China Wins $700 Million Afghan Oil and Gas Deal — Why Didn’t the U.S. Bid?
December 29th, 2011The article below states that, “China has not participated in the war effort,” but it fails to mention that China financed the war by purchasing hundreds of billions of dollars worth of U.S. debt.
Just a guess: Maybe some of those debt purchases came with strings attached. U.S. elites got their nonsense war, a bunch of opium and wealth transfer to the mercenary industrial complex, and China will wind up with what’s in the dirt.
Via: Christian Science Monitor:
In a deal finalized on Wednesday, China’s National Petroleum Corporation became the first foreign company to tap into Afghanistan’s oil and gas reserves. Chinese officials have estimated that the deal could be worth at least $700 million, but some say China could earn up to 10 times that.
China has not participated in the war effort, but it has managed to gain the biggest stake in Afghan minerals. In 2007, China inked a $3 billion deal securing access to copper mines in Mes Aynak, south of Kabul.
The latest Sino-Afghan agreement strengthens the Asian nation’s foothold here and could benefit the economic development of Afghanistan. With few viable industries in Afghanistan, Western forces here looking for a way to restore economic independence and stability have long touted the country’s mineral resources.
Good guess, Kevin. I think some perspective is in order though. $700 million or even 10 times that ($7 billion) is still less than 1% of the debt the U.S. has to China (over $1 trillion). And that opium trade is probably in the 100s of billions, so this oil and gas deal really is peanuts in comparison.
Who said this was it?
There’s between $1 and $3 trillion worth of rare earth minerals there as well.
i agree, good guess.
random crack-brained theory of the day: the US is betting that those oil fields will be ablaze and totally unusable by some point in the next 1-2 years.
Exploration and mining operations are extremely expensive and production does not happen overnight. Cultivating, production and smuggling of opium / heroin is a breeze compared to mining and not to mention extremely profitable $$$. Business sense tells me the military complex controls the already established opium production and trade with China controlling natural resources still deep in the ground.