west africa: will black gold benefit the poor?

Discovering oil in West Africa has been a bonanza for western companies. But can billions of barrels help one of the world's most destitute regions out of poverty? The sleepy tropical island city of Malabo had hardly changed in years. The capital of Equatorial Guinea, a tiny West African nation of fewer than 500,000 people, consisted of little more than some moldering Spanish colonial buildings, a few palm-lined plazas and the tightly packed shanty towns which encircle most African settlements. But over the past three years, Malabo has been transformed. Office buildings have shot up, hotels and banks have opened, and foreigners - once a novelty in Malabo - now cram the town's fancy new restaurants. There's so much construction, joke the locals, that if you open your mouth and stick out your tongue someone is likely to build on it. The source of this economic boom can be found buried beneath the nearby ocean floor.