However if the network doesn’t like your country, or anyone in the chain of corrupt deals, including foreign companies from Western countries needing oil, they will not get it no matter how much money they may have. According to our source this explains why the United States and Europe react very angrily against certain African oil countries. Our source spoke during an interview in the wake of a request for proposals by Japan's Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation release a request for proposals on "Frontier Africa" concerning how Japanese companies can access business in Africa's oil producing countries. The request for proposals with a deadline of 22nd December, 2006 requested contractors to submit proposals for a study titled, "Report on Frontier Africa" ("FA"). How Japanese companies can access upstream business". Our source in Tokyo said only those with political power, politicians, government ministers, members of parliament, governors of oil producing regions are the people able to dispense political patronage for a price. And in the oil business this is big. Japanese oil companies intending to do business in these oil producing countries will be expected to play a social responsibility role, helping to build local infrastructure which includes roads, schools, clinics and houses. One Japanese company, Teikoku Oil with wide local and international networks has been involved in a joint venture in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1975. This means that Teikoku Oil has worked well together with the dictatorial regimes of Mobuto Se Seseko. And after that with Joseph Kabila’s and before that his late father, Laurent-Désiré Kabila. Their spokesperson Hiroshi Nakagawa, said his company had provided various contributions indirectly to the local community mainly in the Muanda Area, through the joint venture operation headed by Perenco, the French petroleum exploration and production company.  Perenco says on their website they only acquired the onshore concession including the East-Mibale, Laiwenda-Kinkasi and Mwana-Banana fields in 2000 ((http://www.perenco.com/index.cfm/pcms/site.Home/Home.html) They also say oil is currently shipped from Mibale to the offshore terminal. Perenco also say they were now the operator for all of the fields in the offshore concession. His means that there was a previous operator with which Teikoku was a partner with. The US company Gulf Oil used to be involved in that area for a long time before Perenco took over. Some have accused Gulf Oil of exploiting DR Congo’s natural resources and quitting without improving the lives of the local people. Teikoku Oil owns 32% of the offshore operation it runs together with Perenco. “We work together by sharing rights and obligations of petroleum exploration, development and production activities under a single petroleum agreement.  In our industry, this kind of joint venture or joint operation is often formed by mutual agreement, in order to share risks and costs/expenses,” said Nakagawa. Perenco’s role is called "Operatorship". As investment practices come under increasing international scrutiny, it is surprising that the DR Congo investment code of 2002 excludes such sectors as mines and hydrocarbons from binding arrangements intended to improve local lives. The Angolan situation however seems a little different: In the petroleum sector SONANGOL, the national oil company, holds all mineral rights. Prospecting licences are allocated by the Ministry of Petroleum, which also defines areas of concessions; mineral concessions are issued by the Government. Exploration licences and concessions are granted for periods of three years, which may, exceptionally, be extended.