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Gabon
Last Updated: December 2016
Overview
Map of Gabon
- Gabon is a mature oil producer in West Africa that has been facing declining output for more than a decade.
- Gabon was a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) from 1975 to 1994, but it departed from the organization because of high annual fees.
- Gabon’s economy is heavily dependent on its oil production. Oil revenue accounted for 45% of total government revenue, and hydrocarbon exports accounted for nearly 85% of total export revenue in 2014, according to the most recent data from the International Monetary Fund.
- In 2011, the government created a national oil company (NOC), the Gabon Oil Company, to increase the government’s involvement in oil production by taking equity stakes in future awards. Gabon did not have a NOC for more than two decades after the previous company, Sociét Nationale Petroliére Gabonaise, was disbanded in 1987.
- Gabon is among the top five oil producers in Sub-Saharan Africa. The country produced around 213,000 barrels per day (b/d) of petroleum and other liquids in 2015. Gabon has diversified its crude oil export markets over the past few years and sends the majority of its production to Australia, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Spain, France, and Trinidad and Tobago.
- Low oil prices, mature oil fields, and a lack of major new finds have caused Gabon’s oil output to decline. Total oil production has decreased by more than one third since its peak of 370,000 b/d in 1997.
- Total, the French oil major, and Royal Dutch Shell are the largest oil producers in Gabon. Other significant oil producers include the Paris based-Perenco, the Sinopec-owned Addax Petroleum, and the Houston-based Vaalco Energy.
- Recent deepwater and pre-salt discoveries have piqued investor interest in Gabon’s offshore production potential. In 2013 and 2014, several international companies discovered sizeable hydrocarbon deposits in pre-salt formations off the Gabonese coast. The discoveries include Total’s Diaba field, Royal Dutch Shell’s Leopard-1 well, and Italian-owned Eni’s Nyonie Deep prospect.
- Gabon’s Ministry of Energy is in the process of awarding its deepwater oil and natural gas blocks. In 2014, the country awarded 13 offshore blocks to 11 international companies. Bidding winners included Ophir Energy, ExxonMobil, Eni, and Repsol, among others. The country launched its most recent bidding round for five offshore blocks in late 2015.
- In late 2014, Gabon published a new hydrocarbons law that granted the Gabonese government more control over the country’s oil and gas activities. Under the new legislation, Gabon’s NOC is authorized a 15% equity stake in all new projects. The law also mandates that local workers hold at least 90% of all energy sector jobs, including executive positions.
- Gabon’s downstream sector is very small and the country has a single refinery, the Sogara Refinery located at Port-Gentil. The Sogara Refinery has a crude oil distillation capacity of 24,000 b/d, according to the Oil and Gas Journal. The refinery operates below capacity, and output fluctuates because of maintenance challenges at the aging facility, built in 1967.
- Gabon and South Korean company Samsung signed a memorandum of understanding in July 2012 for the construction of a new 50,000 b/d refinery in Port-Gentil to replace Sogara. The project is currently in early planning phases.
- Gabon produced around 12 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas in 2015, according to the International Energy Agency. The country has approximately 1,000 Bcf of proved natural gas reserves, most of which are associated with oil fields.
- Almost 80% of the natural gas produced in Gabon is either flared or re-injected into oil wells to aid oil recovery. However, Gabon’s new hydrocarbons code has established limits on gas flaring in accordance with United Nations initiatives, which may reduce flaring in the future.
- The Nyonie Deep prospect in the North Gabon Basin, owned by Italian major Eni, could hold as much as 500 million barrels of oil equivalent in natural gas and condensates. Development of this pre-salt prospect, as well as further exploration of surrounding potential hydrocarbons zones, may significantly boost the country’s natural gas production.
- Gabon had 700 Megawatts (MW) of installed generation capacity as of 2016, and about 35% of electricity net generation were from hydroelectric sources in 2014.
- According to the latest 2014 estimates from the International Energy Agency, 89% of Gabon’s population has access to electricity. Gabon’s urban areas consume most of the country’s generated power, and the country’s rural electrification rate is only 38%.
- Gabon’s growing and urbanizing population and its industrial development are straining the country’s power generation capacity. Gabon has an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 MW of undeveloped hydropower potential, which if exploited, could substantially increase the country’s electrification rate.
- To meet the country’s electricity demand, Gabon continues to invest in new hydroelectric power plants and transmission line extensions. Gabon’s largest hydroelectric project, the Grand Poubara dam on the Ogooué River, came online in 2013. The 160-MW Grand Poubara will increase capacity to 280 MW once planned expansions are complete. Several other hydropower projects are currently under construction, including the 115-MW Ngoulmendjim dam, the 84-MW project at the Empress Eugenie Falls, and the 36-MW FE-2 facility on the Okano River.
Project Feedback
Read what others are saying about this project.
12/01/2016 - Italy
First of all, congrats for this huge and helpful dataset!Secondly, how can I recover the data for Biodiesel production and see them in the chart/table? The Source button seem not to do any changes.. Thanks a lot again
11/28/2016 - Colombia
It would be easier, if when using metric units, instead of writing "billion kWh" you would specify whether this is 10^9 (as in english speaking countries) or 10^12 (everywhere else). Am I correct to assume 1 billion kW equal 1 GW?
11/19/2016 - Missouri, United States
International energy - consumption per capita years 2010 and 2011 seem wildly out of line with the previous years. US goes for 308 to 69,595 in 2010? Seems incorrect
11/11/2016 - Indiana, United States
I very much liked the previous version where excel downloaded data was much easier to work with. With this new version and the way it generates excel files when we download data, it takes me a huge amount of time to effectively use a downloaded file.
11/11/2016 - Virginia, United States
Per capita consumption data for 2011 by continent is coming up strangely. For global consumption of 529 Quad BTUs, it's showing per capita 9.5 trillion BTUs (which would assume a world pop. ~56,000).
11/02/2016 - India
Hi, great work with the interface. However, there are parts of the database that we could access in the previous version, that we are unable to access here (Imports and exports of petroleum crude and products, consumption of renewable energy in QTBTU among others). It would be great if these issues were cleared up asap so as to improve usability and access to data. Thank you!
10/24/2016 - India
Hi, We are unable to download crude oil and refined petroleum products imports by country. Kindly help.
10/13/2016 - Iran
Can you please create new links for your new things? I just saved a link for total renewable electricity net consumption, every time I just use this link address, but this time because of your update, it was not found. It makes me confused, I need this data in excel format, I search all of your website, I did not find this variable data/
10/11/2016 - New York, United States
The old system to download data was much easier - why fix something that worked well. I saw a comment that person can download all countries - I can not find that. Can you please direct me to it - thanks
10/01/2016 - Texas, United States
I'm just curious why the data period ends at 2013 - it's now Oct 2016 - seems like there should be data at least thru 2015. Has the beta site been replaced? Am I just in the wrong place?
09/28/2016 - Japan
I'm using the data for elec. generation (e.g. PV or wind) for my own research. Before this version, the data were down to 3 to 4 decimal places. However, only 1 decimal seems to be shown in Beta. It would be more useful and helpful for research if some options for more decimal place were added or units could be modified (e.g. other than billion kWh for generation). Thanks.
09/13/2016 - Norway
Hi, this gives me a very interesting picture of the global energy sector. Thank you.
08/29/2016 - Texas, United States
The organization of downloaded CSV data makes the data almost unusable. All headers for each country are shown as having equal value to the country itself so the data cannot be sorted without losing the country identification. I downloaded All Countries>Crude Oil and Lease Condensate Production. Column B makes every heading equal i.e., the country and various information headings. It is unfortunate that a download cannot be directly used but it is frustrating that as an expert Excel user I cannot easily determine a way to organize the data in a way that makes it usable. Thanks, Art Berman
08/16/2016 - Texas, United States
Really helpful and easy to use.
08/12/2016 - United Kingdom
Excellent. This is much easier to navigate and use.
07/27/2016 - Brazil
Excelent job! What does the "other liquids" in Total Petroleum and Other Liquids Production 2015 include?
07/18/2016 - India
Very useful data. However, it would be great if you could mention how much of India's energy (especially oil and gas) imports come by sea, in order to get a clearer picture of India's energy imports.
06/23/2016 - United Kingdom
I was using your import figures for china i.e. the pie chart for percentage world wide imports 2014 and when added up it is 99% rather than 100.
06/22/2016 - Japan
More new information will be helpful to understand global enegy situation.
06/15/2016 - Ecuador
Srs, I am probably one of the thousands readers that are eager to learn of the new information produced by EIA. Excellent, by the way. OPEC report on revenue is very informative. Our governments always keep us in the dark. Why???. Thank you
06/07/2016 - United Kingdom
Amazing data, thank you very much!
05/25/2016 - China
Very helpful information!! Well researched, clear figures and graphs.
05/18/2016 - California, United States
There is no data available for the petroleum or natural gas reserves in the U.S.A.
05/01/2016 - Australia
It is incredibly frustrating trying to view the data you want. Today I simply want to view the imports of crude oil in bbld in South Africa. BTU is a completely unhelpful metric.
04/22/2016 - California, United States
2014?? Where are the production numbers of 2015 and up 4/22/16?
04/03/2016 - United Kingdom
Fantastic resource. Very well researched, clear and easy figures and graphs. Well organised too. Incredible useful!
03/08/2016 - District of Columbia, United States
What a handy tool, thanks!
03/06/2016 - New Jersey, United States
Well organized information with easy access.
02/15/2016 - West Virginia, United States
Very helpful information!
02/14/2016 - China
I like the old version which had a country brief.
02/09/2016 - Saudi Arabia
Excellent work for the country analysis. However, i'm struggling to cite the South African country analysis report....would appreciate if you could sent it
01/30/2016 - Spain
Your website is very useful for me as a teacher, particularly the world thematic maps. My students like it as well. Thanks a lot!
01/22/2016 - Vietnam
Useful data for my work. Thanks sincerely.
01/04/2016 - Canada
Best government website ever
01/02/2016 - Turkey
Goood
12/29/2015 - Michigan, United States
We use your 'Total Electricity Net Consumption' data for comparing countries for a market potential index we create each year. Data in the previous years was available up to 5 decimal places. However, data is available with only 1 decimal place this year (through the beta interface) and comparing countries became a challenge because there are too many countries with the same values now. Is there a way to download the full data-set with all the decimal points available?
12/22/2015 - United Kingdom
Brilliant bit of website, made my life a thousand times easier!
12/06/2015 - Argentina
Excellent!!
11/29/2015 - Malaysia
May I know if there is a latest write up on Malaysia year 2015. The one I have obtained is 2014.
11/21/2015 - Virginia, United States
Terrific article on Brazil...thank you.
11/20/2015 - Egypt
I note that the analysis of energy in Israel in this site is not covered in details as other countries?
11/17/2015 - Michigan, United States
Great PDF file on Canada's energy and trade success! Exactly what I needed to bring me up to speed for my research on Michigan and on the Midwest - thanks! (Mike at McGuire Research)
11/15/2015 - California, United States
Why are your maps so hard to copy and past? It should be easy to get a nice graph of yours.
11/12/2015 - Alabama, United States
I work with Excel spreadsheets. I looked at your Excel download function and examined your Excel spreadsheet. It appears that if I am going to load the data into my spreadsheets, I will have to do one line at a time, each country individualy.
10/06/2015 - United Kingdom
The analysis on South Korea was a very interesting and worthwhile read. Great to see such an informed analysis presented with tables to illustrate it
09/30/2015 - France
Excellent interface, very very efficient. Having global data is definitely a plus. Too bad data goes up to 2012 and does not include 2013 and 2014. Comments coming from an IT manager used to major systems with large databases.
09/12/2015 - India
I always rely on data published by EIA to make various comparisons and analysis reports. This tool makes my job much easier.
09/11/2015 - Russia
Amazing tool, thank you for such a useful application for data export .
08/16/2015 - Colorado, United States
So... Pretty! Really appreciate you guys going the extra mile with your data tools, this makes my research so much more effective. You guys have been an utter joy to work with (not a typical experience for government bureaucracy), and this new beta is the icing on the cake. Thanks for the hard work you have put in to make this information clear and understandable! Looking forward to seeing what you guys cook up in the future.
06/09/2015 - District of Columbia, United States
Why can't I download any of this to spreadsheets? Why can't I download multiple years?
06/01/2015 - Nigeria
Dear Sirs, I have been using your data for almost 20 yrs, in particular the international Petroleum data. I like the granularity provided, by country by month. Unfortunately it seems from the beta site, that I can only access the annual data and only download as a CSV file. Is that correct? regards Casper
05/31/2015 - Virginia, United States
Where are the country pages!!!? I am writing a book chapter and referenced your site, where I found terrific info on India and Japan several months ago. Unfortunately, it appears you deleted those pages. Why?
05/27/2015 - Antarctica
I really love this beautiful webpage! It is very wonderful:) I love learning about this stuff!
05/25/2015 -
I need to access country profiles in .pdf form.
05/20/2015 - New York, United States
Thank you for all the info and help over the past few years. Before the layout, I was able to find annual #s of net exports of petro for each country, and now I have no idea where it is.
05/20/2015 - New York, United States
I am looking for bbl and bcf , not Btu , can you tell me where to look for country's oil bbl and gas in bcf? Thanks
05/20/2015 - Canada
Where can I find the original spreadsheets with the country data for Crude + Condensate and the one for all liquids. The new look is too complicated for me. The spreadsheet is more easily used for good analysis.
05/19/2015 - Texas, United States
Would like a link to the pdf of the entire country analysis brief.