ENERGY-GABON: Abundant, but Little Used, Natural Resources

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Antoine Lawson

LIBREVILLE, Mar 3 2003 (IPS) - Gabon has embarked on a programme to develop its energy resources, which has remained untapped due to the country’s poorly developed energy sector.

The sector, that has already been developed, represents only around one percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). ”Gabon has large fossil fuel (petroleum and gas) deposits: petroleum reserves are estimated at five billion barrels and gas at 14 billion cubic metres,” says Florent Minko, Gabon’s energy director, quoting the latest government statistics (1997). ”Gabon has set up a National Action Plan for the Environment (PNAE) to develop its untapped natural resources,” says the Minister of Mines, Energy, and Petroleum, Richard-Auguste Onouviet.

”The action plan, jointly funded by Gabon and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), will identify priorities and create a quality environment for all Gabonese,” says Juste Boussienguet, PNAE coordinator. Gabon, with a population of 1.2 million, also possesses renewable energy resources in its forest biomass and vast water reserves. With 22 million hectares of forest, Gabon’s wood resources are estimated at more than 2.6 billion cubic metres, 400 million cubic metres of which are marketable. ”If you only allow 25 to 35 percent of the available timber to be marketed, you will still have about 280 to 320 million cubic metres of biomass available to produce energy,” says Boussienguet. Gabon, which enjoys tropical rainfall, has a dense and extensive network of streams and brooks, which feeds two large rivers: the Ogooue and the Nyanga. Powerful rapids along these rivers contain considerable hydroelectric potential. ”Some sites are very promising, like the Portes de l’Okanda where the Ogooue is dotted by a series of powerful rapids whose electric potential has been estimated at 10 billion kilowatts per hour,” explains Joseph Mayombo of ‘The Voice of the Pangolin’, a non-governmental organisation (ngo), based in Libreville. Gabon’s total hydroelectric potential is between 40,000 and 50,000 gigawatts per annum, according to Onouviet. ”There is so much potential, but the energy sector is barely developed. The total energy snapshot indicates that, on the one hand, the economic circumstances show an increase in usage, but, on the other, the natural resources is not being fully taken advantage of,” says state-owned water and electricity company. Fuel and gas constitute the largest source of energy, as much as for road, rail, sea, and air transports as for domestic usages. They are also responsible for producing 25 percent of the country’s electricity. ”Ironically, only seven percent of Gabon’s gas supply is used to meet local energy needs,” laments Alphonse Louma, president of ‘Action for Gabon’, an NGO. Louma points out that 80 percent of all energy is ”burned off in the oilfields” ”We’re witnessing a waste of under-utilised resources in our questionable energy choices: priority for non-renewable resources even though the potential for renewable resources is considerable,” says Louma. The fuels sold in Gabon are mostly produced in Port-Gentil, the country’s second city, along the Atlantic coast. The refinery’s turbines run well above capacity because of increased electricity demand. And, the refinery’s aging equipment and financial problems over the last few years have led to an increase in the price of fuels in Gabon, a petroleum-producing nation. Gabon’s overriding objective, Boussienguet says, ”is to harness the country’s considerable hydroelectric potential and promote regional integration initiatives. We need to satisfy electricity demand in coastal areas where businesses are most concentrated”.(