Global role of ExxonMobil featured in new book

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By News wires

 27 April 2012 21:21 GMT

In early 2006, ExxonMobil was caught in the middle of a standoff between the authoritarian leader of Chad, Idriss Deby, and Paul Wolfowitz, the head of the World Bank, journalist Steve Coll says in his new book on the world's biggest oil company.

Deby needed more weapons to defend his African nation against rebels supported by his former ally, Sudan, whose militias had driven more than 200,000 refugees into Chad, Reuters wrote in a review.

But good governance clauses in loans Chad had procured from the World Bank largely restricted him from arms purchases, and Wolfowitz was threatening to freeze critical bank accounts.

Deby, in response, threatened to shutter ExxonMobil's Chadian operations, jeopardizing billions the company had invested in the country.

No problem. At the behest of ExxonMobil, Coll says, the US Ambassador to Chad helped resolve…

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