Sub-Saharan Oil Producers are Building Momentum (By NJ Ayuk)

Sub-Saharan Oil Producers are Building Momentum (By NJ Ayuk)

Sub-Saharan countries are playing an increasingly prominent role in African oil production this year.

OPEC members Nigeria and Angola remain among the continent’s top producers. In fact, they, along with Libya, Algeria, and Egypt, will account for 80% of African oil output in 2023.

But, as noted in the African Energy Chamber’s (AEC’s) newly released outlook report, “The State of African Energy Q1 2023,” much of the remaining oil this year will come from sub-Saharan countries like Gabon, Chad, Congo, Ghana, and Equatorial Guinea. Let’s examine recent oil industry developments in each of these countries in greater detail.

Gabon

Since the 1950s, oil exports from Gabon have accounted for a majority of the nation’s GDP. After seeing a peak in 1996, a price crash in 2014, and a natural decline in production that collided with the widespread havoc that COVID-19 wreaked on the global oil sector, recent developments in the Gabonese oil market could potentially bring about the return of more prosperous times for the country’s oil producers.

The unexpected oil market disruptions induced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and other economic shifts have inadvertently created new opportunities for Gabon, and a series of regulatory changes have revitalized foreign interest in the country’s fossil fuel