Ivorians celebrated when Italian energy group Eni revealed that it had discovered up to 2bn barrels of oil in waters off the west African country’s coast — the first big find in two decades.
“It’s a great discovery,” said Abdourahmane Cissé, secretary-general of the Ivorian presidency, of last month’s find. “The preliminary results show that, in terms of oil reserves, it is approximately 10 times what we have at the moment,” he said, referring to initial estimates of between 1.5bn and 2bn barrels of oil as well as between 1.8tn and 2.4tn cubic feet of associated gas.
Oil could start flowing within four years, boosting exports from a country that is already the world’s biggest grower of cocoa. “This will be good for the country,” said Cissé.