It has been reported that the government of Gabon has abandoned the merger project, underway since 2019, between Sogara and Gabon Oil Company (GOC). Agence Ecofin said yesterday that the merger objective was to save Sogara, the country’s only refinery.
The report quoted a government official statement announcing that the proposed merger between the Gabonese Refining Company (Sogara) and the National Hydrocarbons Company, Gabon Oil Company (GOC), announced in 2019, has been abandoned by the government.
The decision to merge these two state structures, Agence Ecofin said, was taken during the Council of Ministers of June 13, 2019, chaired by the President of the Republic, Ali Bongo.
The merger was supposed to make the only Gabonese refinery profitable. “In fact, Sogara in recent years has struggled to get its head out of the water with a continuous drop in the volumes of oil processed.
Between 2018 and 2019, for example, volumes processed fell by 13.4%, from 779,951 metric tonnes to 675,471 metric tonnes. Also, sales of all refined petroleum products on domestic and foreign markets fell sharply,” the report said.
Founded in 2011, the oil company Gabon Oil Company is the heir to the National Hydrocarbons Company of Gabon (SNHG).
By Chibisi Ohakah, Abuja
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