U.S. Considers Building Port at Sao Tome
2/18/04, AP

DAKAR, Senegal - The United States is studying whether to build a deep-water port 
and new airport at Sao Tome, an island nation touted as a possible Navy base to protect 
growing Western oil interests in West Africa. 

Ambassador Kenneth Moorefield and Sao Tome ministers signed the $800,000 study 
agreement at Sao Tome's current international airport, the U.S. Trade and Development 
Agency said in a statement. 

Sao Tome, off oil-rich Nigeria, is one of the lead nations in an oil boom in West Africa as 
the United States, Asia and Europe look for alternatives to Mideast oil. 

West Africa's Gulf of Guinea supplies the United States with 15 percent of its oil, a figure 
projected to grow to 25 percent by 2015. 

The study on expanding Sao Tome's port and airport is in line with a U.S. agreement to 
"evaluate opportunities for technical assistance" to Sao Tome, the U.S. statement said. 
U.S. companies will get the contract for the work, the statement said. 

Some U.S. and oil industry officials and Washington energy think-tanks have urged the 
Bush administration to establish a U.S. naval base on Sao Tome. 

In 2002, Sao Tome President Fradique de Menezes announced that his country and the 
United States had agreed upon establishment of a U.S. Navy (news - web sites) base 
there. 

The United States never confirmed any such plans. The U.S. military has acknowledged 
visits to Sao Tome for what were described as planning talks on security in the Gulf of 
Guinea.