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Angola EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRIES
The petroleum industry dominated the extractive
industries and,
indeed, the entire economy. Since the dramatic increase in
oil
prices in 1973 and 1974, petroleum had assumed growing
importance.
The petroleum industry was so important, in fact, that the
MPLA for
the most part allowed foreign oil companies to import as
much
machinery as they needed and made only modest demands for
the
Angolanization of the work force. Thus, petroleum has
remained the
most successful sector in the economy, despite the 1986
price drop,
and has provided the government with most of its revenues.
In
contrast, mining of diamonds and iron ore, commodities
that once
ranked as major exports, has almost ceased because of
disruptions
from the war. Either through direct attacks on diamond
mines or
through the disruption of iron ore transport, in the 1980s
it had
become nearly impossible to continue operating these
mineral
industries. Diamond production started to revive in 1987,
but only
in areas patrolled by government troops.
Data as of February 1989
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