The discovery of oil comes with a huge blessings capable of transforming individual lives communities, states and even countries if well managed. But a situation where the proceeds are miss managed it will turn to be a cause as individual will rise against individual, states Wil rise against starts, countries will rise against countries.
Oil discovery is basically a blessing, all resources do. However, weak economic performance of some oil rich countries indicates that some of the blessing we call natural resources became a curse. It describes how countries rich in natural resources were unable to use that wealth to boost their economies and how these countries had lower economic growth. The term used for this is "resource curse".
The answer is in both ways, it could be a blessing and it could be a curse, it depends on the leadership of the country. This is where creativity and leadership come in. Good things in the hands of bad people will never be allowed to show their goodness.
I must agree that long lasting ineffective behavior and also corruption are considered to be one of the major causes, figuratively natural resources are not always a curse, natural resources can increase high economic status for countries with efficient economic performance and strong institutions.
Great example would be UAE where the distribution of large oil revenues in the form of social and economic infrastracture, social services, education and health has raised the standard living of UAE citizens. UAE also has a business-friendly environment, with effective public administration for their control of corruption, a major example of avoinding the "resource curse".