Ogooué-Maritime

Ogooué-Maritime covers 22,890 km² along the Gulf of Guinea. The Ogooué river, which runs about 1,200 km through Gabon, flows into the Atlantic Ocean at Port-Gentil. Some inland localities can only be reached by air or by sea.

The province has three departments: Bendjé (capital Port-Gentil), Etimboué (Omboué) and Ndougou (Gamba). Omboué lies on the Fernan-Vaz lagoon; Gamba on the Ndogo lagoon.

The 2013 general population and housing census (RGPL) counted 157,562 inhabitants (6.9 per km²), including 140,747 in Bendjé department, 11,092 in Ndougou and 5,723 in Etimboué. The 2026 census counts 292,652. These 2026 census results, validated by the Constitutional Court on 27 August 2026, are well above World Bank estimates and have been debated in the press.

Port-Gentil is regarded as Gabon's economic capital because of oil activity. The province's main activities are oil extraction, forestry and fishing; sport fishing and ecotourism are developing.

Oil and gas

• Port-Gentil's major historical operators include SPAEF, which became Elf Gabon and then Total Gabon (now TotalEnergies EP Gabon).
• Perenco has been in Gabon since 1992, when it acquired four offshore fields south of Port-Gentil. Since 18 December 2007 it has supplied gas to the Libreville and Port-Gentil power plants. In 2017 it took over operation of several licences previously operated by Total Gabon.
• In Gamba, Shell discovered a major field in 1967; the town hosts one of the country's two oil terminals, although production there is now far below its historical level.
• Assala Energy, one of the country's main producers, was acquired in June 2024 by Gabon Oil Company (GOC), the national oil company.

Société gabonaise de raffinage (Sogara), Gabon's only refinery, is located in Port-Gentil; its output is mostly for the domestic market.

Port-Gentil also developed as a timber export port, notably for okoumé used in plywood.

Port-Gentil has a port and an international airport. Port-Gentil has no road link to Libreville: connections are by air and sea. Gamba is also served by an airport.

To open up the province, construction of a 93 km road between Port-Gentil and Omboué, including two large bridge structures of 4.5 km and 4.7 km, began in 2015 and was awarded to China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC). According to Gabonactu, its cost was announced at 359 billion CFA francs, 95% financed by China Exim Bank. In December 2018, progress was put at 92%. The sources consulted do not confirm when the road fully entered service.

Loango National Park, created in 2002, covers 1,550 km² between the Nkomi (Fernan-Vaz) and Ndogo lagoons. It combines savannah, beaches, forest and mangroves, and is home to elephants, buffalo, hippopotamuses and gorillas; humpback whales are seen offshore.

Further south, the Iguéla, Ngové-Ndogo and Setté-Cama areas, totalling 700,000 hectares, make up the Gamba complex of protected areas.