Ordinance creating the Gabon ports and harbours office (OPRAG) and setting its statutes

This ordinance creates the Gabon ports and harbours office (OPRAG, Office des ports et rades du Gabon) and sets its statutes. Its implementing rules were laid down by decree no. 00493/PR-MTPTAC of 5 April 1974, amended several times since. The text entrusts OPRAG with managing the public domain of Gabon's ports, whose occupation is subject to general terms and conditions. According to the office, its current tasks include day-to-day management and regulation of port operations, preparing and monitoring the authorisations and agreements granted to operators, enforcing safety rules and setting maximum tariffs within its port area. It now sits alongside the 2011 ordinance on maritime and port activities, ratified by law no. 022/2011. For a shipper, shipowner or port investor in Owendo, Libreville or Port-Gentil, this text is the basis of the port authority's role.