Shortly before gaining independence an event occurred that in the years to come would have deep influence on the country and its relations with the outside world, mainly France. Although French geologists had already established for certain in 1926 the presence of oil and gas in the country, in 1957 near Pointe Indienne the French Societé des Pétroles de l'Afrique Equatoriale Françaises (SPAEF) found oil and gas reserves offshore in sufficient exploitable quantities. Only then did France start exploiting these reserves. The reason was that in Algeria a war of independence was fought, and the French were losing. Until then Algeria was the main source of oil and gas destined for the French market. To remain independent of the American and British oil majors France had to look elsewhere for its supply. For some the discovery of oil off the Congolese coast was a blessing. For the majority of the local population it rather proved to be a curse as the International Monetary Fund in its yearly reports on the country a few years ago sadly observed. By the 1970s oil was Congo's largest export, however global market-price vicissitudes together with Congo's tendency to rely on overly optimistic projections of future revenues for the political purposes of sustaining a large civil service and a highly inefficient State sector, have regularly caused serious fiscal imbalances. Development of the sector has been hampered by the nation's traditionally powerful trade unionist movement, political uncertainties, as well as the costs of exploitation in a country with poor transport infrastructure.