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GV Tankers arriving at Abidjan port.
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GVs Tankers in the port.
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GV Tanker loading with oil.
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SV Phillips Petroleum sign at Abidjan oil terminal.
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GV PAN Railway wagons arriving at oil storage depot. (2 SHOTS)
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SV Refinery sign PULL BACK TO oil refinery as tanker truck leaves. (2 SHOTS)
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GV Traffic in Abidjan.
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GV Tanker truck delivering petrol to filling station.
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GV Traffic PAN TO filling station.
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SC Petrol pump PULL OUT TO car being filled. (2 SHOTS)
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GV Buthane gas cylinders and oil canisters in Abidjan.
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GV Vehicle pulling into filling station as traffic drives past. (3 SHOTS)
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Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: INTRODUCTION: The discovery of a second offshore oil field has meant that the Ivory Coast will become a net oil exporter within three years.The West African country is already exploiting one field about thirty kilometres (18 miles) south of the capital, Abidjan.The new field, called Espoir, is further offshore.Production should start in mid-1982.

SYNOPSIS: At present the Ivory Coast still has to import about two-thirds of its oil requirements.In 1980 this amounted to almost 500 million dollars.The tankers off-loading at Abidjan's main port may soon be exporting oil to overseas markets.

Phillips Petroleum and several other international companies have joined the consortium developing the new field.The oil refinery at Abidjan is being extended to double refining capacity from two million to four million tonnes of crude a year.Road and rail links are also being improved.

This development will make the Ivory Coast black Africa's second biggest oil producer after Nigeria.The most recent discovery is a welcome boost to the economy of the country which previously relied on its main export crops, coffee and cocoa, for foreign exchange.Now Abidjan is likely to become an oil boom town.

As the county comes nearer to achieving self-sufficiency in petroleum products more and more oilmen from the consortium companies are moving to the Ivory Coast capital.But President Felix Houphouet-Boigny's government appeared to be playing down the oil find, hoping to keep the country's farmer on the land.Agriculture is still the country's major employer.

The Espoir field's development does present several technical problems, it is sited in an area of deep water and the size of the field cannot be accurately estimated.The development consortium intends bringing the oil ashore using tankers, one ship remaining permanently anchored near the production platform.By next year, it is hoped, these motorists will be driving on home produced petrol.