Country
Assessment
Article 12 of the 2021 proposal requires operators to submit a report containing source-level methane emissions to the competent authorities. Starting 48 months after this regulation comes into effect, operators must submit to the competent authorities annual reports containing direct measurements of source-level methane emissions from their operated and nonoperated assets. The EP amendments further detail the reporting requirements. Amendments are more stringent in terms of direct measurement and emissions quantification, and shorten the reporting times. The provisional agreement reached between the EP and European Council in November 2023 follows these recommendations. For example, operators must submit reports quantifying source-level methane emissions within 18 months and direct measurements quantification of source-level methane emissions for operated assets within 24 months from the entry into force of the regulations. Reports on nonoperated assets are due within 48 months. Article 12 also mentions that the Commission will develop a reporting template. The EP amendments add that upstream, midstream, and downstream oil and gas operators can use the technical guidelines and templates of the OGMP 2.0 until the new template is available. Article 14 requires operators to develop LDAR programs within six months of the date on which this regulation comes into effect and start conducting the first survey within nine months. Article 27, Paragraph 1, requires importers to report their products’ methane footprint within nine months of the date on which this regulation comes into effect. The provisional agreement of November 2023 requires exporters to EU to comply with a maximum methane intensity threshold by 2030.
According to Article 125 of Law No. 002/2019 , at the request of the contractor and on the advice of the MPGHM, flaring and venting may be authorized within a period determined by the Ministry of Environment. Upon notification, the applicable thresholds (subject to periodical revision) will be determined for each field.
Article 8 of Law No. 002/2019 states that any license holder of an administrative authorization to carry out hydrocarbon activities has access to essential infrastructure, subject to availability and the priority of access granted to certain holders by the DGH. This third-party access is exercised in line with the principles of tariff transparency, equal treatment, and nondiscrimination.
No evidence regarding the use of market-based principles to reduce flaring, venting, or associated emissions could be found in the sources consulted. However, Ordinance No. 019/2021 relating to climate change (known as the Climate Change Law) lays the foundation for a national carbon credit market and makes these credits eligible for international trading. A national inventory of GHG emissions will collect data from all operators across major sectors, including flaring in the oil and gas industry, fossil-fueled power generation, agriculture, and forestry, with annual Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions higher than 10,000 tCO2e.
In the model PSCs , contract terms for oil are clearly defined, but terms for possible gas discovery or associated gas volumes remain vague (subject to a separate agreement). Article 215 of Law No. 002/2019 reduces the government’s minimum share of profit oil in PSCs to 45 percent for the conventional zone and 40 percent in offshore oil exploitation (against 55 percent and 50 percent, respectively, in the 2014 law). The government’s share of profit gas is 25 percent for the conventional zone and 20 percent for deep offshore zones. Law No. 002/2019 offers the possibility of removing the corporate tax of 35 percent on the contractor’s share of profit oil in the old law and lowers the proportional mining royalty, which is now 7–15 percent for liquid hydrocarbons produced onshore and 5–12 percent for those offshore. For natural gas, these rates are 5–10 percent onshore and 2– 8 percent offshore. The new legislation also improves cost-recovery terms for operators. The cost-recovery limits for liquids are 70 percent for onshore and 75 percent for offshore; the limits for gas are 80 percent for onshore and 90 percent for offshore.
Article 128 of Law No. 002/2019 requires oil and gas producers to develop or use suitable techniques for the recovery and re-injection of gas to optimize production and conserve the resource. Article 129 states that future regulations will define methods for controlling the volumes of gas flared and gas discharged and set forth plans to reduce flaring.
Article 263 of Law No. 002/2019 states that the applicable future legislation and hydrocarbon contracts will provide administrative sanctions. Article 265 provides for the withdrawal of authorizations and bans on oil and gas production for repeated offenses. This provision is not new: in January 2013, Gabon revoked the Obangué license of Addax Petroleum after the company allegedly failed to pay customs duties and comply with other laws.
Law No. 002/2019 sets a series of sanctions, including penalties for contractors that fail to submit required studies and reports for their upstream activities, gas-flaring violations, and noncompliance with regard to flaring-reduction plans or flaring thresholds. Article 265 doubles the penalties in the event of a repeated offense. Article 266 provides that future regulations will determine the methods for the payment of penalties. Article 269 of section 2 imposes a penalty of CFAF 50 million–CFAF 2.5 billion (about US$89,000–US$4.5 million as of September 2021) on any contractor that violates the prohibition on routine gas flaring. The same penalty applies if the contractor does not execute the flaring reduction plan or comply with the flaring thresholds set by the regulation. Article 278 imposes a penalty of CFAF 10–CFAF 100 million (about US$18,000–US$180,000 as of September 2021) on any contractor that deters inspections by the DGH. Article 280 imposes a penalty of CFAF 1–CFAF 2.5 billion (about US$1.8 million–US$4.5 million as of September 2021) on any contractor that violates the provisions relating to measuring or metering oil and gas, including system calibration.
Article 16 of Law No. 002/2019 refers to an institutional structure composed of the Ministry of Petroleum, Gas, Hydrocarbons, and Mines (Ministère du Pétrole, du Gaz, des Hydrocarbures et des Mines [MPGHM]), a regulatory authority, a national operator, and advisory bodies: Article 17 states that the ministry in charge of hydrocarbons (MPGHM) is the competent authority ensuring implementation of the government’s policy on the upstream and downstream oil and gas industry. Article 18 states that the application of the regulations governing the upstream, midstream, and downstream oil and gas sectors is to be carried out by the ministry department in charge of hydrocarbons, currently the General Directorate of Hydrocarbons (Direction Generale des Hydrocarbures [DGH]). Article 28 defines the responsibilities of an independent administrative authority in the oil and gas sector (responsibilities currently with DGH), which include the following: guaranteeing free competition in the oil and gas sector, per the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (Communauté Économique et Monétaire de l’Afrique Centrale) code on anti-corruption contributing to the development of technical specifications in the oil and gas sector and ensuring operators’ compliance with technical, quality, hygiene, health, and environmental specifications, as defined in the legislation guaranteeing pricing transparency and nondiscriminatory third-party access to essential infrastructure. Article 27 reiterates the right of the National Hydrocarbons Company (Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures) to participate in exploiting, marketing, and distributing hydrocarbons and their associated products. Founded in 2011, the National Hydrocarbons Company—also known as the Gabon Oil Company—reports to the President’s Office and is under the technical supervision of the MPGHM and the financial supervision of the Ministry of Economy. The new law no longer expressly refers to this company as the national operator. The Gabon Oil Company is defined only as an operator whose capital is held exclusively by the state. Its functions include the following: holding the government’s interests in national hydrocarbon resources and shares in private companies investing on behalf of the state (alone or in joint ventures with private companies) in upstream or downstream oil and gas projects undertaking any activity in the oil and gas supply chain, with the same rights and obligations as any other operator entering into agreements with the state, in the same way as private companies, to operate new gas-processing facilities and pipeline infrastructure, potentially in a joint venture with private operators.
Article 125 of Law No. 002/2019 prohibits the flaring and venting of gas in Gabon. No evidence of situations exempt from this general prohibition without government approval could be found in the sources consulted. However, at the request of the contractor, the environmental authority can authorize flaring and venting for a period.