The post 9/11 rush to secure oil reserves in the Gulf of Guinea has only further empowered the oil elites. Companies like Sonangol exist not to serve the Angolan general population, but to facilitate and maintain oil operations. In order to achieve this process, the private oil sector, and the state authority apparatus work in tandem to secure, "the long term structuring role of the private sector in the governance of strategic areas" while neglecting the needs of populations and areas that are not part of the oil infrastructure.(Oliveira 105).