There is a mad rush by Europeans to see who can line up lucrative contracts in Libya now that Gaddafi has effectively lost power. Two weeks ago a group of German executives boarded a military plane and flew to Libya to meet with rebel leaders. They wanted to talk business. Italians are pushing to keep their big oil contracts, and Italy’s Prime Minister Berlusconi is meeting with rebel leaders to talk business. The biggest winners will probably be the French, who lead the effort to remove Gaddafi and who are masters at pushing “gratitude” in their commercial relationships. And who might be on the way out? That would be the Chinese. They were close to the Gaddafi regime, and reportedly the rebels are eager to give them the boot. The Chinese want big reconstruction contracts, but are unlikely to get them.
It’s interesting to note that while the Europeans are generally good at turning military operations into commercial opportunities. The United States has been less effective at doing so. In Iraq, for example, the United States did not get special treatment in oil contracts. As Germany’s Der Spiegel noted earlier after examining WikiLeaks cables, “Contrary to what many people believe, the Iraq war provided few advantages for the US oil industry. The diplomatic cables show that, in most cases, it was competitors to the Americans who often did better in the country.”
Der Spiegel has an interesting report on the commercial rush in Libya.