The Impact of Maritime Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea on the European Energy Security

Prepared by the researcher  – Zouaoui Lamia, Ph.D. Student – University of Batna-1- Elhadj Lakhder, Batna/Algeria

Democratic Arab Center

Journal of Afro-Asian Studies : Fourteenth Issue – August 2022

A Periodical International Journal published by the “Democratic Arab Center” Germany – Berlin

https://democraticac.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Journal-of-Afro-Asian-Studies-Fourteenth-Issue-%E2%80%93-August-2022.pdf

Abstract 

In order to fill its energy needs after Russia’s gas embargo that accompanied the Ukrainian crisis, European countries have sought new suppliers to fill the energy deficit. In this regard, the African continent emerged as a complement to meeting the energy demand of European energy security, but in another side Africa is a continent that suffers from Asymmetric threats like piracy and terrorism, which hinder supply operations, especially in the gulf of Guinea which is consider as one of the most dangerous areas.

Introduction:

  The geopolitical crises spread around the world threatens the different forms of security, including human security, environmental security and energy security. Currently, the nations and communities are living under the chaos of international interactions within the international system, political bickering, and internal racial and identity problems. The tension of these threats increased after the international system entered in a transitory phase, which is characterized by the striving of the revisionist powers to find a new international situation that allows more participations of the non-western forces. The role of these forces was neglected since the end of the cold war and the beginning of the unipolarity featuring the United States of America, the greatest force that has a wide economic and military spread within different areas of geopolitical interaction.

 One of the main international powers that strives for revisionism is Russia, the country that aims to change the patterns of international interaction and make it more versatile and less unjust concerning wealth display. Russia worked on passing its political agenda and standing against the western expansion within its Eurasian areas, and that is through military methods as well as political ones. Military wise, Russia included the Crimean Peninsula by force, and launched a military campaign against Ukraine whose events are still ongoing; whereas politically, Russia used energy, especially natural gas resources, to subdue the European forces that has an almost absolute dependence to the Russian gas.

 In light of this critical situation, the European countries, combined, are trying to find new regions that supply energy resources, in fact, the Gulf of Guinea is on top of these regions since is it very rich in resources that can cover the European energy deficit. This deficit is a result of the unsettlement of the global energy market in addition to the disruption of the supply operations related to the international political situation. However, the gulf poses new security problems related to the augmentation of the maritime piracy phenomenon that negatively effects the shipping operations of energy resources toward Europe. This leads us to ask the following research question:

How does the maritime piracy in the Gulf of Guinea affect the European energy security?

Sub-Questions:

The following questions were posed in order to cover all aspects of the main research question and to break down the relationship between its variables

1/ What are the energy capacities in the Gulf of Guinea that qualifies it to become a future destination for the countries with energy deficit?

2/ What are the threats that may disturb the energy supply operations from the Gulf of Guinea?

3/ How can the relationship between the piracy in the Gulf of Guinea and the European energy security be explained?

Importance of the study:

In light of the increasing threats of the international energy security, especially for the European industrial forces that are severely dependent to the Russian energy resources, the European Union states are striving to find new alternatives that would cover the deficit and give Europe a bigger independence in expressing its position toward the Russian eastern military expansion. That makes the Gulf of Guinea stands out as one of the new areas whose energy capacity will be invested, in order to keep the European economy wheel rolling. Based on that, this study aims at determining the new threats of the European energy security in the Gulf of Guinea, since the piracy operations happening in the area are one of the obstacles posing in front of Europe in case they choose a further energy supplier rather than Russia and the other traditional energy forces. Especially that the Middle East area, that is considered as their first alternative, also suffers of severe geopolitical crises obstructing the European needs that require speed and seriousness in both dealing and implementation.

Objectives of the research:

The research entitled “The Impact of Maritime Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea on the European Energy Security” aims to achieve the following scientific objectives:

1/ Investigating one of the forms of the asymmetric security threats that concerns the international maritime security and the different seafaring operations. In fact, discussing the subject of piracy allows the explanation of more developed ways of international peace and security threats that are deeply related to both terrorism and organized crime.

2/ Defining a region that is not often discussed academically, and that has a great geopolitical importance; which is the region of the Gulf of Guinea.

3/ trying to investigate the new destinations that Europe will possibly seak in order to cover their energy deficit; and showing how the maritime piracy operations affect that.

One: The Energy Capacities of the Gulf of Guinea

The Gulf of Guinea is a maritime area; it includes the western and the central regions of Africa that overlook the southeast cost of the Atlantic. There are different definitions given to it; some consider that the region consists of more than 25 countries. This definition does not only apply to the countries of the central and the western regions of Africa that overlook the Atlantic Ocean, but it is built on a geo-economic vision more than a geographical one because it includes countries that do not overlook the waters of the Gulf of Guinea, like the Central African Republic, Chad and others.

In its report of December 2012, entitled “The Gulf of Guinea: The New Danger Zone”, the International Crises Group classified the definitions of the Gulf of Guinea into historical, geographical, and institutional.

Historically, the naming of the Gulf of Guinea was because of the “slave coast”, which was the name of the coasts of: Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Benin, Togo, and Niger Delta

Geographically, the Gulf of Guinea is the Atlantic coast stretching from Senegal to Angola.

Institutionally, the term refers to the member states of The Gulf of Guinea Commission created in 1999, which are eight states: Angola, Cameroon, Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, The democratic Republic of Congo, and Sao Tomé and Principe.[1]

Whereas regionally, the Gulf of Guinea falls within a larger geopolitical area, West Africa, a region of a big importance in the international energy equation because many energy suppliers are in that area, including Nigeria, Togo, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Benin, and Sao Tomé and Principe.

The West Africa region is the richest African regions in oil, after the big discoveries in the Gulf of Guinea in the coastline stretching between Nigeria and Angola. Reports says about these discoveries that they are the biggest oil discoveries in the world during the last years, since this region accounts for approximately 70% of the African oil production, and its total output is about 9.5 million barrels daily i.e. 11% of the international production. For instance, Nigeria is the forefront of West Africa countries, since it is the 11^th biggest oil producer in the world, with an output that reached 3 million barrels daily in 2008 and 2.35 billion barrels of oil reserves. Nigeria is the richest country in oil resources. In fact, according to published information by the OPEC and the International Energy Agency, and according to a report of the American Central Intelligence Agency in 2015, Nigeria’s proved oil reserves exceed 37 billion barrels; and in another report from the same agency, it states that the Nigerian oil production levels reached 2.426 million barrels daily in 2014[2].

In addition, Nigeria is the first African country in natural gas proved reserves, these reserves increased with an annual rate of 4.3% in the period of 1998-2016, and it doubled to 1.2 trillion cubic meters in 2016. The total Nigerian reserves are 2.8% of the total international reserves of 2016; and that makes the USA the biggest importer of the Nigerian oil, as it imports 40% to 50% of the total Nigerian crude oil production; Nigeria is also the fifth biggest crude oil exporter[3].

The region’s reserves and production are rising because of the increasing discoveries in offshore fields, especially around the coasts of Angola, Nigeria, and Equatorial Guinea, in addition to discovering new fields in each of Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, and Mauritania. However, Chad did not start producing until 2003, and it reached its highest production levels with 210 million barrels in 2006, which had made it the second biggest oil producer in the region after Nigeria.

The proved reserves of Chad were estimated for 900 million barrels. Whereas, Cote d’Ivoire, the third biggest producer in the region, has 100 million barrels of reserves, in fact, the majority of its oil wells, 86% of them, are situated in the sea in a shallow-water area; the production is concentrated in the wells Espoir and Baobab whose exploitation started in 2002 and 2005.

Angola has the biggest oil field in the world, Girasol, it is located in the deep sea, and it is estimated to be the first oil producer in Africa within the few next years. According to statistics done by the British Petroleum company in June 2005, Angola has the second biggest proved reserves in Africa in the south dessert; with 8.8 billion barrels in 2004 and it may reach 12.5 billion barrels.

 However, the war between the Angolan government in the one hand, represented by the ruling party “The Population Movement for the Liberation of Angola”, and the “The National Union for the Total Liberation of Angola” in the other hand, lead to disturbing the exploration of the whole Angolan land. Thus, two thirds of the country’s production come from the offshore fields in Cabinda province; the petroleum activities started since the 60s by Cabinda Gulf Company that belongs to the American company Chevron Texaco that oversees about 85% of the production[4].

Equatorial Guinea succeeded in rising its oil reserves to 1.28 billion barrels, and rising its production to 420 thousand barrels daily; whereas Gabon succeeded in rising its oil reserves to 1.28 billion barrels to be with that the third oil producer in Africa, and its daily production reached 230 thousand barrels. Cameroon’s reserves reached 85 billion barrels and its production 83 thousand barrels[5].

Generally, the geo-economic importance of the Gulf of Guinea as a strategic area is related to it being a maritime trade route for the countries producing gas and oil, the latter concerns now the international energy security after the consequences of the Russian conquest of Ukraine, since the region contains a good amount of natural gas. The main countries producing natural gas in the gulf are Cameroon and Nigeria; for instance, Cameroon has a total reserve of 157 billion cubic meters

The importance of the Gulf of Guinea in supporting the energy security increased not only for the European countries and the USA, but also for other economic forces like China, and that is what made it become, in the words of professor Michel Luntumbue, a new energy mass centre; especially that many economic forces are striving to reduce their dependence to the Russian and the Middle Eastern gas[6].

Map No. 1: Countries that overlook the Gulf of Guinea

Source: https://www.csis.org/analysis/transatlantic-approach-address-growing-maritime-insecurity-gulf-guinea

Furthermore, this area plays a role in the strategies of different forces since it is a vital field of maritime transportation, as its coastlines are about six thousand kilometre long stretching from Senegal in westen Africa passing from Cameroon in central Africa ending in Angola in southen Africa. The Gulf of Guinea is free of any straits or any transit points that may disturb the seafaring or increase the piracy attacks on it; which is a strong point, helping the area to proceed in playing an important role as a centre hub for maritime trade of exported energy and imported goods and food items. In addition, the sustained investments growth in the region, especially in the field of petroleum infrastructure, is a sign of the necessity of increasing the maritime trade and maritime traffic between the countries of the gulf.

The richness of the area in maritime resources comes with dangerous threats that can generally be classified as economic, political and environmental threats; such as, drug dealing, illegal oil supply, vandalizing oil pipelines, illegal fishing and maritime robberies. In fact, the environmental threats include: coastline erosion, maritime pollution caused by the discharge of toxic trash and oil production accidents, in addition to rebellion because of the resources, which is the biggest threat in the area; whereas the real danger is the proliferation of small and light weapons, as well as the potential threat of maritime terrorism[7].

Two: The Asymmetric Threats in the Gulf of Guinea: Piracy as a Model

Within its general geopolitical context, the Gulf of Guinea comes under a bigger geopolitical area, which is West Africa. In that area, the rates of terrorism and organized crime are rising as serious aspects of asymmetric threats faced by the regions. Although Nigeria and the other gulf countries are rich in energy resources, they are one of the African regions that suffering the most from the illegal oil trafficking; especially that Delta Niger is currently facing rising conflicts by armed militias that striving to conquer the region because of its huge oil resources.

There not official estimates of the size of illegal oil trafficking in the region, Nigerian marine forces estimate that the amount of oil that is being smuggled and illegally traded is about 00 thousand barrels a day i.e., about 36 million barrels a year. Whereas some estimates indicate that, the size of this trade had reached 55 million barrels a year.

Criminals smuggle oil in Nigeria through tapping oil pipelines and gathering the leaked oil; it is then smuggled by land and sea. By land, they smuggle the oil through the neighbouring countries since the borders security in this areas is weak, in addition to the difficult terrain that makes catching them more challenging, especially between Benin, Chad, Cameroon, and Niger. Whereas by sea, the internal rivers are used in order to reach the Gulf of Guinea to then, smuggle the oil to Ghana. The most common way of hydrocarbons theft is called “hot tapping” or “pressure tapping”, where criminals access a high-pressure pipeline and divert only a small portion of its oil so that the diverted amount will not be detected and the main pipeline will continue to function at close to normal pressure making it difficult to detect the theft. This type of theft is mainly flourished in Delta Niger, because the nature of its land is helpful for criminals who are experts in illegal trade of oil[8].

Organized crime groups in West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea cooperate with other international groups. In fact, operations of selling the stolen oil are not happening only in Nigeria and its West African neighbouring countries; instead, the smuggled oil is sold in many different countries including Ukraine, Serbia, Singapore, Bulgaria, China, North Korea, Israel, and South Africa. The involved parties in smuggling oil varies, such as rebel movements, namely Movement of the Emancipation of the Delta Niger that used to attack oil facilities for political purposes. One of these purposes is to protest against the government neglect, where many unemployed youth joined these racial organizations and militia that are cooperating with terrorist groups like Boko Haram organization[9].

Within this context, piracy is in fact one of the asymmetric threats spread in the Gulf of Guinea. It is an old phenomenon in the human history, practiced by some adventurers in order to achieve an illegal purpose. Generally, the goal behind this act is the desire to take what belongs to others with the intention of possessing it, and sometimes to achieve other goals rather than steeling and robbing, which fall under war rules and is regulated by international laws and conventions.

The concept of piracy developed throughout the years into two different types: piracy based on plunder and pillage, as called in French “piratrie”; and piracy that is considered as a type of maritime wars, its main goal is abolishing the enemy’s economy and it is known by the term “course”. Thus, it is necessary to distinguish between the declared wars that happen between two parties, where both of them are vigilant, and the abrupt violent burglaries of a party on another that do not have any genuine problems with each other.[10]

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, defined in its article 101:

“Piracy consists of any of the following acts:

• any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft, and directed:
  • on the high seas, against another ship or aircraft, or against persons or property on board such ship or aircraft;
  • against a ship, aircraft, persons or property in a place outside the jurisdiction of any State;
• any act of voluntary participation in the operation of a ship or of an aircraft with knowledge of facts making it a pirate ship or aircraft;

Any act of inciting or of intentionally facilitating an act described in subparagraph (a) or (b)”[11].

Piracy in Africa is wide spread in two geographical regions, which are the coastlines of the Gulf of Guinea countries in western and central Africa, and the coastlines of the Gulf of Aden and the countries of the Horn of Africa. Some the motives behind piracy attacks along the African coastlines are: economic deprivation, weakness of the country, the lack of law implementation, and the chances that the geographical features supply in light of the absence of legislations and law enforcement.

Piracy flourishes in African countries that has weak or failing governments with bad or non-existent social policies; besides the rising unemployment rates, in light of the increasing population density, which is mostly young people. In addition to the poor security status in these regions due to the activities of the terrorist and organized crime organizations that working on developing their illegal incomes through the harmonization and the exchange of information and weapons[12].

The attacks and piracy operation in the Gulf of Guinea are more than a quarter of those declared internationally. In 2016, the Gulf faced more than a half of the kidnappings for ransom that happened in the world, for instance, there have been 34 sailors kidnapped in the Gulf whereas there have been 62 sailors kidnapped in the rest of the world.

Because of its energy features, the Gulf experiences major maritime piracy activities which are increasingly done by organized, harmonized and expert criminal groups, who are motivated by the fact that maritime piracy is low in risks and high in profits. Since they violate or take possession of ships and offshore structures, such as petrochemicals carries, oil tanks, and trailers.

 According the International Maritime Bureau, there have been about 16 attacks on ships with fire shooting in 2017, seven of them took place in the Gulf of Guinea[13], by that the Gulf had had more than 40% of the maritime piracy that happened in the world within the first quarter of 2018, which confirms the continuous threat on seafaring security[14].

The criminal acts in the area took a more violent and complicated turn, since the number of attacks is increasing and the succeeded dangerous kidnapping operations are worrying the international shipping community. The International Maritime Bureau underlying the International Chamber of Commerce declared recently that 77 sailor had been kidnapped or taken hostages for ransom since January 2022; in addition, the International Maritime Bureau declared that the piracy operations in the Gulf of Guinea now include 90% of the maritime kidnapping operations happening all around the globe[15].

Figure No. 1: Diagram representing the number of piracy attacks on the Gulf of Guinea between the years 2006-2015

https://www.scirp.org/pdf/JSS_2017031715100035.pdf source:

Figure No. 2: A circle chart representing the piracy attacks in the Gulf of Guinea countries in 2018

source: [16]

Pirates generally tend for kidnapping for ransom, and attacks are frequently done at night on anchors and coastlines using firearms. They also tend to kidnap ships for few days and sail them to unknown places in order to steal the oil shipments and other high-value assets after disabling the tracking devices, and then transporting the goods into smaller ships to sell in the black market[17].

The attacks on the Gulf of Guinea are mainly on the Nigerian offshore between west Ghana and Sao Tomé and Principe. The Oceans Beyond Piracy organization stated that since 2016, pirates tend to attack ships at anchor near the main harbours, and that lasted until 2017 and 2018. In the beginning of 2018 pirates attacked three ships at anchor outside Cotonou in Benin, where two ships disappeared and the third one got into a firearm battle between the pirates and the naval forces of Benin. In fact, Cotonou harbour is developing and getting bigger lately because of the increasing maritime trade and the danger in the Nigerian offshore; it received in 2017 twice the number of tankers it received in 2007. With increasing traffic, ships must spend more time at anchor waiting for a place, which makes them more likely to being attacked.[18]

Three: challenges and opportunities of the European energy security within a fragile geopolitical area: the Gulf of Guinea as a model

Interest in national and international energy security has developed through different phases. The first one started in the 70s and 80s of the last century by giving extreme priority to subtle cheap oil supplies; and although the exporter countries continues manipulating prices and putting restrictions, the need for a better governance of the energy institutions, including the state-owned companies, was given more attention; then the shift toward a more efficient governance of technological energy. Whereas the second one took place in the first decade of the 21^st century, where the focus was on guaranteeing equal access to safe energy sources for all social classes, and decreasing the negative effects of the energy sector on the environment and the climate.

In fact, definitions given to energy security can be classified into three main sections as follow:

• The concepts based on the matters of State: this kind of definitions abides to states’ matters. For instance, energy importing countries take interest in long lasting supplies that are safe and cheap; whereas for exporting countries, energy security means guaranteeing the stability of supplying energy in high prices and supporting the sector of oil and gas within its economic to use the economic and monetary income to building a modern economy.
• The concepts based on the goals of energy security: they are the concepts that take interest in the economic, environmental and social goals; and they explain energy security as the trust is supplying energy in a quality and quantity specific to the present economic needs. In addition to protecting the citizens and the state from the lack of energy and power outage, and providing high energy resources.
• The geopolitical concepts: they are the concepts that determine energy security through evaluating the main four standards of energy resources, which are: energy availability, safe transportation, the affordability, and the acceptability. In addition, the factors of providing energy supplies for reasonable prices and varying its sources, providing its transportation and the infrastructure of the transportation, shipping and consumption, the geopolitical changes and the possible changes of the market, and the threats that may bring negative effects on energy supplying are all included under the concepts of national security, human rights, individual rights and the justice for energy and sustainable development. The geopolitical aspects of energy security, especially those related to gas and oil, are now clearer; mostly in regions that are rich in energy because of conflicts of interest between the bigger forces, and the competition that took a form of regional and international conflict between the supplying and the consuming states[19].

Whereas for the European energy security, it is more related to the geopolitical concept, since the member states of the union are now more worried about the new threats related to the energy security. Especially after the Ukrainian crisis and Russia’s annexation of Crimea. In fact, the energy security of the European Union is based on energy supply, and this concept include a vision about the necessity of the persistence supplies from reliable sources that has easy access, cheap prices, and minimal effects on the environment[20].

The European energy interests are the most threatened internationally because of its energy dependence to many other countries namely Russia, European’s ultimate favourite, whereas in the Gulf of Guinea the western parties’ interests, European and American, are facing significant loses. Whether the countries importing gas and oil from the gulf or the foreign non-governmental institutions, which are the oil companies that are also facing loses due to the piracy attacks spread there, obliging them to spend more money in order to secure the oil areas. Such as the British company Shell, American companies like Exxon, the French company Total, and the Italian company ENI.

For instance, the French oil tankers, belonging to foreign companies, are subject to the International Maritime Bureau regulations that does not allow the weaponization of all merchant ships; thus, companies opt for the services provided by privet security companies, for example the American company Chevron work with the security company Mars Omega.

In addition, these companies pay huge amounts of money to free the hostages hold by pirates, they even sometimes give donations and grants to citizens in the areas where piracy attacks are spread, like Delta Niger.[21]

It is important to say that the companies working in oil refining and oil extraction in Nigeria are American and European (Dutch, Italian, French), but most of them are of American nationality like Mobile-operated CoAllepo, Chevron-operated Escravos, Agip-operated Brass, Texaco-operated Bennington and America Overseas Group Limited[22].

Britain is the European force with the biggest investment in the Nigerian energy sector. Some sources indicate that Britain rely on 10% of the Nigerian oil; thus, its interest in this country will always be present especially that Britain has huge companies that are investing in the petroleum sector, the main one is Shell, which is one of the oldest companies in Delta Niger where wells of Nigerian oil are situated[23]. Europe get 3% of its oil and 3% of its gas from the Gulf of Guinea, and these rates may probably increase because of the geopolitical crises spread between Russia and the European Union member states after the latest Ukrainian crisis, since Russia decided to decrease and stop its supply from many European countries.

That lead them to search for other suppliers that are able to cover the European energy deficit. However, in case the European countries choose the African energy as an alternative for the Middle Eastern one to face their dependence to the Russian energy, they will find themselves facing the problem of rebuilding security in the African countries. The later are facing increasing spread of terrorist groups and organized crime organizations who are working side to side with maritime pirates in extreme harmonization; this necessitates drafting an energy strategy in the gulf of Guinea and adopting a security strategy based on including different countries of the area under one security umbrella that aims at the reduction and the prior exposure of maritime piracy attacks that may interrupt the supply operations and break the bounds of international energy trade

The European need for African energy supplies and West African supplies, in the Gulf of Guinea particularly, can be explained through the following:

• The negative effects of the European dependence to the Russian supplies, mainly gas; where the interdependence between the two causes a disruption in the geopolitical equation based on supply and unequal demand that is subject to political matters. Thus, Russia, the stronger party in this equation, uses the energy matter to pass its political will in east Europe and other competitive spots rather than Africa and the middle east
• Advantages of the African energy supplies that are easy to prospect and extract, and are of high quality.
• The historical relations between the European and African countries, since the European countries deal with the African ones as traditional vital fields, they rely on to cover their different energy and industrial needs. In addition to the European political weight in the African regimes, as they worked on inaugurating regimes that are loyal to them through military coups.
• The domination of the European companies, mainly French and British ones, on the energy fields in Africa especially in the Gulf of Guinea countries.
• The African technological dependence on the European countries that are dominating a big a number of prospecting and extraction projects in the African desserts.
• The inability of the Middle Eastern countries, which have huge energy abilities, to cover the European energy needs because other forces dominate the area such as China and Russia. In fact, Russia worked so hard in the past few years on competing the USA presence and finding a special place in the energy field of the area’s countries, and that is through following energy diplomacy.
• This diplomacy manifests in the long-term investments that Russia succeeded to make in the most important Middle Eastern countries in the energy field. For instance, the Russian company Rosneft earned a contact of 3.2 billion in Sharjah gas, the amount of gas in this deal is about 70 billion cubic metre; Rosneft also got a share of 49% of concessions, whereas Crescent Petroleum got the rest[24]. Whereas the Russian company Gasprom signed a preliminary agreement with the National Iranian Oil Company with an investment value of 30 billion dollars and a high production capacity of 55 million tons of oil annually. In addition, the Qatari Gasprom company agreed with National Iranian Oil Company about establishing a mutual gas extraction institution and liquefy it in Qatar; this company will specialize in building a gas pipeline from South Pars gas field to Ras Laffan in Qatar[25].

That shows that the European countries are now living a severe energy crisis as a result to the Russian intransigence and using the stick and carrot policy to harness the West, change the current international balances, and end the Atlantic supply to the offshores that are geographically close to it through investing in the European dependence to the Russian energy supplies. That oblige them to find new, serious and sustainable resources found in Africa, especially the regions close to the Gulf of Guinea where energy resources are available and the chances to cover the European energy deficit are high, on both medium and long terms. That can be through working on benefiting from the prospering renewable energy sector in the region that represents a more suitable choice with the sustainable development produced by the civilized states.

Conclusion:

After dealing with the subject of maritime piracy in the Gulf of Guinea and its effects on the European energy security, the following results has been reached:

• The Gulf of Guinea is region that has a big geopolitical importance, and it is not talked about in political speeches. It a practical geopolitical shelter for forces that are aiming to playing advanced roles in the international energy game, especially that the energy resources became an important political deterrent mean used by different forces to control opponents and strategically incapacitate them through interrupting the supply operations.
• Although it has huge energy capacities, the region of the Gulf of Guinea knows an instability of security that is increasing in light of the asymmetric threats like terrorism, organized crime, and piracy that represents about 90% of the total maritime piracy in the world.
• Oil is the resource the most transported through the gulf of Guinea, and the piracy attacks lead to transforming this resource into the illegal trade market that may finance many violent acts in the region, it may also support various forms of organized crime especially those related to drug dealing.
• America is the most benefited country from the energy resources of the gulf of Guinea, followed by the European countries that has traditional dominance in the area, France and Italy are on top of them. Moreover, because of the current international situation, the European forces will work on doubling the amount of their investment in the region of the gulf of Guinea; the latter poses the problem of the maritime security and its relation with piracy and regional security.

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12.أسرة منبر الدفاع  الافريقي  ، (بدت) ، الأمن من الساحل إلى الساحل  ، منبر الدفاع الافريقي ، العدد 14 15. سوزي رشاد ،2022  ،  امن الطاقة محاولات روسيا لفرض النفوذ الدولي مجلة السياسة و الاقتصاد ، المجلد14 ، العدد 13 .

13.محفوظ رسول ، أكتوبر 2017، أمن الطاقة في العلاقات الروسية – الأوروبية : قراءة وفق نظرية الاعتماد المتبادل ، المستقبل العربي ، العدد 464.

14.اياد عبد الركيم مجيد ، (بدت ) ،سياسة نيجيريا النفطية ، ( الواقع و الطموح ) ، دراسات دولية ، العدد الثامن و الثلاثون.

15. قلعجية وسيم خليل ، ، 2019. روسيا الأوراسية كقوة عظمى: جيوبوليتيك الصراع ودبلوماسية النفط والغاز في الشرق الأوسط ، لبنان: الدار العربية للعلوم ناشرون ، الطبعة الأولى.

16. بوزيدي عبد الرزاق ،2016، التنافس الجيوبوليتيكي والطاقوي بين الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية وروسيا في منطقة الشرق الأوسط 2010ـ 2016،  مجلة العلوم القانونية و السياسية ، العدد 15.

[1]لعربي بن أعمارة ،2017 ، تهديدات الأمن البحري في خليج غينيا ، مجلة دراسات الدفاع و الاستقبالية ، العدد 7 ، ص 42 – 43.

 [2] سيد أعمر شيخنا ، يوليو 2016 ، تحولات الطاقة و مستقبل افريقيا ، تقرير صادر عن مركز الجزيرة للدراسات ، ص 6 .

[3]صبحي قنصوة ، مارس 2012 ، النفط و السياسة في دلتا النيجر صراع لاينتهي ، قراءات افريقية ، العدد الحادي ، ص 26 .

[4]قاسي فوزية ، قراءات افريقية

[5] لبنى بهلولي ، جوان 2016 ، جيوبوليتيك النفط في افريقيا و التنافس الامريكي الصيني ، مجلة العلوم القانونية و السياسة ، عدد 13 ، ، ص  191.

[6] لعربي بن أعمارة ،مرجع سابق الذكر ،  ص 35 .

[7] فريدوم أونووها ،14 ماي 2012 ، القرصنة و الأمن البحري في خليج غينيا ، نيجيريا نموذجا ، ورقة تحليلية ، ، مركز الجزيرة للدراسات ، https://studies.aljazeera.net/ar/reports/2012/05/201251475341666799.html

^[8]  Ian ralby , 2017, downstream oil theft  global modalities , trends AND REMEDIES ,. wachington : atlantic council, p 19

[9] سيباستيان جاتيمو ، أفريل 2016، خسائر مربكة : التداعيات السلبية لتهريب النفط في غرب افريقيا ، اتجاهات الأحداث ، العدد 16  ، ص 82

[10] كريمة سليمان الجداية ، افريل 2017 ، القرصنة و الحركة الجهاد البحري ( لخير الدين برباروسا و اخوانه ) في شمال افريقيا ، مجلة كلية الآداب ، ملحق المجلد 77 ، العدد 2  ،  ص 8 .

[11] حنان نايف ملاعب ، أكتوبر 2017 ، التعاون الدولي لمكافحة القرصنة البحرية ، مجلة الشريعة و القانون – كلية القانون جامعة الامارات العربية المتحدة ، العدد الثاني و السبعون ، ، ص 453 .

[12] Henrique portela guedes , october 2020 ,  maritime policy in the gulf of guinea , atlentic center policy brief , issue 04 , p 20 .

[13] (ب.د.ك) ، 2018، تقييم استراتيجي لمشروع enact  لمحة عامة عن الجريمة المنظمة و الخطيرة في افريقيا ، منظمة الانتربول الدولي ، ص 43.

[14] حسام ابراهيم و شادي عبد الوهاب منصور ، ربيع 2019  ، الأمن البحري كيف تتعامل الدول مع التهديدات المتصاعدة للأمن البحري ، اتجاهات الأحداث ، العدد 30 ، ص 10.

[15] بيان منتدى التفاوض الدولي IBF  و لجنة منطقة العمليات الحربية بشأن القرصنة في خليج غينيا ، تم الاطلاع عليه من خلال الموقع التالي : https://bit.ly/39DjzvU

[16] (ب.د.ك)، 2018، تقييم استراتيجي لمشروع  enact لمحة عامة عن الجريمة المنظمة والخطيرة في افريقيا، منظمة الانتربول الدولي، ص 43.

[17] (ب.د.ك) ، 2018، تقييم استراتيجي لمشروع enact  لمحة عامة عن الجريمة المنظمة و الخطيرة في افريقيا ، منظمة الانتربول الدولي ، ص 44.

[18] أسرة منبر الدفاع  الافريقي  ، (بدت) ، الأمن من الساحل إلى الساحل  ، منبر الدفاع الافريقي ، العدد 14 ،  ص  11.

[19] سوزي رشاد ، ، يناير 2022 ، امن الطاقة محاولات روسيا لفرض النفوذ الدولي ، مجلة السياسة و الاقتصاد ، المجلد 14 ، العدد 13 ، ص 129 .

[20] محفوظ رسول ، أكتوبر 2017، أمن الطاقة في العلاقات الروسية – الأوروبية : قراءة وفق نظرية الاعتماد المتبادل ، المستقبل العربي ، العدد 464 ، ، ص 127 .

[21] لعربي بن أعمارة ، مرجع سابق الذكر ، ص 52 .

[22] اياد عبد الركيم مجيد ، (بدت ) ،سياسة نيجيريا النفطية ، ( الواقع و الطموح ) ، دراسات دولية ، العدد الثامن و الثلاثونن ، ص 163 .

[23] نفس المرجع ، ص 170-171.

[24] بوزيدي عبد الرزاق ،2016، التنافس الجيوبوليتيكي والطاقوي بين الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية وروسيا في منطقة الشرق الأوسط 2010ـ 2016،  مجلة العلوم القانونية و السياسية ، العدد 15، 271.

²وسيم خليل قلعجية، 2019. روسيا الأوراسية كقوة عظمى: جيوبوليتيك الصراع ودبلوماسية النفط والغاز في الشرق الأوسط ، لبنان: الدار العربية للعلوم ناشرون ، الطبعة الأولى ، ص 155 .