Significant Regional Hydrocarbons Producer – Analysis – Eurasia Review

The Republic of the Congo, or Congo Brazzaville, is a significant regional hydrocarbons producer in sub-Saharan Africa. Most of Congo Brazzaville’s hydrocarbons production is located offshore. Congo Brazzaville holds sizable proved natural gas reserves, but only a small portion of the reserves is commercialized because of a lack of natural gas infrastructure.

Congo Brazzaville exports most of its crude oil production, and revenues from crude oil exports play a large role in its economy, making its economy vulnerable to crude oil price volatility. In June 2018, Congo Brazzaville joined OPEC as a full member and is one of the six African nations in the organization.¹

Petroleum and Other Liquids

Congo Brazzaville held an estimated 1.8 billion barrels of proved crude oil reserves at the beginning of 2024, unchanged from the previous year. ²

Crude oil accounts for most of the total liquid fuels production in Congo Brazzaville; the country produces very small volumes of lease condensate and natural gas liquids. Congo Brazzaville produces and exports three main blends of crude oil: Djeno, N’Kossa, and Yombo. The Djeno blend is a medium, sweet crude oil blend and is the primary blend produced and exported from Congo Brazzaville. N’Kossa is a very light, sweet crude oil blend produced in small volumes and is a blend of N’Kossa and Kitina crude oils. The Yombo blend is a heavy, sweet crude oil blend with a high viscosity level. Yombo’s crude oil properties are well suited for blending, and it is exported in small volumes primarily to destinations in the Asia-Pacific region, such as the Singapore-Malaysia fuel oil blending and storage hubs.³

Congo Brazzaville produced an average of about 273,000 barrels per day (b/d) of total liquid fuels from 2014 to 2023. Total liquid fuels production in Congo Brazzaville reversed its declining trend in the mid-2010s after a number of offshore fields in the N’Kossa Marine area were brought on line, enabling production to reach a decade-high of 347,000 b/d in 2018. Despite this recent growth, we expect the country’s total liquid fuels production to decline as a result of overall field maturation and a slowdown in upstream development. The Congolese government wants to attract new investment in upstream development by making changes to its legal and regulatory framework, but these efforts are likely to be insufficient in attracting investor interest and reviving the country’s liquid fuels production in the short term.⁴

Rising production from Congo Brazzaville’s offshore fields drove significant increases in total liquid fuels production in the latter half of the 2010s. The Moho Bilondo Phase 1b project in the northern part of the Moho Bilondo permit area began producing in 2015. The Moho Nord extension in the northern part of the same area started producing in 2017. TotalEnergies operates both developments. The Nene Marine offshore development in the Marine XII block and operated by Eni began producing in 2015. The Chevron-operated Lianzi offshore area is in a unitized offshore zone on the Congolese and Angolan boundaries. The Lianzi project is the country’s first cross-border development and the first in Central Africa.⁵

Congo Brazzaville has one operational refinery, the La Congolaise de Raffinage (CORAF) plant, in Pointe-Noire. The CORAF refinery has a nameplate capacity of 21,000 b/d, according to the Oil & Gas Journal. The Congolese government signed an agreement with Beijing Fortune Dingsheng Investment Company Limited to build a 110,000-b/d refinery in two phases at Pointe-Noire to meet increasing petroleum product demand in Congo Brazzaville and in the Central African subregion. The plant is reportedly still under construction and, according to Offshore Technology, is scheduled to begin operations in 2024.⁶

Natural Gas

Congo Brazzaville held an estimated 10 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proved natural gas reserves at the beginning of 2024, unchanged from the previous year.⁷

Dry natural gas production averaged about 28 billion cubic feet (Bcf) between 2013 and 2022. Congo Brazzaville uses all the natural gas it produces for domestic consumption .⁸

Congo Brazzaville has not yet developed sufficient natural gas infrastructure for commercial export. So, a significant amount of Congo Brazzaville’s natural gas that is produced is flared (or burned off) as a by-product of oil production or is reinjected into oil fields to aid crude oil recovery. According to the World Bank Group, Congo Brazzaville flared about 64 Bcf in 2022, accounting for significant volumes of Congo Brazzaville’s…