Business
Liberia: Cautious Optimisim About Oil Prospects
Liberia is still years away from tapping what African Petroleum calls a significant oil deposit off the country’s coast. But as the company assesses deposits for commercial viability, some Liberians are meeting the recent discovery with cautious enthusiasm, wondering if their fragile West African nation can avoid the so-called resource curse.
Randolph McClain heads Liberia’s national oil company, known by its acronym NOCAL, which is also involved in the project. He says it will be months before they know whether the quality and quantity of the discovery is commercially viable.
“I’m sure you will share our hope and confidence that this could be the first step in a flourishing oil sector for Liberia,” he says.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the potential is there. Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ghana, the organization says, are sitting on as much as 3.2 billion barrels of offshore crude.
A rush on natural resources
After more than a decade of bloody conflicts, new-found stability has prompted a rush on not only oil, but also other regional natural resources like gold and iron ore.
Ghana pumped its first barrels of crude oil for the world market in late 2010, three years after its discovery. Government officials in Accra say Jubilee Oil Field earned almost US$450 million in the first year, and experts say annual revenues could reach as much as US$1 billion per year, which, managed wisely, could fuel development and greatly reduce dependence on foreign aid.
But Liberians like Monrovia resident Jerry Lamie remain apprehensive of oil wealth.
