This report argues that for many developing countries, oil

reserves are more likely to prove a curse than a blessing.

Poor countries dependent on oil revenues have a higher incidence of four great and interconnected ills: greater poverty, increased corruption, a greater likelihood of war or civil strife, and dictatorial or unrepresentative government. The authors look particularly at the experience of Angola, Sudan and Kazakhstan. The report recommends regulations requiring oil companies to publish what they pay to oil-producing countries, transparency of oil money in these countries' budgets, with public-sector contributions to governments being used as the lever to achieve this, a proportion of oil revenue being held in trust for the people of the country, and a system of restrictions and embargoes within the oil trade to

restrict the sale of 'blood oil'.