will seek ways to ensure governments improve the management of oil revenues for the benefit of their people. Host country Angola, sub-Saharan Africa's second biggest oil producer after Nigeria, has been criticised for the lack of transparency in its oil accounts. A visiting team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said last week the government was making progress, but much more needed to be done.
An IMF internal report last year alleged that around $1 billion vanished from Angolan government coffers in 2001, but Angolan officials have blamed accounting problems for the missing money. The United States, a major customer for the 900,000 barrels of oil per day produced by Angola, also recently said there was a need for more transparency in the country. Among other topics, the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which is a co-organiser of the event, will present financing proposals for new gas-to-power projects.
Delegates will also discuss the expansion of liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in Africa and negotiating certified emissions reductions with Western companies using the so-called 'clean development mechanism' created by the Kyoto protocol.
A group of Congolese Patriotic Union (
CPU) child soldiers wave their guns in
the streets of Bunia in the Democratic
Republic of Congo May 17, 2003. A
ceasefire signed by Congolese President
Joseph Kabila and members of militia
groups fighting for the town of Bunia in
eastern Congo took effect on Saturday.
REUTERS/Anjuguna Njuguna
REF: BUN03D
Congolese children stand behind razor
wire next to a United Nations compound
in Bunia after fleeing their village in
the Democratic Republic of Congo May 16,
2003. Fighting in and around the eastern
town of Bunia between armed militia
linked to the rival Hema and Lendu
tribes has brought more turmoil to a
region already devastated by war. Tens
of thousands of people have fled in
terror and are in desperate need of food,
water and shelter. REUTERS/Antony
Njuguna
REF: BUN06D
A woman whose arm had been hacked off
with a machete, sits in a hospital in
Bunia, a town in the Democratic Republic
of Congo May 17, 2003. A ceasefire
signed by Congolese President Joseph
Kabila and members of militia groups
fighting for the town of Bunia in
eastern Congo took effect on Saturday.
REUTERS/Anjuguna Njuguna
REF: BUN02D
Hema-allied rebel Congolese Patriotic
Union (UPC) soldiers wave their guns in
the streets of Bunia in the Democratic
Republic of Congo May 17, 2003. A
ceasefire signed by Congolese President
Joseph Kabila and members of militia
groups fighting for the town of Bunia in
eastern Congo took effect on Saturday.
REUTERS/Anjuguna Njuguna
REF: BUN07D
A Congolese Patriotic Union soldier
wearing an Osama bin Laden tee-shirt,
walks the streets of Bunia in the
Democratic Republic of Congo May 17,
2003. A ceasefire signed by Congolese
President Joseph Kabila and members of
militia groups fighting for the town of
Bunia in eastern Congo took effect on
Saturday. REUTERS/Antony Njuguna
REF: BUN03D.
An elderly Congolese woman is helped
down from a United Nations truck at
Bunia airport after fleeing her village
in the Democratic Republic of Congo May
16, 2003. Fighting in and around the
eastern town of Bunia between armed
militia linked to the rival Hema and
Lendu tribes has brought more turmoil to
a region already devastated by war. Tens
of thousands of people have fled in
terror and are in desperate need of food,
water and shelter. REUTERS/Antony
Njuguna
REF: BUN04D
A Congolese boy plays with a pile of
ammunition as he waits to board a plane
at Bunia airport in the Democratic
Republic of Congo May 17, 2003. Fighting
in and around the eastern town of Bunia
between armed militias linked with the
rival Hema and Lendu tribes has brought
more turmoil to a region already
devastated by war. REUTERS/Antony
Njuguna (PICTURE TAKEN 17 MAY)
REF: BUN06D
Thousands of Congolese villagers who
have fled their homes sell their
belonging at a outdoor market in Bunia
next to a United Nations compound in the
Democratic Republic of Congo May 16,
2003. Fighting in and around the eastern
town of Bunia between armed militia
linked to the rival Hema and Lendu
tribes has brought more turmoil to a
region already devastated by war. Tens
of thousands of people have fled in
terror and are in desperate need of food,
water and shelter. REUTERS/Antony
Njuguna
REF: BUN07D
A United Nations armoured personnel
carrier drives passed a crowded Bunia
airport in the Democratic Republic of
Congo May 17, 2003. Residents of the
east Congo town of Bunia said on
Saturday killings and kidnappings
continued despite a ceasefire signed by
President Joseph Kabila and militia
groups due to take effect on Saturday.
Reports indicated the warring factions
wanted to take control of Bunia airport
from the U.N, a U.N. officer said. The
airport is the town's only reliable
lifeline to the outside world. REUTERS/
Antony Njuguna (PICTURE TAKEN 17 MAY)
REF: BUN01D
A young Congolese refugee girl pepares a
family meal at a church compound in the
town of Ntoroko in Uganda May 18, 2003.
Fighting in and around the eastern
region of Ituri in eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo between armed tribal
militia linked to the rival Hema, Lendu
and Ngite tribes has brought more
turmoil to a region already devastated
by war. About 100,000 people have fled
to neighbouring Uganda in fear of terror,
kidnappings,killings and cannibalism,
and are in desperate need of food,
water and shelter. REUTERS/Patrick
Olum
REF: NAI08
A soldier from the Congolese Patriotic
Union carries a gun on the streets of
Bunia in the Democratic Republic of
Congo May 17, 2003. A ceasefire signed
by Congolese President Joseph Kabila and
members of militia groups fighting for
the town of Bunia in eastern Congo took
effect on Saturday. REUTERS/Antony
Njuguna
REF: BUN06D
A fleeing Congolese woman carries her
belongings past a UN armoured personnel
carrier in Bunia, in the Democratic
Republic of Congo May 17, 2003. Fifteen
French soldiers and other countries will
visit Bunia in the coming days to
determine whether a French deployment is
necessary. Fighting in and around the
eastern town of Bunia between armed
militias linked with the rival Hema and
Lendu tribes has brought more turmoil to
a region already devastated by war.
REUTERS/Antony Njuguna (PICTURE
TAKEN 17 MAY)
REF: BUN02D
A young Congolese girl stands behind
razor wire in a United Nations compound
in Bunia after the family fled their
home in the Democratic Republic of Congo
May 16, 2003. Fighting in and around the
eastern town of Bunia between armed
militia linked to the rival Hema and
Lendu tribes has brought more turmoil to
a region already devastated by war. Tens
of thousands of people have fled in
terror and are in desperate need of food,
water and shelter. REUTERS/Antony
Njuguna
REF: BUN05D
A group of Congolese villagers fleeing
their homes board a plane at Bunia
airport May 16, 2003. Fighting in and
around the eastern town of Bunia between
armed militia linked with the rival Hema
and Lendu tribes has brought more
turmoil to a region already devastated
by war. Tens of thousands of people have
fled in terror and are in desperate need
of food, water and shelter. REUTERS/
Anjuguna
Njuguna
REF: BUN01D
A Congolese resident of eastern DRC
arrives in the border town of Ntoroko in
Uganda May 17 2003. She is carrying
her belongings while fleeing fighting
from militias fighting for the control
of the Ituri region. Killings and
kidnappings continued despite a
ceasefire signed by President Joseph
Kabila and militia groups. REUTERS/
Patrick
Olum
REF: NAI02D
Congolese refugees from eastern DRC
arrive by boat on lake Albert at the
border town of Ntoroko in Uganda May 17
2003. They were fleeing from militias
fighting for the control of the Ituri
region. Killings and kidnappings
continued despite a ceasefire signed by
President Joseph Kabila and militia
groups. REUTERS/Patrick
Olum
REF: NAI06D
