Fuelling poverty: oil, war and corruption

This report argues that for many developing countries, oil reserves are more likely to prove a curse than a blessing. Poor countries dependent on oil revenues have a higher incidence of four great and interconnected ills. Oil, in these conditions, becomes the key ingredient in a 'lethal cocktail' of: greater poverty for the vast majority of the populationincreased corruptiona greater likelihood of war or civil strifedictatorial or unrepresentative governmentThe authors look particularly at the experience of Angola, Sudan and KazakhstanThe report recommends:regulations requiring oil companies to publish what they pay to oil-producing countriestransparency of oil money in these countries' budgets, with public-sector contributions to governments being used as the lever to achieve thisa proportion of oil revenue being held in trust for the people of the countrya system of restrictions and embargoes within the oil trade to restrict the sale of 'blood oil'.