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Historically, most countries with large oil endowments have not been able to transform this wealth into widespread development and poverty reduction. The phenomenon known as the ‘resource curse’has been particularly pervasive in Africa. Chad, one of the poorest countries in the world, was known to have had substantial oil reserves since the 1970s that were, for decades, left in the ground due to a combination of political instability, geographical remoteness, and high extraction costs. In 2000, the country finally made a push to become a major producer. It formed partnerships with the World Bank and a consortium of international oil firms with the dual aim of improving its own development outcomes, and demonstrating that the curse of oil could be broken with the ‘Chadian Model’. The ‘Chadian Model’, a framework of governance reform, reinvestment of oil revenues, global market integration, and oversight from …