content: Have a stable noncorrupt government is probably the other prerequisite.  Based on their natural resources Venezuela should have easily become at least the wealthiest country in Latin America. But, decades of squandering the money and experimenting with idiotic forms of economics have squandered most of that money away.  Libya being another example as well. Gaddafi squandered alot of that money through his foreign adventures and getting sanctions on his country. At least he didn't squander all of the oil wealth and was able to pull the country far above its neighbors (though not to its full potential). Now that we made the "smart" decision of ousting him Libya is now in a 4 way civil war and anything that was built up with their oil wealth is in the process of being destroyed. Meanwhile we have Norway, who has prudently invested their oil wealth back into their economy and elsewhere. They stand to lose a lot of money due to low oil prices, but they have a 1 trillion dollar rainy day fund, so I don't think they have much to worry about.