Gabon plans to triple refining capacity by 2030

The new refinery of the Société gabonaise de raffinage (SOGARA) is due to begin construction in 2027 and be completed in 2030, tripling Gabon's refining capacity, according to a statement from the Gabonese presidency sent to AGP. President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema received, on the sidelines of his state visit to China, the managing director of SOGARA accompanied by its technical partners, Chinese refinery builder CC7 and engineering company Technip Energies, who presented him with an update on the project.

The facility will raise the country's refined fuel reserves to 90 days of consumption, in order to fully cover domestic demand and supply the markets of CEMAC and ECCAS, the two economic communities of Central Africa. The head of state called for work to begin as soon as possible and instructed SOGARA and its partners to study the construction of a pipeline to the centre of the country, to improve supplies to Ogooué-Ivindo and Woleu-Ntem.

During the same series of meetings, Oligui Nguema received executives from Chinese mining engineering group ENFI, a technical partner of Dusk Gabon, the project company for the Mabounié niobium and rare earths deposit in Moyen-Ogooué. The project, with an announced value of $2 billion, provides for ore extraction and processing on site in six to seven plants, with a capacity of 16,000 tonnes per year and nine finished products, from a deposit that can be mined for several decades. Work is due to begin in 2027, and earthworks have been entrusted to a Gabonese company.

These meetings took place during the Gabonese president's state visit to China, where he called for Chinese investment in housing and manganese. At the beginning of November, he had already asked Beijing to process manganese on Gabonese soil.