Ghana and Uganda will start to produce oil.
Prolific oil fields are promising high revenue and prosperity.
However, some other African oil regions such as the Niger Delta or Southern Sudan are marked by violence, writes D+C.
An African research network wants to work out ways to avoid what is commonly called the “resource curse”.
Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso, Venezuela’s minister for mines and hydro-carbonates from 1959 to 1963 and OPEC co-founder, coined the phrase: “You will see oil will bring us ruin … oil is the devil’s excrement.”
Indeed, oil has often proved to fuel violent conflicts.
Other unwelcome consequences of oil exploitation are the destruction of the environment and local people’s loss of livelihoods.
Oil exports drive a country’s exchange rate up, stifling growth in other sectors.
Petrodollars make ruling classes independent from both their nation’s welfare and international aid.
There is abundant proof of oil fields and the development of prosperity being negatively correlated.
In Angola, Africa’s second largest oil exporter, 70 % of the people live on less than one dollar per day; in oil-rich Chad, the share is around 80 %.
