Friday, December 22, 2006

Chad- a failed experiment in escaping resource curse?


It's not possible to speak of governance here…There is no governance.”- one foreign resident

“Prospectors first found oil in Chad in the 1960s. But the country was so unstable and so far from the big markets that no one bothered to exploit it until the World Bank agreed to help finance a pipeline through neighbouring Cameroon to the Atlantic Ocean in 1999 (see map). As a condition for its loan, the bank insisted that the government set aside almost all of its 12.5% share of revenue for development. To avoid corruption, the money is funnelled through an account that the bank can freeze.

The World Bank's participation, in turn, persuaded a foreign consortium to develop Chad's oilfields and build the pipeline. This year, the government should earn over $200m from royalties alone, compared with total annual revenue of about $130m before the oil flowed. But Mr Déby dismisses this as “crumbs”. Earlier this year, Chad's parliament passed a law to let him spend his petrodollars as he pleased, in breach of his agreement with the World Bank. It duly suspended disbursements, resuming them only when a new deal was reached, giving the government a shade more leeway over royalties in exchange for a promise to spend more on development from the overall budget.”
- Chad; Pump priming

Related;
External monitorng of the Chad-Cameroon pipeline project
Chad and Cameroon - Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project
Agropastoralism in Chad as a strategy for survival : an essay on the relationship between anthropology and statistics
Chad - Poverty assessment : constraints to rural development
Chad - Economic developments : constraints and potential (1974)

Information from ExxonMobil
Chad Oil Revenues: Watching How the Money is Spent
FOLLOW THE MONEY: A GUIDE TO MONITORING BUDGETS AND OIL AND GAS REVENUES
COVERING OIL: A REPORTER'S GUIDE TO ENERGY AND DEVELOPMENT
EITI-Chad

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