Sinopec's Addax could lose rights in Gabon dispute

LIBREVILLE: Addax Petroleum, a subsidiary of China's Sinopec Group, could lose its licence to operate in Gabon for failing to pay customs duties and comply with other laws, senior officials at the crude-producing Central African nation's oil ministry said on Monday.

"The government has criticized Addax for the non-payment of customs duties since 2009 and non-compliance with the Gabon's hydrocarbons and environment code," a senior official of Gabon's oil ministry told Reuters on Monday.

Addax has denied the charges.

Last year, Gabon seized Addax Petroleum's 8,500 barrels-per-day Obangue field. In January, the country handed the operations to newly created state-owned Gabon Oil Co.

Last month, Gabon Oil Minister Etienne Ngoubou warned during a petroleum congress in the country that: "If Addax does not want to comply with the regulations in force, it will be asked to leave Gabon."

An official from the company told Reuters the decision to seize Addax's assets was unjust and is being contested.

"We have met all our commitments so far," the official said, requesting not to be identified.

"In creating Gabon Oil Co, the state did not have any assets of its own, so it decided to make us the scapegoat by taking our assets and giving it to the new company," he said.

Addax has interest in five production and sharing contracts in Gabon, covering onshore and offshore licence areas including the three production fields at Tsiengui, Obangue and Koula in the south of the country.

The three fields represent about 40,000 barrels per day, or roughly 20 percent of Gabon's total output.

Gabon produces roughly 240,000 barrels-per-day, generating about 80 percent of the country's export earnings. Oil majors Total and Royal Dutch Shell dominates the sector.

"We are concerned that the government has already said it will commandeer other fields," another senior Addax official said, requesting also not to be identified. "Relationship between Addax and the Gabonese government has deteriorated since the creation of Gabon Oil Company in 2011."