Liberia: Liberia Braces for Next National Crisis: A Crude Oil Boom

Nov 10, 2014 | Peter Green, The Street
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Forget Ebola. The next big thing to come out of Liberia may be crude oil. Since 2010, the government has awarded exploration rights for eight offshore blocks to bidders including Exxon Mobil (XOM) , Chevron  (CVX) and Anadarko Petroleum  (APC)  . In addition, four new blocks are scheduled to conclude bidding this week. The country has mapped 30 blocks in total that could be opened for exploration.

Chevron says it's successfully drilled several exploration wells, but any oil is still years -- and billions of dollars in infrastructure -- away from coming to market, according to analysts. And oil finds could prove a boon -- or a bust -- to the impoverished West African country, which was still trying to recover from a decades-long civil war when it was hit again by the Ebola epidemic earlier this year.