Vol 49 No 8 |
- OIL AND GAS
The hundred-dollar barrel has boosted both Africa's national oil companies and ambitious resource nationalists. Algeria, Angola, Egypt and Nigeria see their national oil companies as potential instruments of diplomatic and economic power - as long as the oil and gas markets favour the sellers. Africa's oil producers want more control and money from contracts, and they want more oil to be refined locally.
Present performance varies widely in quality. Nigeria (see Box) has the biggest reserves and a poor record. Its government plans to introduce new rules stipulating that international oil...
Congo-Kinshasa and Uganda still disagree about their shared border, but the scraps in which soldiers and civilians were killed on Lake Albert late last year have faded away,...
President Umaru Yar'Adua has launched a thorough restructuring of the state-owned energy sector and a review of commercial contracts. His reform team hopes to bring in partners like...