African Oil - Whose Bonanza ?  

This month's National Geographic is devoted to Africa, with one of the main pieces looking at the exploitation of oil, particularly in Chad.

In a continent where natural resources are often plundered to the detriment of ordinary people, impoverished Chad—the new oil frontier—could become a model of fairness.

With his white beard, ready chuckle, and roly-poly shape, Otto Honke could easily switch to an acting job as Santa Claus if he decides that a career in development work in Africa, stretching all the way back to 1978, has gone on long enough. We're driving together in southern Chad's oil region, his base since 2002, inspecting health, education, and water projects financed by ExxonMobil, Petronas, and Chevron in a consortium that is pumping close to 200,000 barrels of oil a day from 6,000 feet (1,800 meters) below our wheels.