Post #77

🇨🇲 Old Biya's Oil Legacy Cameroon's then Prime Minister Paul Biya straightened his tie as he went to office - probably he did not even suspect that on this day an event occurred that would forever change the future of his country. It was a rainy day of November, 1977 and it was the day when Cameroon pumped out its first gallon of oil for sale. As the 92-year-old President is going to leave his throne one way or another, it's high time to assess what his presidency has given to Cameroon, in our case through the prism of its mineral wealth. Biya kicked off his 43-year long séjour in office when French company Elf Aquitaine had already become a monopolist developer of Cameroon's off-shore oil deposits, controlling nearly 3/4 of the national oil output at some point. It took next to nothing for the new president and corporates to find a common ground and a common interest. One day, I was received at the Cameroonian presidency by President Paul Biya. He needed 45 million for his campaign ... They need cash and they need this cash to escape from their Finance Minister. recollected Alfred Sirven, ex-manager of Elf Aquitaine in 2009 The french company supposedly supported Biya in all his elections in 1982 - 2000. In return, the president didn't bother himself to establish any resemblance of financial discipline in oil. For the first time oil revenues appeared on the state's budget sheets in 1989, a dozen years after oil started generate income for Elf. As a result, in 1977-2007 Cameroon's public budget lost at least $7 BILLION, according toan IMF study of 2012. Those who steal from one person spend their lives in shackles and chains - those who steal from all people, in purple and gold. Elf passed away in 2000, but its legacy lived on. With corrpution soaking into all layers of the state bureacracy, it's no surprise that not only Biya himself, but also his national oil refinery SONARA and national oil company SNH got also tainted by bribery: in 2012-2015 Anglo-Swiss Glencore was caught disbursing some $11 million in exchange for favourable treatment and non-market prices for crude oil. The most unpleasant part of this story is that a country where oil accounts for nearly 40% of exports (50-60% if natural gas is counted), still doesn't posess its any refining capacity of its, except for the state-owned SONARA refinery suspended 7 years ago, which makes it dependent not only on crude oil exports, but also on petroleum imports. Meanwhile, with Biya's 43 anniversary in power looming ahead on November 6, 2025, his country's GDP per capita, stands at the same level that saw his ascension to power in 1982. Devils Below