Côte d'Ivoire's deep ambitions

It's got the fiscal terms and even the domestic power market. Now Côte d'Ivoire just needs a major hydrocarbon find

Côte d'Ivoire has failed to match the lustre of neighbouring Ghana in terms of interest in oil and gas exploration. Much of the country's most promising acreage is in deep or ultra-deep water, which as nations across West Africa have found out in recent years, is viewed as too expensive for the international oil companies with the skills and clout needed to develop them, given their drained financial resources and the cheaper prospects on offer elsewhere. The assertion made in mid-2016 by Ibrahima Diaby, managing director of state oil firm Petroci, that the country aimed to double oil and gas production by 2020 always looked ambitious. Diaby's target of some 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent