Marooned off Africa's western coast, the 150,000 people of São Tomé e Príncipe scrape a living from cocoa, fish, aid and tourism. But oil firms, sniffing with seismic ships, think billions of barrels may lie beneath the island-state's territorial waters. Oil could change everything in this former Portuguese colony. This week, for instance, the president, Fradique de Menezes, sacked a parliament that had been planning to curb some of his powers—including his power to negotiate oil deals. An election will be held in April.