High nickel prices, buoyant revenues from tourism and cosy relations with oil-rich Venezuela have improved matters dramatically.

ECONOMIST: Cuba

Today, three years after Deepwater Horizon, offshore drilling is booming in the Gulf of Mexico, driven by the continued high price of oil, a series of massive new fields discovered with the help of improved exploration technology, and the growing difficulty of finding major new oil fields abroad.

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With improved transportation, the need for company towns largely disappeared, though communities built for oil rig workers are still active today.

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These include up to 1m tons of fuel oil (around half of which has already been delivered) and improved diplomatic relations with America.

ECONOMIST: Asia.view

Although the country's economy has improved dramatically under President Obasanjo, it lacks diversity, with 95 percent to all government revenues generated from oil.

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Some major British oil and gas companies, bidding for highly competitive contracts with the country, could benefit from improved relations between Libya and the UK following Megrahi's release, our correspondent says.

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