Gambian president says oil found in his nation

DAKAR, Senegal -- The Gambian president announced the discovery of "large quantities" of oil in his tiny West African nation, saying the offshore find would eliminate poverty and hunger, Gambian media reported. An unnamed Western company made the find while studying 200 square miles of Atlantic seabed off Gambia's coast, the Gambian newspaper The Independent reported Monday. "I now have the open duty to announce that the results of the study are very positive ... there exists oil in the Gambia in very large quantities," the paper quoted President Yahya Jammeh as saying. Government officials in Banjul, the capital, could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

Jammeh didn't name the Western company which conducted the offshore study, but thanked the governments of Canada, Taiwan, Nigeria, Turkey and Mauritania for helping.

"With this first study, we have planted the seeds of what we believe ... will be prosperity for our people. This harvest will change the future of our country," the Daily Observer, another Banjul-based paper quoted Jammeh as saying.

Jammeh gave few details of the oil reserve's size, but said an offshore rig would begin pumping small amounts by year's end to "firm up the results of the study," The Independent said.

Gambia, a tiny nation of 1.4 million people wedged into the heart of Senegal, is one of the world's poorest countries, with a per capita annual income of $280, according to the World Bank. Gambia's coast is 50 miles long.

Jammeh dubbed the discovery, "The Alhamdulillah Prospect" and said the hunger and poverty now plaguing most Gambians would become "things of the past," the Daily Observer said. "Alhamdulillah" means "thanks to Allah" in Arabic.

Jammeh seized power in a 1994 military coup, overthrowing Dawda Jawara, the only other president the country has known since independence from Britain in 1965.

West Africa's Gulf of Guinea supplies the United States with 15 percent of its oil imports, and analysts say that share could grow to 25 percent by 2015 as the U.S. explores alternatives to the volatile Middle East.