Post #313

Yes, Indeed, “Local Partners”... [ Cost of Greed ] 🇦🇴 The Angolan government systematically requires companies that want to operate in the country to enter joint ventures with “local partners”. In reality, these “partners” are often members of the elite and well-connected oligarchs who divert oil revenues away from the population. 🌟 Perhaps the most notorious case came in 2009, courtesy of the entourage of José Eduardo dos Santos, Angola’s President from 1979 to 2017. Unfortunately, Angolan officials were not particularly inventive: the corruption scheme was a classic one — let a foreign company in on preferential terms, while demanding stakes in its subsidiaries for individuals in the ruling elite. 💵 To enter the Angolan oil market in 2009, the Swiss firm Trafigura aligned itself with one of the era’s key power-brokers and corruption figures, General Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento (better known as General “Dino”). 🤝 Trafigura and General Dino created the joint venture DT Group (DT = Dino and Trafigura). It secured a de facto monopoly on supplying all refined petroleum products to Angola and engaged in exporting part of Angola’s crude abroad. Through another company — Cochan, also tied to Dino — Trafigura built a nationwide network of fuel stations. ⚙️ This joint venture enabled Trafigura to set up one of its most lucrative arrangements. Upstream, Trafigura obtained crude oil from the state company Sonangol at preferential prices. Downstream, it supplied Angolans with fuel refined overseas through its service stations. 👁 Despite the mind-numbing simplicity of the scheme and its public exposure, the main actors walked away unscathed. After a change of leadership in 2017, General Dino simply exited the stage and vanished. Trafigura continues to operate in Angola today and even owns part of the railway connecting Angola with the DRC. 🔖 I first learnt about this case in The World For Sale: Money, Power, and the Traders Who Barter the Earth's Resources by Javier Blas and Jack Farchy. #CostOfGreed Devils Below