"You guys are sure trusting, or perhaps gambling, if you think a...

"You guys are sure trusting, or perhaps gambling, if you think a moslem country that supported madman hussein in the gulf war is going to let some Ausie/Western scum take their oil. Me thinks the oil majors had good cause to abandon the area."

Mauritania is dirt poor. The leaders of this country are drooling over the $$$ that the oilfields will bring in. They need capital and Western expertise to develop the fields. They have signed an agreement with the oil companies. They would not violate this agreement or do anything that would jeopardize investor confidence while the field is in development stage. After the capital has been sunk and the area fully developed in 15 years, risks would increase, but until then the political risk is very low.