Infrastructure and logistics corridors

The country's exports (manganese, processed wood, palm oil) and most of its imports go through the Owendo port complex, south of Libreville. The port is linked to the interior by the Trans-Gabon railway, the country's only railway line, which serves the Moanda mining basin and Franceville. Crude oil is exported through dedicated terminals around Port-Gentil and in southern Ogooué-Maritime.

Only a small share of the road network is paved, which raises inland transport costs and gives rail and coastal shipping a central role. For investors and logistics operators, the key points to watch are terminal capacity at Owendo, the reliability of the Trans-Gabon railway, progress on the Libreville-Franceville road and the availability of electricity.

The port of Owendo, under the authority of the Gabon Ports and Harbours Office (OPRAG), brings together several specialised terminals. The commercial port, run by Gabon Port Management, has a 455-metre quay with four berths and handles about 6 million tonnes a year according to OPRAG. The container terminal is run by Owendo Container Terminal (OCT), a subsidiary of Africa Global Logistics (AGL).

The New Owendo International Port (NOIP) was inaugurated in October 2017. This multipurpose terminal, developed by GSEZ Ports with Bolloré Transport & Logistics and the Olam group, has a 500-metre quay with 13 metres of water, grain silos and palm oil tanks. In August 2019, according to Ship Technology, GSEZ Ports secured 305 million euros of financing, including 40 million from the African Development Bank (AfDB), for new facilities. In December 2023, according to Gabonreview, AGL announced 20 billion CFA francs of investment to modernise its Owendo and Port-Gentil terminals, including new cranes.

Manganese is exported through two terminals. The mineral port of Compagnie minière de l'Ogooué (Comilog), in service since 1988, has a 900-metre jetty and a capacity of about 5 million tonnes a year. Owendo Mineral Port, set up in 2016 by Arise Ports & Logistics, Meridiam and the State, loads ore from several producers by barge: 5.28 million tonnes in 2023, after a peak of 6.25 million in 2022.

In Port-Gentil, the commercial port opened in 1979 has a 375-metre quay and 20 hectares under customs control. The city is the hub of oil activities and of the Cap Lopez export terminal.

Built between 1974 and 1986, the Trans-Gabon railway links Owendo to Franceville over 648 kilometres of single standard-gauge track, with 23 stations. Since 2003 it has been operated by Setrag (Société d'exploitation du Transgabonais), a subsidiary of Comilog and the Eramet group, which received a 30-year concession in 2005. The line mainly carries manganese, timber and consumer goods, as well as passengers.

According to Setrag, traffic reached about 330,000 passengers and nearly 7 million tonnes of freight in 2019. An upgrade programme (PRN) ran from 2015 to 2024. It is followed by the modernisation and safety programme (PMS) signed on 24 November 2025: 203 million euros, including a 173 million euro loan from the French Development Agency (AFD) and a 30 million euro grant from the European Union. The programme includes replacing 270 kilometres of rail and building 40 kilometres of passing loops. According to Financial Afrik, the State is aiming for freight capacity of 21 million tonnes a year by 2029, against about 9 million today.

According to Gabonreview, the road network covers about 10,000 kilometres, of which less than 2,000 kilometres are paved, or around 20%. According to Ocean's News, the government has set a target of paving 3,000 more kilometres by 2032, following on from the national transition development plan 2024-2026.

National road 1 (RN1) is the main axis: it starts in Libreville and runs through Ntoum, Kango, Lambaréné, Fougamou and Mouila, then Ndendé, the last town before the border with the Republic of the Congo. Beyond Ndendé the road is unpaved. To the north, the road through Ndjolé, Mitzic, Oyem and Bitam reaches Cameroon at Eboro. Another road links Estuaire to Cocobeach on the Equatorial Guinea border.

The Transgabonaise project aims to upgrade the 828-kilometre road between Libreville and Franceville. The public-private partnership was signed on 24 October 2019 for 30 years with Société autoroutière du Gabon (SAG), a company formed by Meridiam and Arise. The first phase covers 81 kilometres between KP 24 and KP 105. In March 2026, Gabonmediatime reported that works had stopped and that the contractor might be replaced.

Léon Mba International Airport in Libreville is the main air gateway. Its 16,000 m² terminal, dating from 1991, can handle up to 1.2 million passengers a year, and its 10,000 m² cargo terminal can process 40,000 tonnes a year. The runway is 3,000 metres long. The airport handled 773,442 passengers in 2011, the latest public figure found. Its commercial management has been under concession since 1988, while air navigation is handled by the Agency for Aerial Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar (ASECNA).

Port-Gentil and Franceville (M'Vengue) have international airports, and around fifteen airfields serve provincial capitals and oil and mining areas. A project for a new Libreville airport at Andem was entrusted to GSEZ in 2018. No construction timetable has been confirmed to date.

Société d'énergie et d'eau du Gabon (SEEG) distributes water and electricity. Operated under a concession by the Veolia group from 1997, it returned to State control in February 2018. Generation relies on hydropower and on gas- and fuel-oil-fired thermal plants: according to the World Bank, hydropower supplied 46% of the electricity generated in 2023.

The Greater Libreville grid relies on the Kinguélé dam (57.6 MW, in service since 1973) and the Tchimbélé dam (68 MW, 1980), supplemented by thermal plants in Owendo. In Haut-Ogooué, the Grand Poubara dam (160 MW), built by Sinohydro on the Ogooué river and commissioned in 2013, supplies Franceville and the manganese industry in Moanda.

Several projects are meant to add capacity. The Kinguélé Aval dam (34.1 MW), developed by Asonha Énergie (Meridiam and Gabon Power Company), was due for commissioning in the third quarter of 2026 and should cover more than 10% of Libreville's needs. Other hydropower projects are under development: Ngoulmendjim (73 MW) on the Komo river, FE2 (36 MW) near Mitzic and Dibwangui (15 MW) in Ngounié.

Libreville is connected to two international submarine cables: SAT-3/WASC, in service since the early 2000s, and Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), 17,000 kilometres long and in service since December 2012. Inland, the fibre-optic backbone was partly financed by the Central African Backbone (CAB) programme, whose Gabon component (CAB4) was approved by the World Bank in March 2012 for 58 million dollars, with 23 million of additional financing in 2016. The project aimed to extend broadband coverage and lower its price.

Since 2021, the World Bank's Digital Gabon project (68.5 million dollars) has supported the digitisation of public services and digital identity. In 2024, 68.7% of the population used the internet according to the World Bank.