Post #149

⚔️ Resource Nationalism Is Getting Litigious 🌐Investor–state fights over oil, gas, and mineralshave hit a 10-year high. No fewer than 32 resource cases have already been filed at the World Bank’s arbitration court in 2025 - more than in all of last year. Most involve oil and gas, with Latin America leading the tally. Africa accounts for 10 cases, including Niger, Tanzania, the DRC, Mali, Morocco, and Senegal. ⏩For all the talk about lithium and cobalt, the biggest share of disputes still comes from plain old oil and gas — 17 of 32. Energy-transition headlines haven’t reshaped the legal battlefield as much as one might expect. ⏪ 🔸 Governments are under growing pressure to show value at home. Budgets are tight, elections loom in many places, and anti-colonial (let’s say “resource-nationalist”) rhetoric is widely deployed against incumbents. 🔸The critical-minerals race adds a new layer: every major license revocation is now quickly labeled a geopolitical pivot and an unfair move demanding counteraction rather than co-optation. The U.S.–China contest over critical minerals is the backdrop. 🔸 But commodity prices matter most. With many minerals - including gold and copper - trading near highs, governments seek extra revenue, imposing new tax and local-content rules that weren’t anticipated at the planning stage. The geographic distribution of cases shows that the drive to rein in resource companies extends far beyond Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger— and far beyond Africa itself. Devils Below