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On August 30, 2023, a swift and unexpected coup d'état shook the foundations of Gabon’s political landscape. While the coup’s duration was short-lived, its repercussions have profoundly impacted the country’s business environment. The ramifications of this event have created a ripple effect across the business sector, introducing an atmosphere of unpredictability and risk that companies operating in Gabon must now confront.
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Chinese oil companies that have held exclusive oil-extraction privileges for nearly a decade in Western Africa are now facing resistance from governments who claim that the Chinese are "gouging, polluting, or hogging valuable tracts." In Niger, private auditors have recently uncovered large costs and impractical charges made by the China National Petroleum Corporation, which has added another argument for the revisions of trade agreements that have already saved Niger tens of millions of dollars from the Chinese. In neighboring Chad, the government recently shut down Chinese oil operations after discovering immense amounts of environmental pollution within their borders. Gabon has also joined in the fight against the Chinese petroleum corporation, which surprised the oil industry by withdrawing a permit from another Chinese state-owned company, Sinopec, and giving it instead to a newly created national oil company.
