A million barrels a day in sight

This year, oil production from Angola should exceed 1m barrels a day for the first time, and is set to double over the following five years as six or more multi-field deep-water developments start flowing. With its destructive civil war over and with a new importance as a supplier of oil to the US, foreign investment should rise rapidly – but some policy and corporate issues must first be resolved, Martin Quinlan writes

ANGOLA'S RAPID development as an oil producer has been achieved despite or perhaps because of its 27 years of civil war, which ended with the death last year of Jonas Savimbi, the leader of the Unita rebel movement. Although peace is not yet assured, the government formerly left-wing and ideological, now pragmatic is gaining status internationally. Oil companies and their lenders are beating a path to Luanda. However, the country's emergence as a western-looking source of high-quality crude has thrown a spotlight on some undesirable aspects of Angola's oil arrangements. International organisations say a large proportion perhaps as much as a third of the country's oil income has been misappro