Under the production sharing regime, recoverable oil costs reduce the share of output that goes to the State. Going beyond the requirements of the 2019 EITI Standard, this report prepared by Moore Insight examines the costs declared for 2021, the consolidation of the State's oil entitlements and the reconciliation between government and company data.
The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) disclosed oil costs of US$1,268,894,648 for 16 operators, 73 percent operating expenditure and 27 percent development expenditure. Assala Gabon, BW Energy and Maurel & Prom together account for more than 70 percent of the total. For the seven companies within the reconciliation scope, the DGH declared US$897,064,196, against US$759,194,105 declared by the companies.
The report highlights several limitations: petroleum contracts are not published and could not be consulted for confidentiality reasons, only 4 of the 16 minutes consolidating the State's share of production were provided, and cost audit reports were not submitted. It makes eight recommendations, including monitoring petroleum contracts, systematic cost audits and regular preparation of consolidation minutes.
