Haiti’s untapped oil, gas and mineral wealth
Beneath the rubble and tragedy of Haiti lies what some geophysicists believe may be one of the globe’s richest zones for oil and gas hydrocarbons outside the Middle East.
The same tectonic plates of North America, South America and the Caribbean that rub together to cause earthquakes, also form one of the world’s most active geological zones, and can push vast volumes of oil and gas up from the Earth’s mantle, according to economic researcher and anti peak oil theorist F. William Engdahl.
In an article titled The Fateful Geological Prize Called Haiti, he explains that the country lies in an unusual zone that may be straddling one of the world’s largest unexplored zones of oil, gas and valuable rare strategic minerals.
The massive oil reserves of the Persian Gulf and the region stretching from the Red Sea into the Gulf of Aden are apparently at a similar convergence zone of large tectonic plates. So to are oil-rich zones in Indonesia and offshore California.
“In short, in terms of the physics of the earth, precisely such intersections of tectonic masses as run directly beneath Haiti have a remarkable tendency to be the sites of vast treasures of minerals, as well as oil and gas, throughout the world,” Mr. Engdahl writes.
He points out that in 2005, after Haiti’s first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was ousted, University of Texas geologists began mapping the geological data of the Caribbean Basins. The sponsors of the project are Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and BHP Billiton.
Mr. Engdahl goes on to ask why the region hasn’t been mapped earlier, particularly given the vast oil production that exists off Mexico, Louisiana, and the entire Caribbean, along with a focus on energy security in the United States.
“Now it emerges that major oil companies were at least generally aware of the huge oil potential of the region long ago, but apparently decided to keep it quiet.”
He theorizes that a U.S. military occupation of Haiti under the guise of earthquake disaster ‘relief’ would give Washington and private business interests tied to it a geopolitical prize of the first order.
Meanwhile, Haitian Lawyers’ Leadership Network founder Marguerite “Ezili Danto” Laurent, suggested that the United States, France and Canada are engaged in a balkanization of the island for future mineral control. This is also supposedly being done under the guise of emergency relief work.
She cites rumours that suggest Canada wants the North of Haiti, where it already has mining interests. The United States apparently has its eyes set on Port-au-Prince and the island of La Gonaive just offshore, which has been identified as having vast oil resources and is bitterly contested by France. Meanwhile, China is cited as potentially objecting to such a division of Haiti’s wealth given its veto power at the United Nations.
Clearly, everybody wants to get in the earthquake business in some way or another, notes Jerry Mazza. And while conspiracy theories abound about the motivations behind foreign aid coming to Haiti, the possibility of vast amounts of resources below the surface presents a promising possibility for a country in such desperate need.
Photo: A Haitian woman carries a sack of rice through the ruins of buildings in downtown Port-au-Prince on February 04, 2010. The January 12 earthquake that hit Haiti killed around 170,000 people and left one million homeless and short of medicine, food and water in the impoverished Caribbean nation of nine million people. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images)
I am sorry "observer". I live in Canada (British Columbia) and because we have so much pristeen and undisturbed natural environs, we can see much more clearly the climate change devastation that is occurring, to our forests, our rivers and our ice. Might I suggest you stop reading "anything" and believing anybody and pay a visit out into your own wilderness areas and see for yourself. You don't need science journals nor even to participate on either side of the debate. Simply open your eyes and look! If that doesn't convince you then you are truly blind!
And Dexter Aoki ….do you really have so little knowledge of the history of oil and it's corporatization, and how this evil has effected the worlds poor? Look closely at Africa and see what oil greed has done for the local people, when oil companies begin to syphon off their wealth for the corporate interests of Exxon Shell etc…… The people of Haiti would see very little of any trickle down of wealth from these abusive methods of accessing hydrocarbons. Their country would be polluted beyond recognition in very short order. And also "administered by the US"?? What claptrap!! Do you really believe the U.S has the answer to everything on the planet? Get your own house in order before you go back to your old empire building ways. Those days are gone and I for one am glad. How about we just help them by forgiving the massive debt load placed upon them over the years. And then give them the scientific assistance to reestablish their infrastructure and develop wind farms, and wave technology, there in Haiti as a laboratory for the world, including marine systems to bring more efficiency to their fishing industry. As well as tourism and education aid? Maybe we can just be better neighbors and stop always needing an "American" style corporate solution to every problem. Corporatism is not the solution to mankinds problems sir! American style corporatism is in effect the reason the planet and it's peoples have become more and more economically enslaved over the last 50 years!
You are confusing the damage caused by corruption with the effects of commerce. It is a fact that virtually any country mainly dependent on oil for revenue simply stop all other paths to development. Iran, Nigeria etc… all perfect examples of what NOT to do. Maybe we should consider what the Haitians want and not be so self important. Just because the Americans are delivering 90% of the actual aid does that means Americans are bad. What about the French who let Haiti become a festering hell hole?
James – perhaps you haven't noticed how the Global Warming ( er, I mean Climate Change ) hoax has been unfolding in the last few months. Falsified data, articles from mountain climbing magazines parading as science saying the ice caps of Kilimanjaro are disappearing (according to the IPCC, the International Panel of Climate Criminals who delete data points when it screws up there pre-determined findings). Hydrocarbons are not damaging the environment and in spite of all the BS hype about green energy there is nothing viable in our future to replace oil . Read some real science and not the "by consensus" kind. A good book that will clear things up is The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming – it's amazing the number of false premises that were used under the guise of science in the largest hoax ever perpetrated upon the world.
I noticed NONE of the websites claiming man caused global warming have ANY data past 2007. If you look at 2008 / 2009 there was considerable cooling. According to the Canadian gov't the polar ice thickened by 10cm to 20 cm. Equatorial temps set record lows around the globe. In 1968 there were 1,850 official ground temp recording stations. Today with all of our concern on warming we have a total of 136 station in the lower 48 states. Almost all of the remaining stations are located within the heat zones of major cities. In other words stations out in the country that read lower temps have been dropped!
Very recently a astrophysics professor produced a major work on Earths heat gain / heat loss and solar radiation. His work was peer reviewed and nobody has found any errors in his math. The basic gist of the work is that the artificial constant used by Al Gores friends to predict heat gain is totally out of the ballpark, by a huge order of magnitude. In other words the claims of 6 of 8 degree rise in a few decades would violate the laws of physics. The possible effects of CO2 rise would be maybe a 1 degree rise in 100 years, to put it in rough terms. None of the global warmers seems to mention any data past 2007. Perhaps because all the actual data does NOT support the CO2 / warming correlation. The IPCC software predicting all the terrible things doesn't even include the Gulf Stream / or El NIno / La NIna effects. Also that software does NOT match the actual geological record, so it has been proven 100% WRONG!
As they point out, let us not forget that this nation sits on one of the most active fault lines on the planet and no amount of safety standards can prevent another, even more devastating upheaval. The risks would certainly appear to outweigh the benefits of accessing another load of climate damaging hydrocarbons or as a convenient source of any other commodity . Given the enormous costs alone, perhaps it would be better to focus first on the safety and quality of life of the people, before we begin to allow corporatism to steal their wealth again! This article is an example of the unfeeling and blind value judgements prevalent in the corporate domain. Shame! shame! shame!
How do you propose to better the lives of the Haitian people if there is no industry? A dose of oil wealth administered by the US is precisely what the Haitian people need. Part of the profits could fund the building of educational and medical facilities that would assure the future prosperity of the local populace. What else could be the catalyst for the betterment of the living conditions for so many uneducated people.
I supported the part you said "steal their wealth again". No more……………………..