El boom petrolero ecuato-guineano y sus implicaciones para el proceso de regionalización centroafricano

Abstract

In the mid-90s, Equatorial Guinea (former Spanish colony in the Gulf of Guinea) went through an oil boom that placed it in the position of first oil producer in the Franc zone and third one in the Gulf (right after Nigeria and Angola). Equatorial Guinea’s case has a special interest for oil geopolitics as a discipline, because it took place in a particular global context, marked by: (a) the 11 September terrorists attacks, followed by growing instability in the Middle East region, which detains the biggest oil reserves in the world; and (b) the important transformation of the European Union’s development cooperation, with the arrival of the new Cotonou Agreements. In this way, the first factor is linked to the United States’ security of energy supply, which nowadays pays special attention to the Gulf of Guinea, while the second one offers us the key to understand how this small republic in the Gulf has become a serious candidate to the position of regional leader.