Find Oil and Gas expertise in Cameroon

Cameroon’s proven petroleum reserves are estimated at 400 million barrels, it is the fifth largest producer of petroleum in Sub-Saharan Africa. Petroleum producers in the country include Elf, Perenco, Pecten (Royal Dutch Shell) and the Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH) the national oil and gas company. The Cameroon Oil Transport Company manages the pipelines. The Société Nationale de Raffinage (SONARA) the country’s national refinery refines imported light crude oil from Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and Angola. TotalFina Elf, ExxonMobil, Shell, and ChevronTexaco market petroleum products in Cameroon. One firm, majority state-owned Cameroon Petroleum Depot Company (SCDP) handles petroleum product distribution. The entire sector is regulated by Caisse de Stabilisation des Prix des Hydrocarbures (CSPH).

Oil production began in 1978 but fell steadily from its peak of 186,000 barrels a day in 1985 to about 62,000 barrels a day in 2012, although government has made exploitation of marginal oilfields more viable and new small fields have boosted production. Crude oil is, nevertheless, the largest foreign-currency earner and accounted for 45 per cent of export earnings in 2011.

Oil is found in the Rio del Rey basin, close to the Nigerian border, natural gas at Rio del Rey and in the basin extending to the south of Douala. Prospects for large offshore finds of oil and gas were dramatically improved in 2006 when Nigeria agreed that the Bakassi peninsula would be ceded to Cameroon.