“Thankfully, there’s no rehab for success.” – Lil Wayne In early July of 2025, the government of Angola made a fateful decision to raise diesel prices nationwide by one-third, part of a years-long campaign to phase out costly fuel subsidies. A three-day strike by minibus and taxi drivers spiraled into nationwide bouts of violent unrest. By the end of the month, some 30 people were confirmed dead, 277 injured, and over 1,500 arrested. Despite these severe civil disruptions, the government ultimately held firm. The riots came to an end, but the reduced subsidy levels held. Energy is life | Getty How local customers are treated in net energy-exporting regions is often an underappreciated political, economic, and strategic challenge. It seems only fair that resource wealth should, at a bare minimum, accrue life-nourishing benefits to surrounding residential and industrial consumers, but fairness is rarely value-optimizing for the risk capital needed to extract such wealth in the first p
