Extractive Resources and Society

This is an ongoing project focused on the impact of the oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Guinea region - from Angola to Guinea. Since the start of this project in 2003, an ongoing series of roundtable meetings on Equatorial Guinea have occurred - attended by senior government officials, NGOs, companies and the media.

This project held the first ever international conference on São Tomé and Principe, and continues to organize frequent roundtable discussions and conferences on transparency and oil, and on environmental impact and local content in Guinea Bissau, Chad, Cameroon, Mauritania, Sudan, Angola and Nigeria. We have also looked at the impact of oil revenues in Africa for poverty reduction - Petroleum, Poverty and Security - and the Chad to Cameroon pipeline project and its impact.

A major conference at Chatham House in August 2010 disseminated lessons from 'Promoting Democratic Management of Africa's Oil Wealth' - a regional project involving Chatham House's Africa Programme, Catholic Relief Services and Human Rights Watch that addressed oil revenue transparency and accountability in São Tomé e Príncipe, Angola and Nigeria. The project's goal was to inform the international public debate on the extractives industry - primarily oil revenue management in Africa and to help citizens gain an understanding of the amount and use of oil revenues so that they can hold their own governments accountable. The meeting aimed to increase regional understanding of challenges in oil revenue management and transparency.

In 2007 we commenced a project on the impact of Asian National Oil Companies in Angola and Nigeria and held an international conference on the politics of sub-Saharan African energy. In August 2009 we published a major report, Thirst for African Oil: Asian National Oil Companies in Nigeria and Angola.

Resources

Promoting Democratic Management of Africa's Oil Wealth: Lessons from Angola, São Tomé e Príncipe, and Nigeria
Conference Summary
August 2010

Thirst for African Oil: Asian National Oil Companies in Nigeria and Angola
Chatham House Report
Alex Vines, Lillian Wong, Markus Weimer and Indira Campos, August 2009

Nigeria's Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative: Just a Glorious Audit?
Programme Paper
Nicholas Shaxson, November 2009

Angola and China: A Pragmatic Partnership
Chatham House Working Paper
Indira Campos and Alex Vines, March 2008

The Chad Cameroon Oil and and Pipeline Project: A Non Completion Report
Meeting Summary
July 2007

Petroleum, Poverty and Security
Briefing Paper
Keith Myers, June 2005

Contact

For further information please contact:
Elizabeth Donnelly, Africa Programme Manager
+ 44 (0)207 314 3667

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