Clashes show planet heading into energy overdrive

Sudanese Oil Minister Awad Ahmad al-Jaz turns the tap to start pumping oil again from the war-damaged Heglig oil facility May 2, 2012, 12 days after occupying South Sudanese troops left the area. / AFP/Getty Images

(TomDispatch) Conflict and intrigue over valuable energy supplies have been features of the international landscape for a long time. Major wars over oil have been fought every decade or so since World War I, and smaller engagements have erupted every few years; a flare-up or two in 2012, then, would be part of the normal scheme of things. Instead, what we are now seeing is a whole cluster of oil-related clashes stretching across the globe, involving a dozen or so countries, with more popping up all the time. Consider these flash-points as signals that we are entering an era of intensified conflict over energy.

From the Atlantic to the Pacific, Argentina to the Philippines, here are the six areas of conflict -- all tied to energy supplies -- that have made news in just the first few months of 2012:

• A brewing war between Sudan and South Sudan: On April 10th, forces from the newly independent state of South Sudan occupied the oil center of Heglig, a town granted to Sudan as part of a peace settlement that allowed the southerners to secede in 2011. The northerners, based in Khartoum, then mobilized their own forces and drove the South Sudanese out of Heglig. Fighting has since erupted all along the contested border between the two countries, accompanied by air strikes on towns in South Sudan. Although the fighting has not yet reached the level of a full-scale war, international efforts to negotiate a cease-fire and a peaceful resolution to the dispute have yet to meet with success.
  
  This conflict is being fueled by many factors, including economic disparities between the two Sudans and an abiding animosity between the southerners (who are mostly black Africans and Christians or animists) and the northerners (mostly Arabs and Muslims). But oil -- and the revenues produced by oil -- remains at the heart of the matter. When Sudan was divided in 2011, the most prolific oil fields wound up in the south, while the only pipeline capable of transporting the south's oil to international markets (and thus generating revenue) remained in the hands of the northerners. They have been demanding exceptionally high "transit fees" -- $32-$36 per barrel compared to the common rate of $1 per barrel -- for the privilege of bringing the South's oil to market. When the southerners refused to accept such rates, the northerners confiscated money they had already collected from the south's oil exports, its only significant source of funds. In response, the southerners stopped producing oil altogether and, it appears, launched their military action against the north. The situation remains explosive.
• Naval clash in the South China Sea: On April 7th, a Philippine naval warship, the 378-foot Gregorio del Pilar, arrived at Scarborough Shoal, a small island in the South China Sea, and detained eight Chinese fishing boats anchored there, accusing them of illegal fishing activities in Filipino sovereign waters. China promptly sent two naval vessels of its own to the area, claiming that the Gregorio del Pilar was harassing Chinese ships in Chinese, not Filipino waters. The fishing boats were eventually allowed to depart without further incident and tensions have eased somewhat. However, neither side has displayed any inclination to surrender its claim to the island, and both sides continue to deploy warships in the contested area.
  
  As in Sudan, multiple factors are driving this clash, but energy is the dominant motive. The South China Sea is thought to harbor large deposits of oil and natural gas, and all the countries that encircle it, including China and the Philippines, want to exploit these reserves. Manila claims a 200-nautical mile "exclusive economic zone" stretching into the South China Sea from its western shores, an area it calls the West Philippine Sea; Filipino companies say they have found large natural gas reserves in this area and have announced plans to begin exploiting them. Claiming the many small islands that dot the South China Sea (including Scarborough Shoal) as its own, Beijing has asserted sovereignty over the entire region, including the waters claimed by Manila; it, too, has announced plans to drill in the area. Despite years of talks, no solution has yet been found to the dispute and further clashes are likely.
• Egypt cuts off the natural gas flow to Israel: On April 22nd, the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation and Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company informed Israeli energy officials that they were "terminating the gas and purchase agreement" under which Egypt had been supplying gas to Israel. This followed months of demonstrations in Cairo by the youthful protestors who succeeded in deposing autocrat Hosni Mubarak and are now seeking a more independent Egyptian foreign policy -- one less beholden to the United States and Israel. It also followed scores of attacks on the pipelines carrying the gas across the Negev Desert to Israel, which the Egyptian military has seemed powerless to prevent.

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Michael Klare is a TomDispatch regular, professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College and the author, most recently, of "The Race for What's Left: The Global Scramble for the World's Last Resources." To listen to Timothy MacBain's latest Tomcast audio interview in which Klare discusses global energy conflicts, click here or download it to your iPod here. This piece originally appeared on TomDispatch. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

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[TimeToEvolve]

When you let greedy, filthy rich corporations get so big that even national governments bow down before their might, this is what you get. Generally corporations are by nature fascist organizations where you have to listen to the dictator or else and exist only to make money above laws, people and environment.

[prohb]

No, we are not entering 'energy overdrive'.

We are entering a world, which is getting more and more populated, still addicted to the dwindling resource of fossil fuels. And everyone in the 'second' and 'third' world now wants what we have (because of the infrastructure we created) - gas guzzling independent transportation - commonly known as 'cars'..... among other things petroleum is used for.

We are entering a world of 'energy underdrive'.

[democracy8]

While oil is (and may always be) necessary for certain things, e.g., plastic, we COULD significantly REDUCE our consumption of oil by investing in alternate energy sources. I'm sure someone will come on here and make some comment about Solyndra (which they will do more for the purpose of bashing Obama than anything else), but I find it shameful that CHINA is leading the development of the market in alternate energy sources while the US sits on its hands. Part of the reason that the US economy was so prosperous after WWII was that the government DID subsidize/invest in R&D in innovating new technologies.

[rightbehind]

The rest of the planet is running off and leaving us in the muck of big oil.

[rightbehind]

Energy is raining down on top of us. Solar is the way to go.

[gwrigley]

You are right on the money! However capitalism will continue exploit oil until there is no more. It's so sad that millions have, and millions more will, die in the fight for oil when we could get it all from the sun. Until we replace for profit corporations with for people corporations nothing will much will change. That's why I support Jerry White for President. I know he won't make much of a showing, but in time the Socialist Equality Party will grow stronger as the greedy corporations pay less and less and send more and more jobs over seas. I pray for the end of this horrible, greedy system that puts individual profit ahead of everything else. The USA is the world leader in unfettered capitalism, and ranks at the bottom of the civilized world in everything of real importance, such as health care for all, living wages, and equality of all citizens. However the USA does rank number one in gun deaths, murders, children shot, and we have 5 times the rate of people incarcerated as the rest of the world. At least we are first in some things.