Word: gabon
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...building of the Transgabonais, a railway through the nearly impenetrable jungles of Gabon, in West Africa, is one of the largest public works projects under way in the world today. At a cost of $4.5 million a mile, it is also one of the world's most expensive. In terms of technical difficulty, the Transgabonais rivals the 1,966-mile Baikal-Amur rail line that the Soviets are pushing across Siberia. The eight forest-smashing bulls and their crews are backed by 120 more bulldozers, 450 heavy trucks and 3,800 workers who shift and terrace earth to carve...
Begun a decade ago, the project is less than two-thirds complete. When it is finished, the single-track railway will cover 542 miles and form a giant Y across Gabon. "The main problem is that it is so big, so enormous," says Robert Clark, a Californian from a firm of consulting engineers overseeing the task. "It is an earthmoving job on a gigantic scale...
CNOOC, for example, signed a deal two years ago to extract 1 million bbl. of oil a day in Indonesia, and a year ago, it signed a major contract to produce gas in Australia. In February, President Hu Jintao traveled to Gabon hoping to secure deals in Africa, and in June he led a delegation from China's natural-gas industry to Uzbekistan. Chinese oil executives have even begun courting Ecuador and Colombia. "Latin Americans feel frustrated that the U.S. has virtually ignored the region, so turning to China is prudent and will pay financial dividends down the line," says...
...CNOOC, for example, signed a deal two years ago to extract a million barrels of oil a day in Indonesia, and a year ago it signed a major contract to produce gas in Australia. In February, President Hu traveled to Gabon hoping to secure agreements in Africa. In June, he led a delegation from China's natural gas industry to Uzbekistan to build the mainland's presence in oil-and-gas-rich Central Asia. Chinese oil executives have even begun courting Ecuador and Colombia in hopes of buying oil in the U.S.'s backyard. "Latin Americans feel frustrated that...
...grab the book. How about this? "Lebanon has never won an Olympic medal, but recently a Lebanese woman won the world karaoke championship in Finland, singing the 1980s classic Fame." Oh, this is the one: "Gabon's President, as you know, is Omar Bongo, now in his 37th year as head of state. And yet again, he has promised any Gabonian medal winner a new house and vast sums of cash. But the wily Bongo is hedging his bets, insofar as they have never won an Olympic medal...