Congo: 25 years after its creation, the SNPC remains in debt, according to civil society

2023-05-15 22:02:23
The National Petroleum Company of Congo (SNPC) is celebrating its 25th anniversary. To mark the occasion, several events have been organized in recent weeks: conference-debates, sports walking, gala dinner… But also and above all, the kick-off by President Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the construction work of a 16-storey tower in Pointe-Noire, the economic capital. This is the new headquarters of SNPC. 25 years following its creation in 1998, the National Petroleum Company of Congo is recording, according to its leaders, significant economic benefits for the country. A nuanced assessment by Congolese civil society, which recalls that the SNPC remains a highly indebted public company. From our correspondent in Brazzaville, At this ceremony resembling a political meeting, Bruno Jean-Richard Itoua, first CEO of SNPC between 1998 and 2004, who became Minister of Hydrocarbons, takes stock of this public company, managed, according to him , with the rigor of a private company. “The SNPC contributed very quickly, through appropriate and modern financing, to providing the financial resource that the State really needed, to stimulate the dynamics of economic recovery desired and initiated by the President of the Republic”, welcomes Mr. Itoua. Less than a year before the creation of the SNPC, the Congo emerged bloodless from an unprecedented civil war, with a deeply dilapidated socio-economic fabric. A quarter of a century later, this company has four subsidiaries, including Congolese Refining (Coraf). But also of a Foundation at the service of the Congolese, according to its leaders who have many aims. “The ambition of all of us must therefore be to make SNPC a real energy company which must contribute, not only to its economic prosperity, but also to that of the country, in strict compliance with the imperatives linked to the protection of the environment and to the well-being of our fellow citizens”, he announces $25 million in dividends due to the State. For his part, Brice Makosso, from Congolese civil society, salutes “the efforts made by this company whose accounts are n were not easy to be audited until 2006”. They are today thanks to the work carried out by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). However, Brice Makosso points out one thing: “I believe that the SNPC still has a lot of work to do, particularly in terms of marketing, which is the first task assigned to it. It continues to sell oil at a lower price. We generally lose 0.5 or 1 dollar per barrel. It’s huge and it continues to be a great loss for the Republic. We also believe that SNPC must make efforts with regard to the payment of dividends to the State, since today we are around 25 million dollars in dividends that SNPC owes to the State”, affirms- he. SNPC’s debt is not new, according to the NGO Global Witness. In a report published in 2020, it claimed that, from 2012 to 2018, SNPC paid almost no dividends to the state.
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