Sao Tome & Principe: Avoiding the oil curse: Can Sao Tome legislation protect oil revenues?

Take profits from billions of barrels of offshore oil, divide them among a population of just 150,000, and this dirt-poor archipelago of flimsy wooden shacks could be transformed into one of the world's affluent petro-states. Factor in the potential for war, conflict or corruption - painful realities in many oil-rich African nations - and the dream of development can quickly become a nightmare, reports Associated Press.