Oil boom to wake sleepy Sao Tome

By Zoe Eisenstein
BBC News, Sao Tome

Most people on the tiny islands find it hard to make ends meet

Downtown Sao Tome must surely be one of the sleepiest capital cities in Africa, if not the world.

At 8 o'clock in the morning it is dead quiet. There is just the odd person cycling past and a few women waiting in the morning heat in the hope of selling their pineapples and bananas.

Amid the tranquillity and undeniable charm of this small nation archipelago, most of Sao Tome and Principe's 169,000 inhabitants are unemployed and live in dire poverty, relying on subsistence farming and fishing for their survival.

But the country's fortunes could soon be awoken by a promised oil boom, following a deal between Sao Tome and Nigeria to explore a jointly owned maritime area in the Gulf of Guinea, off the coast of West Africa.

Caution

President Fradique de Menezes told me he is confident that his country will strike black gold, enabling it to move from a traditionally cocoa-based economy to one based on crude production.

It is logical that we have some [oil]. But what quantity is another question President Fradique de Menezes

But he said it was too early to know if the sea's reserves of oil were as plentiful as its reserves of fish.

"Of course it's logical that these islands have also oil because we are in the middle of the places where there is oil: Angola in the south, Nigeria north, Gabon, Cameroon, even Congo Brazzaville has oil, and Equatorial Guinea our neighbour.

"So it is also logical that we have some. But what quantity is another question."

The first hole has yet to be drilled and the first drop of oil yet to be discovered, but there have already been allegations of corruption and irregularities in the awarding of the blocks in the Joint Development Zone.

Corruption trap

Sao Tome and Principe is the newest nation to join the Gulf of Guinea oil-producing countries.

What I've seen so far is that the rich get richer and those who don't have money just stay poor Sao Tome shopper

It is determined not to go down the same road as some of its neighbours, where corruption and mismanagement of oil revenues are said to be responsible for a lack of development.

"When we see all the oil-producing countries around Sao Tome we cannot understand how they can produce so much oil, have so much wealth, and live in such poverty," says Afonso Valera, legal director for the National Agency for Petroleum in Sao Tome.

"But I think Sao Tome is trying to do something different, to share this wealth among all the people and to build something that can benefit the entire people."

Shop talk

For all the talk, people at Sao Tome's central market, where an abundance of tropical fruit and vegetables is on sale, do not seem to think that oil will answer their problems.

"Yes, I've heard that Sao Tome has oil and that this country could have a good development. But I don't believe it," one female shopper says

"What I've seen so far is that the rich get richer and those who don't have money just stay poor."

Another shopper says he's not going to wait for empty promises.

"For so many years people have talked about the petrol but it has never happened. That's why I don't believe in it, I just have to believe in myself."

I left the stall holders, lethargic from the midday heat, and took one of bright yellow taxis - the only form of public transport - from the queue waiting for business to meet lawyer Fabio Santos.

Oil boom hopes

In Café e Companhia, where intellectuals and business people go for a coffee and a slice of cake, he told me he is more optimistic after recently returning home from 10 years living and studying in Portugal.

The government says it will share the oil wealth once it starts flowing

"Many things have changed in Sao Tome for the worse. But I see a new perspective in the private sector, which has done many things for Sao Tome.

"The state, the government don't do what it should. The private sector works best," he says

The promise of oil has yet to be felt in this tiny country and for now, the streets remain quiet.

It is hard to imagine that an oil boom could be just around the corner.

It also remains to be seen whether the country's leaders are able to make a real go of the industry.

And as one 22-year-old student pointing up to the lush mountains in the distance put it: "The people living in the rural areas here are very poor. I really hope that one day things will change and that our government uses our oil to improve the lives of our people."