Gabon 2018 Hydrocarbons Law Reform: Appetite for New Incentive

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Gabon is a Central African country based in the Gulf of Guinea, located on the Atlantic side of the African continent and crossed by the equator. Gabon became independent in 1960 and has since developed a stable and peaceful environment attracting major international investors for, in particular, oil and gas, mines, forests, agro-industry which remain the main sources of revenue for Gabon.

Gabon is among the top five crude oil producers in Sub-Saharan Africa, has been a crude oil producer for more than 50 years and had its peak oil production in 1997 when crude oil production reached 370,000 barrels per day. Since 1997, oil production has been declining. It is still around 200,000 barrels a day, with a total production estimated at around 10 million tonnes. Since July 2016, Gabon has returned to OPEC membership, which the country was not part of for several years. According to OPEC’s World Proven Crude Oil Reserves by country, there were a total of two billions barrels of proven offshore and onshore reserves, with most of them being located in the south west of Gabon in the Port-Gentil area. To face the natural decline of mature fields, the government has oriented its policy to the exploitation of its offshore reserves (offshore is about 70% of the entire reserves).

An extract from Bouncing Back: African Oil and Gas. Please download by clicking: INTO AFRICA PUBLICATION: MAY 2018 EDITION.

Contributor’s Profile
Jean-Pierre Bozec Jean-Pierre Bozec is the managing partner of Project Lawyers, an independent leading business law firm in Gabon. He has more than 23 years of experience in O&G projects and project financings throughout North, West and Central Africa. The course of his career, he has developed a strong expertise in negotiation and

drafting State contracts for international investors (production sharing contracts, establishment convention, mining conventions, BOT and concession agreements), in legal and tax structuring of projects in Africa, in particular for oil and gas, utilities, transportation infrastructures and mines.

He graduated from Exeter University (UK) with an LL.M. in international business transactions and from Rennes University (France) with a postgraduate degree in business law.