On Saturday the president of Chad, Idriss Deby, gave the large oil companies of Chevron and Petronas a 24-hour deadline to leave his country. Deby said, “Chad has decided that as of tomorrow [Sunday] Chevron and Petronas must leave Chad because they have refused to pay their taxes.” The decision to expel the oil giants came after Deby mentioned that the government should take a larger role in Chad�s oil production as a means to improve their economy. According to a government spokesman, the president stressed that Chad should �fully enjoy its oil, mining and other resources”.

Currently, a national oil company is being established in Chad to take over the oil fields once held by the American company of Chevron and Malaysian company of Petronas. The fields account for 60 percent of the country�s oil production. From October 2003 to December of 2005 they exported 133 million barrels of oil from Chad, with the impoverished country only earning 12.5 percent on each barrel exported. Exxon Mobil holds the remaining 40 percent of the country’s existing oil production.

I just hope President Deby knows what he�s doing. In 1951 Dr. Mossadegh nationalized Iran�s oil industry, and the CIA immediately moved in to replace him with a pro-western puppet. I doubt the current administration would even think twice about replacing Deby with a pro-western dictator who�ll let foreign oil corporations suck Chad dry. Of course it also doesn’t help that Chad has open diplomatic relations with Iran, currently. Judging from history and the assumption that Chevron has more pull in Washington than Chad’s ambassador, I�d say President Deby�s country is in for a regime change. Taking Deby out could also create instability with neighboring Sudan and/or civil war from rebels within.

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