West beams security focus on Gulf of Guinea oil

LUANDA (Reuters) – Western experts worried about the security of oil supplies from Africa’s Gulf of Guinea have considered several doomsday scenarios, including suicide attacks by determined Islamist militants on offshore oil platforms.

But many analysts say domestic unrest is by far the bigger threat to a region whose oil is growing in strategic importance to the West because of increasing volatility in the Middle East.

Gulf of Guinea producers Nigeria, Angola, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea and promising newcomer Sao Tome & Principe already supply 16 percent of U.S. energy needs and the figure is projected to rise to 25 percent by 2015.

Their governments are generally weak, and giant Nigeria is grappling with internal unrest over the distribution of oil wealth — something analysts fear could be exploited by Islamist militants targeting U.S. and other Western interests globally.

Reuters