On 20th April 2010 an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig killing eleven oil workers, injuring a further seventeen and becoming what was to become the biggest offshore oil spill in US history, and perhaps even world history.

On the face of it, there appears to be little to link this environmental disaster to Africa in any way, but history may follow a different course as tighter regulations regarding off shore drilling are inevitable off the US coast, and, as such, in man's insatiable desire for oil, companies will doubtlessly look for far less regulated locations to operate in.

And that's where West Africa enters the fold, for its a region with few regulations and a need for foreign investment. Ghana is planning to start offshore drilling as early as next year and, if it follows in the footsteps of the experience of Nigeria, corruption and strife will surely follow in countries with already fragile and uneasy political regimes.

A country with the resources of the USA is facing a catastrophe as millions of barrels of oil flood into the Gulf of Mexico, it is hard to imagine if such a spill occurred off the coast of Africa, the response would be as great or even sufficiently reported to create a proper response.