Summary Sao Tome President Fradique de Menezes is traveling the globe in a bid to excite interest in the country's nascent oil industry and balance out neighboring Nigeria's overweening influence. Sao Tome's measures, however, might bring the United States into the middle of a conflict between one of its key oil suppliers and a future one. Analysis In late October, Sao Tome and Principe President Fradique de Menezes traveled to Portugal for a five-day visit. During the trip, his recently appointed prime minister, Maria das Neves de Souza, said in an interview with a Portuguese daily that his country wanted to renegotiate the terms of a joint oil exploration agreement with Nigeria, which gave Abuja 60 percent of the revenues earned. Two years ago, the government of former President Miguel Trovoada cut a deal with Nigeria to develop the island nation's oil industry.