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Equatorial Guinea, the small Central African country with a population of only 700,000 people, has beaten Nigeria to it as it goes steadily on with its gas plan while the self-styled giant of Africa with over 140 million people and a gas deposit of 182,000 billion cubic feet sleeps on.
While gas which was discovered in Nigeria about 30 years ago remains barely exploited and largely flared out by oil explorers, Equatorial Guinea already exports up to 3.7 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas from a facility opened just two years ago by Houston-based Marathon Oil. 
Teodore Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, president of Equatorial Guinea, wants to triple this amount by raising domestic production and striking agreements to export gas from fields in Nigeria and Cameroon.
The only Spanish colony in sub-Saharan Africa, Equatorial Guinea counted its wealth in cocoa pods, but following huge finds in the early 1990s, it rapidly evolved into the region’s largest oil exporter after Nigeria and Angola while its economy, at least on paper, recorded some of the fastest growths in the world.
After several years of favouring US companies, Mbasogo who seized power some 30 years ago, has turned to the Europeans to realise his vision to increase their gas export and is confident that the Europeans would guarantee a market.
Already, Eon, the giant German utility firm, has taken a 25-percent stake in a new 3-G consortium set up by Sonagas, the state gas company, to build the necessary infrastructure. 
Also, Galp Energia of Portugal and Gasol which is listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market, are also involved along with Gas Natural of Spain which recently raised its stake in Union Fenosa to 95 percent.  
What might however, prove a snag with this vision, Green says, are the abounding uncertainties issuing from neighbouring Nigeria and Cameroon who are alleged to be reluctant to augment the country’s modest gas reserve estimated to be at least 4,400 billion cubit feet by the ‘Oil and Gas Journal.’
Added to this are alleged human rights abuses and Mbasogo’s familiar style of rule which gives the country a feel of an African emirate.
Key positions in government are occupied by the president’s children and close relations and because of this very little wealth trickles down to the people and in spite of an average gross domestic product of more than $31,000 a head, almost 80 percent of the citizens live in poverty.
Allegations of graft were rampant during the oil era and the US Senate investigation into the handling of Equatorial Guinea’s deposits in Riggs Bank in Washington said in 2004 that oil companies might have contributed to corruption by making payments to officials with minimal disclosure.
However, in his bid to disabuse investor’s mind in this connection, President Mbasogo has authorised the government to apply to join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a global programme that would subject public account to much greater scrutiny.
Franscisco Tatchouop Belobe, a vice-minister who coordinates the bid for EITI membership, was quoted as saying that Equatorial Guinea’s slow process was as a result of shortage of capacity rather than a lack of political will. “When talking about the country that apparently has so many secrets, you realise we have nothing to hide”, she said.
The government points to its vision for transforming Bioko into a gas and maritime centre as evidence that it is putting its income to good use. In spite of the drop in oil prices, Chinese labourers dressed in blue overalls and hard hats packed in the back of trucks rumble daily towards construction sites in Malabo, the country’s capital city.
Also, the port echoes with the clanking of cranes working on a $4.5 billion deepwater project designed to serve the whole Gulf of Guinea, among other activities.