Resource information
Apart from a few oil exporters,
Sub-Saharan Africa consists of a large number of low-income
countries, many of which are highly dependent on oil imports
as a source of primary energy. The purpose of this study is
to provide information on a number of aspects of energy and
oil use in these countries, with a view to highlighting the
vulnerabilities of the different countries against sustained
or even increasing oil prices, and explore some of the
policy implications. The topics investigated are: 1) How
vulnerable is each country at present to a sustained oil
price rise measured in terms of the ratio of net oil imports
to gross domestic product (GDP), and in terms of its ability
to pay as indexed by the ratio of net external debt to GDP?
2) What are the energy and oil intensities of the economies
and what are the recent trends (measured by the ratio of
energy use to GDP)? Can countries expect that energy and oil
intensity will rise or fall as the level of development
improves? 3) What is the oil fuel dependence of the economy,
and what is its recent history (measured as the share of the
use of oil and oil products in total primary energy use)?
What has been the pattern of use of other fuels? What
distinguishes Africa from other regions is its almost
complete reliance on imported oil (apart from the net oil
exporters) and its very high oil fuel dependence for its
primary energy consumption besides biomass. This report
shows that net oil importing countries of Sub-Saharan Africa
are highly vulnerable to oil shocks, have the highest ratio
of external debt to GDP and the lowest per capita income.
