Korean Deal

Lee Myung-bak, the president of South Korea, was in Abu Dhabi recently to secure a deal to provide oil to Korea into the next century. According to this article, "South Korea is competing with China and India to secure energy and minerals reserves." The partnership between the UAE and South Korea is for the next 100 years.

This fits in with the land grab that South Korea is involved in. In 2008, South Korean company Daewoo entered a 99 year deal to lease half of Madagascar's arable land for South Korean food production. Unfortunately for Korea, the deal was later rescinded.

With the world population having just hit seven billion people, it seems that countries such as South Korea are seeing the writing on the wall and bracing for the shortages that are likely on their way in the next century. Let's hope for their sake that the Abu Dhabi oil deal doesn't go the way that the Madagascar deal did.