‘The Resource Curse’: Why Africa’s Oil Riches Don’t Trickle Down to Africans

Via Knowledge at wharton:
Africa is cursed — with riches. In an era of rising petroleum prices, African oil is drawing new interest from major companies around the globe, says John Ghazvinian, author of Untapped: The Scramble for Africa’s Oil. They see the continent as the most promising place in the world for new production. It doesn’t have the huge deposits that the Middle East and Russia do, but what it does have is accessible and largely unexploited. And the oil’s high quality makes it relatively inexpensive to refine.

Take a listen:

or Read the full text here - Knowledge at Wharton: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1830#

Aside:
Below is oneof the comments to the podcast posted by a Nigerian, quite insightful I think…, and worthy of reproducing here:

I’m a 28-year-old Nigerian male living in the country’s federal capital, Abuja. This is probably the first place you will hear this; but you’re going to be hearing a lot of it in the future. Sooner or later, oil production will be stopped onshore in the Niger delta region, and exploration and production will be limited to offshore areas. The costs at the moment far outweigh whatever income the government gets; there are serious environmental problems, and the violence is spiralling out of hand. So-called militants have used the cover of “freedom fighters” to perpetuate economic and human rights crimes that make Sierra Leonean blood diamonds seem like child’s play. Kidnapping of expatriate oil workers is now a booming industry, probably larger than Mexico’s or Columbia’s. In time, it would seem the only wise thing to do is to shutdown the oil rigs on land and declare the area a protected watershed or wetland. Then nobody will justify the actions of those fighting for “their share” of the oil wealth.
By: ik okechukwu, Abuja Property Development Co.
Sent: 04:17 PM Thu Nov.01.2007 - -