Cabinda Gulf Oil in Angola, 1964-1984: A Case Study in Managing Reputational Risk While Operating in the Context of Violent Conflict and Public Outcry

• In Event: Energy Frontiers in the Late 20th Century

Abstract

The constantly escalating 20th century demand for oil, and the politics that this generated in the context of the Cold War, led to the development of operating techniques and economic alliances in the oil world that could sometimes verge on the surreal. Such was the case for the Cabinda Gulf Oil Company, which discovered oil in Angola in 1966 and continued to operate throughout the Angolan War for independence (1961-1974), during Senate investigations and convictions for corruption in the U.S. (1973-1975), under the protection of Cuban troops during the Angolan Civil War (1975-2002), and under extreme pressure from the earliest campaigns of “political consumerism” (boycotts, shareholder resolutions, demonstrations) to be directed at an oil company. This paper explores exactly how Cabinda Gulf Oil was able to achieve this, focusing on 1) the ways that the U.S. government aided and/or advised the company through four successive presidential administrations and 2) the role that public relations firms (hired by the company) came to play in managing these new forms of reputational risk. The study is based on data from a variety of national archives (U.S., U.K., Portugal), several presidential libraries, oil-related primary and secondary materials, and a number of interviews with former Cabinda Gulf employees.

Author

• Kairn Klieman, University of Houston