mauritania 200,000 barrels per day by 2010

The Morning Brief

October 10, 2005

The Petroleum Future of Volatile Mauritania

Mauritania is turning into a "rising star" of the petroleum industry thanks to a perception of the North African country's growing hydrocarbons potential, Cambridge Energy Research Associates says. Next year the country plans to bring online its first oilfield, making it a net exporter of crude. These plans have coincided with a military coup this summer that removed President Maaouiya Ould Taya from power. CERA says the effects of this regime change should not be overestimated, at least as far as the oil sector is concerned, and it predicts that the country could produce more than 200,000 barrels per day by 2010. Nonetheless several factors might hamper the full development of the sector, it says. Following a tumultuous history, the country is now ruled by the 17-member Military Council for Justice and Democracy that seized power in August, and CERA sees no short-term change in the oil sector. However, aspects of the legal framework and some contractual details have yet to be defined. And the dangers inherent in any transition to an oil-exporting economy are exacerbated in the case of Mauritania given its poor macroeconomic record and the high level of poverty.

http://www.cera.com/news/details/1,2318,7681,00.html