Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power
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11. Anchorage Daily News, January 31, 2002.
12. Interview with Jeffrey Short.
13. Interview with David Page (MR).
14. All quotations from interviews with Jeffrey Short and David Page (MR).
15. Ibid.
CHAPTER SIX: “E.G. MONTH!”
1. Interview with Frank Ruddy.
2. This summary is drawn from three overlapping accounts of Equatorial Guinea’s short, brutal history: Roberts, The End of Oil; Ghazvinian, Untapped; and Maass, Crude World.
3. Quotations and details: Len Shurtleff, “A Foreign Service Murder,” Foreign Service Journal, October 2007.
4. 10 percent: Teodoro Obiang Nguema quoted in SecState to Yaounde, September 14, 2001. Except where indicated, the author obtained the State cables quoted in this chapter through a Freedom of Information Act request.
5. Roberts, op. cit.; Ghazvinian, op. cit.; and Maass, op. cit.
6. Interview with Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
7. Interview with Frank Ruddy.
8. “Thanks”: Interview with Teodoro Obiang Nguema. That Juan Olo negotiated without bankers or lawyers: Interview with an adviser to Obiang.
9. Documents, including extensive internal Riggs memos and e-mails, obtained and published by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Committee on Governmental Affairs, United States Senate, July 15, 2004. Hereafter “Riggs documents.”
10. Yaounde to Washington, July 13, 1999, obtained by the author.
11. Abuja to Washington, September 9, 2005 (W).
12. “We should put”: Interview with the adviser to Obiang. Five thousand dollars: Riggs documents, op. cit.
13. Riggs documents, ibid.
14. SecState to Monrovia, February 24, 2001; Yaounde to Washington, March 2, 2001.
15. SecState to Yaounde, March 2 and March 16, 2001.
16. SecState to Yaounde, March 16, 2001. Africa Global appears to have wound down its operations. Calls to a Louisiana public affairs firm that manages the name plate on its Web site were not returned.
17. All quotations, SecState to Yaounde, April 12, 2001.
18. Ibid. Also SecState to Madrid, July 27, 2001.
19. All quotations, SecState to Yaounde, September 14, 2001.
20. Yaounde to Washington, October 28, 2002.
21. Yaounde to Washington, January 30, 2003.
22. All quotations, Yaounde to Washington, January 29, 2002.
23. Ibid.
24. Wall Street Journal, January 10, 2006.
25. Up to $3 million in cash; “The president . . . P.R. firm”: Riggs documents, op. cit.
26. Riggs documents. Plane features: Roberts, The Wonga Coup.
CHAPTER SEVEN: “THE CAMEL AND THE JACKAL”
1. “Poor to non-existent . . . corruption”: N’djamena to Washington, February 8, 2006, from a State Department cable released to the author in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. All other quotations from Christopher Goldthwait’s collection of letters, which were made available to the author by Ambassador Goldthwait. Hereafter “Goldthwait letters.”
2. Fifteen hundred doctoral degree holders: Fortune, April 16, 2001. Chari floodplain: ExxonMobil PowerPoint slides, released by Esso Chad. Upstream skills groups and reorganization: Interview with a former ExxonMobil scientist.
3. “Visit of Chad President,” State Department Bulletin, 1987.
4. English translation of the 1988 convention made available to the author by Ian Gary. “You don’t have time . . . he wanted”: Interview with Salibou Garba.
5. Rosemarie Forsythe as prodigy: LeVine, The Oil and the Glory, p. 211. Forsythe’s role: Interviews with oil industry and former Clinton administration officials. April planning exercise: Interviews with ExxonMobil executives.
6. Interviews with ExxonMobil executives, ibid.
7. “The good Lord didn’t see fit”: Dick Cheney, Cato Institute, June 23, 1998. Simeon Moats: Interviews with former government and intelligence officials who consulted with Moats after he joined ExxonMobil. Hank Cohen and quotations: Interview with Hank Cohen.
8. All Tom Walters quotations: Testimony Before House Subcommittee on Africa, April 18, 2002. Rex Tillerson quotation: New York Times, May 16, 2001.
9. “The notion . . . go down well”: Skjærseth, “ExxonMobil: Tiger or Turtle?” “The biggest thing . . . comfortable”: BusinessWeek, April 9, 2001.
10. Remarks at “The Politics of Development and Security in Africa’s Oil States,” Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies, April 2, 2009.
11. For a thorough account of the World Bank plan, see Gary and Reisch, “Chad’s Oil: Miracle or Mirage,” Catholic Relief Services.
12. Philippe Le Billon: Remarks at “The Politics of Development and Security,” op. cit. “The Chadians came in”: Interview with an industry security executive. “There were regular . . . the abuses”: N’djamena to Washington, July 6, 1999 (cable obtained by the author from a confidential source).
13. Remarks at “The Politics of Development and Security,” op. cit.
14. “The oil project . . . pristine poverty”: Testimony by Donald Norland before House Subcommittee on Africa, op. cit.
15. Author’s correspondence with Hassaballah Soubiane, translated from his original French.
16. Ibid.
17. Lawrence Summers’s letter of August 14, 2000, made available by Ian Gary.
18. N’djamena to Washington, July 6, 1999.
19. All quotations, Goldthwait letters, op. cit.
20. Ibid.
21. Harry Longwell: Fortune, April 16, 2001; Gary and Reisch, op. cit.
22. Interviews with two individuals familiar with the N’djamena station.
23. Ibid.
24. Interview with Karen Kwiatkowski (BVH).
25. National Intelligence Council: “Global Trends 2015,” http://www.dni.gov/nic/NIC_globaltrend2015.html. Walter Kansteiner: From author’s transcription of the conference.
26. Quotation from author’s interviews with a U.S. official involved.
27. Interview with Salibou Garba.
28. All quotations from Goldthwait letters, op. cit.
29. “Snapshot Summary,” Esso Exploration & Production Chad, Inc., Chad Export Project Update no. 13, 2003.
CHAPTER EIGHT: “WE TARGET OIL COMPANIES”
1. Frank Sprow; all biographical details and quotes: Interview with Frank Sprow.
2. ExxonMobil’s $100 million contribution: ExxonMobil Web site, examined and typed.
3. All quotations, interview with Kert Davies.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Letter and memo to John H. Marburger, assistant to the president for science and technology, from Brian P. Flannery, March 18, 2002.
7. The ExxonMobil Foundation.
8. Oreskes, “Behind the Ivory Tower.”
9. Dressler and Parson, The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change, p. 3.
10. Details of the raid: “Greenpeace Unlawful Entry to ExxonMobil Corporation Headquarters,” letter from Kenneth P. Cohen to Lon Burnam, July 1, 2004; Associated Press, May 27, 2003; Fort Worth Star-Telegram, May 28, 2003. Tom Cirigliano: Dallas Morning News, May 28, 2003.
11. Public Interest Watch: Form 990, August 1, 2003.
12. New York Times, April 19, 2004.
13. Securities and Exchange Commission, “Concept Release on Possible Revisions to the Disclosure Requirements Relating to Oil and Gas Reserves,” December 12, 2007.
14. “This marks the tenth year”: “ExxonMobil Replaces Production for Tenth Year in a Row,” February 18, 2004, press release. “Continued high-quality additions”: “ExxonMobil Replaces Production for Ninth Year in a Row,” January 28, 2003, press release.
15. “A well-established”: ExxonMobil Form 10-K, February 28, 2007. Also, interviews with managers and executives who participated in the reserve counting system.
16. Interview with an executive involved with the process. Intervie
w with Mark Gilman.
17. ExxonMobil 10-K filings and annual press releases, op. cit.
18. Steve LeVine, ForeignPolicy.com, February 16, 2011.
CHAPTER NINE: “REAL MEN—THEY DISCOVER OIL”
1. Interview with Lee Raymond.
2. Arbogast, Resisting Corporate Corruption; Time, July 28, 1975.
3. Forbes, August 5, 2009.
4. Interview with Lee Raymond.
5. “Liquefied Natural Gas: Understanding the Basic Facts,” Department of Energy, August 2005.
6. “Balancing Natural Gas Policy: Fueling the Demands of a Growing Economy,” National Petroleum Council, September 25, 2003. http://fossil.energy.gov/programs/oilgas/publications/npc/03gasstudy/npcgas03_preface.pdf.
7. Reuters, June 21, 2005.
8. Coll, Ghost Wars, p. 398.
9. New York Times, December 2, 1998. “sour lemon”: Author’s interview with a person who attended.
10. “I have to say . . . more talks”: BusinessWeek, July 14, 1975.
11. Bloomberg, April 3, 2011.
12. Course of gas negotiations: Interviews with individuals familiar with the Saudi gas project.
13. Details about the Al-Hamra attack: National Association for Business Economics, May 15, 2003; Los Angeles Times, May 17, 2003.
14. Interview with Lee Raymond.
15. Ibid.
16. The causes of the failure of the Saudi negotiations have been reported in the New York Times, June 24, 2002, and the Washington Post, June 6, 2003. Raymond’s outlook, the final meeting with Al-Faisal, and all quotations from interviews with individuals familiar with the negotiations.
17. All quotations from interviews with executives and directors involved.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
CHAPTER TEN: “IT’S NOT QUITE AS BAD AS IT SOUNDS”
1. Interviews with current and former ExxonMobil executives.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Interviews with a former ExxonMobil manager.
5. Interviews with Lee Raymond.
6. Interviews with current and former ExxonMobil executives.
7. “the charm of a con man”: Sidney Jones, writing an obituary in the Independent, May 15, 2003; Jendrzejczyk died at age fifty-three. “meeting over”: Interview with an activist who met with Exxon executives during this period. “We’re doing a great job”: Interview with Arvind Ganesan.
8. Interview with Arvind Ganesan.
9. All quotations from “Notes for a Presentation to ExxonMobil,” October 27, 2002, provided to the author.
10. Interview with Bennett Freeman.
11. Interview with a former ExxonMobil executive familiar with Lee Raymond’s reaction.
12. Interview with a former senior BP executive.
13. Chief Executive, April 2001.
14. Interviews with ExxonMobil executives.
15. Chief Executive, op. cit., and Browne, Beyond Business, pp. 197 and 234.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: “THE HAIFA PIPELINE”
1. All quotations from “Post-War Planning,” statement by Douglas J. Feith, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, February 11, 2003. Examined and typed at: http://policy.defense.gov/sections/public_statements/speeches/archive/former_usdp/feith/2003/february_11_03.html. “the fucking stupidest”: Woodward, Plan of Attack, p. 281.
2. “literally nothing”: Donald Rumsfeld’s remarks during an Infinity Radio call-in program, November 15, 2002, as reported by CBS News. War aims, Douglas Feith statement: Senate Foreign Relations Committee, op. cit.
3. Daniel Yergin: Washington Post, December 8, 2002.
4. 115 billion barrels of proven reserves: The Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy cited this figure in 2007; it attributed the estimate to the Oil & Gas Journal. The E.I.A. noted in its “Country Analysis Brief” for Iraq that the 115-billion-barrel estimate dates to 2001 and was based “largely on 2-D seismic data from nearly three decades ago.” Updated technology may reveal “an estimated additional 45 to 100 billion barrels” of recoverable oil, the E.I.A. said. Iraq’s pre-invasion production hovered around 3 million barrels per day; Iraqi planners believed that figure might be raised to 6 million barrels per day with substantial investment. Saudi Arabia announced plans in 2005 to raise its production capacity to about 12.5 million barrels per day; in 2008, it produced just under 11 million barrels per day.
5. Interview with Tariq Shafiq.
6. “We’re not here for the oil”: Interview with an administration official who received the talking points. Paul Bremer quotations: Washington Post, June 23, 2003.
7. Interview with Philip J. Carroll Jr.
8. Future of Iraq Project, Oil and Energy Working Group, Subcommittee on Oil Policy, Summary Paper, April 20, 2003, p. 5. A redacted version of the paper was declassified and published by the National Security Archive: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB198/FOI%20Oil.pdf.
9. Arile Cohen, and Gerald P. O’Driscoll Jr., “The Road to Economic Prosperity for a Post-Saddam Iraq,” Heritage Foundation Backgrounder no. 1594, September 24, 2002.
10. “broad-based, mass privatization”: “Moving the Iraqi Economy from Recovery to Sustainable Growth,” U.S.A.I.D., quoted in Chandrasekaran, Imperial Life in the Emerald City, p. 115. “This was part . . . resurfacing”: Interview with an administration official involved in the discussions.
11. Interviews with Gary Vogler and Michael Makovsky.
12. Interviews with Gary Vogler, Michael Makovsky, and a third Bush administration official involved.
13. Philip Carroll would resign: Interview with a former National Security Council official. All quotations: Interview with Carroll.
14. A copy of the memo was provided to the author by a C.P.A. official other than Philip Carroll.
15. Feith’s history and thinking about oil security are from interviews with Douglas Feith.
16. Both quotations from “Some Historical Lessons from the World Oil Market,” Pentagon PowerPoint Briefing, April 28, 2005, provided to the author by Douglas Feith.
17. Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, and Paul Wolfowitz: Interviews with former Bush administration officials, and Michigan Daily, March 30, 2011; Sunday Times (London), March 4, 2011.
18. Doubled to $18.5 billion: “China, Africa, and Oil,” Council on Foreign Relations Backgrounder, June 6, 2008. $44 billion: Presentation by Bo Kong, at “The Politics of Development and Security in Africa’s Oil States,” Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, April 2, 2009.
19. Interview with a former intelligence official involved in the review.
20. Interview with David Gordon.
21. “Some Historical Lessons from the World Oil Market,” op. cit.
22. Interview with Aaron Friedberg. Interview with David Gordon.
23. Interview with Aaron Friedberg.
24. Interview with a Bush administration official.
25. Interview with a former National Security Council official.
26. ExxonMobil’s scenario planning, “an element of surge . . . really happen”: Rex Tillerson remarks, “A Conversation on Energy Security,” Council on Foreign Relations, March 9, 2007.
27. Ibid.
28. All quotations, “A Conversation with Lee Raymond,” Charlie Rose, PBS, May 6, 2004.
29. “A Conversation on Energy Security,” op. cit.
CHAPTER TWELVE: “HOW HIGH CAN WE FLY?”
1. “Was fortunate at this critical time” and “transform the relationship”: BBC News, November 15, 2001. “looked the man . . . soul”: BBC News, June 16, 2001.
2. Don Evans and Vladimir Putin, all quotations: Interviews with former Bush administration officials.
3. Moscow to Washington, June 3, 2002. The State Department cables relied on for this chapter were obtained by the author through a Freedom of Information Act request.
4. Early thinking about Russia strategy: Interviews with former Bush administration officials involved.
“I think all of us at the senior level”: Interview with Spencer Abraham.
5. U.S. Energy Information Administration: http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/analysis_publications/oil_market_basics/sup_image_worldprod.htm#Former%20Soviet%20Union. The E.I.A.’s historical estimates of Soviet production do not break out separate figures for Russia, but assuming that non-Russian production was similar in 1988 to what it was immediately after the Soviet breakup, Russia’s peak production would have been about 10 million barrels a day.