But an important disadvantage of derivatives is their short maturity. A West African country with newly discovered oil reserves needs to finance exploration, drilling, and pipeline construction, which means that it needs to hedge at a time horizon of 10-20 years, not 90 days.
对于某些商品出口国来说，替代方案是通过在期货市场上卖出来对冲风险。但衍生品有个重大缺陷：它们的存在期限太短了。发现了新石油储量的西非国家需要为开采、钻进和管道建设融资，这意味着它的对冲期长达10—20年，而不是区区90天。