By one important official indicator, the most recent report of the Energy Information Administration on U.S. total crude oil and products imports, published on May 25, 2007, America has already advanced significantly in its effort to wean itself from dependency on hydrocarbons originating in the volatile Persian Gulf: this past March, Nigeria edged past Saudi Arabia to become our third largest supplier, delivering 41,717,000 barrels of oil to the desert kingdom's 38,557,000.
When one adds Angola's 22,542,000 barrels to the former figure, the two African states alone now supply more of America's energy needs than Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates combined.
This is all the more remarkable when one considers that, as I reported in this column three weeks ago, the militant activities of the relatively small Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) over the course of the last eighteen months has "had the cumulative affect of cutting Nigeria's total oil production by almost one-third."
Yet for all its global importance as well as strategic significance for U.S. national interests, the Gulf of Guinea has seen comparatively few resources poured into maritime security, a deficit which only worsens when one considers the scale of the area in question and the magnitude of the challenges faced. Depending on how one chooses to define the gulf region, it encompasses roughly a dozen countries with nearly 3,500 miles of coastline running in an arc from West Africa to Angola. While the security of the oil production facilities, both onshore and offshore, and the transport of the natural resources thus derived – especially, as I pointed out last year, since they are such inviting targets for attack by transnational terrorist groups like al-Qaeda seeking to wage economic war against the West – is perhaps of paramount concern, there are other maritime domain vulnerabilities in the Gulf of Guinea ...
I've noted this, too. While I didn't think AFRICOM was necessary to defend our interests in the region, it couldn't hurt. As long as we recognize our interests.
As to how we defend our interests in this nearly ungovernable region? That's several pay grades above me ...
