Oh yes, they are thoroughly fucked. But so are the people in general. The "curse" of oil is that it takes relatively few people to run the industry. Perhaps 100

Oh yes, they are thoroughly fucked. But so are the people in general. The "curse" of oil is that it takes relatively few people to run the industry. Perhaps 100,000. The rest of the population is surplus to requirements. In theory you only need to pay off the oil folks, plus protection, to remain in power. In practice...