2023-08-30 20:00:24
A very rich subsoil and a very poor population. While uncertainty reigns after the announcement, Thursday, August 30, of a military coup that could put an end to the reign of the Bongo family for 55 years, Gabon has not escaped the economic curse of many African countries, with a cash economy, from which only a small elite benefits.
Large as half of France for only 2.3 million inhabitants, the country is one of the richest in Africa, in terms of GDP per capita (8,636 dollars in 2021, or 7,967 €), thanks to its oil, its manganese and its wood in particular. But Gabon “struggles to translate the richness of its resources into sustainable and inclusive growth” and a third (33%) of its population lives below the poverty line, estimated the World Bank, in a note published in April.
Inexorable decline in oil resources
Gabon is now the fourth largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, with production, however modest, of around 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2022. By comparison, Nigeria, the continent’s largest producer, extracts 1, 2 million barrels per day.
« Even though it is a member of OPEC, Gabon weighs little on the oil scene. But oil is very important to him “Explains Francis Perrin, researcher at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (Iris). Thanks to the rise in the price of barrels, it thus represented 51% of the country’s GDP in 2022 (compared to 38.5% in 2020), 85% of its exports and more than 65% of its budget revenue.
Disengagement from large companies
Like the other countries of the Gulf of Guinea, Gabon must deal with the depletion of these deposits, at high production costs, underlines Benjamin Augé, researcher at the French Institute for International Relations (Ifri), in a note published in June 2021.
The big companies are gradually withdrawing, like the Anglo-Dutch Shell and the French TotalEnergies. In December 2021, the company, headed by Patrick Pouyanné, sold part of its deposits as well as the Cap Lopez oil terminal, to another French player, Perenco, owned by the very rich and very discreet Perrodo family, 15th French fortune. , according to the ranking of the magazine Challenges.
At the heart of “Francafrique”
Today TotalEnergies only produces 17,000 barrels per day in Gabon, even if its subsidiary continues to occupy a somewhat special place. If the first commercial exploitation of a deposit dates back to 1956, geologists made their first reconnaissance of the land in 1928. The Gabonese subsidiary of TotalEnergies, which holds 55.3%, is also listed on the Paris Stock Exchange, with 25% of the capital held by the Gabonese State and 16.7% in the public.
the old “French Equatorial Africa Petroleum Company” (Spaef), created in 1949, then became Elf Gabon in 1973, was long considered one of the pillars of the “Francafrique” where economic and diplomatic interests were mixed, with suitcases of banknotes being used to finance French political life and to enrich local dictators. In the early 1990s, she was at the center of the so-called corruption scandal. “The Elf Affair”.
An oil exploitation very criticized on the environmental level
French tankers have not, however, deserted Gabon. Perenco now produces 110,000 barrels per day, or half of the country’s production. For its part, Maurel and Prom, another French player, is increasingly present. In June, it bought Assala Energy from the Carlyle investment fund, which should increase its Gabonese production from 15,000 to 56,000 barrels per day by 2024.
“These small companies specialize in taking over assets that no longer interest the majors, but which they believe they can still exploit at lower costs”, notes Francis Perrin. At the expense of the environment? This is what many NGOs claim, denouncing, for example, oil leaks in the mangroves.
Large quantities of minerals
For several years, Gabon has nevertheless been seeking to reduce its dependence on oil, in particular with the adoption of a new mining code in 2019, supposed to provide a more stable framework for investors. Because the country is the second largest producer of manganese, which represents 6% of its GDP. But also contains iron ore, gold, copper, uranium, zinc or rare earths such as niobium, of which it would have the second largest deposit in the world.
In Moanda, the French company Eramet thus operates the first manganese mine in the world, with a production of 7.5 million tonnes in 2022 and employs some 8,000 people. Comilog, its local subsidiary, is 29% owned by the Gabonese state. China is also interested in the sector, as is India, which also has large needs for this metal used in the production of steel and batteries.
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