Liberia: Oil Maneuvers - Hopes, Woes, Worries in Wait

1 September 2010
analysis

Liberia via the seat of Government, for the first time in its 163 years of existence as an independent nation and even including the colonial days, announced an agreement with a transnational company to carry out an exploration for the possible mining of crude oil in Liberian waters.

Some US$10b has already been assured for implementing the agreement. The Executive Mansion's announcement this year crystallizes longtime suspicion that the list of Liberia's natural resources is incomplete without oil, one of the world's most lucrative sources of economic boom though others thought it was a remote possibility.  But the history of oil economy in the developing world, particularly Africa, is an amalgam of incessant woes and limitless treasuries. As the Executive Branch passes on the Oil Exploration Agreement to the Legislature for rectification, questions are being raised from many quarters bordering not only on the good and evil of oil economy in Liberia, but also on the integrity and transparency of the selection process that has thrust the American Company, Chevron, on high for the deal. The Analyst reports.

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