DRC Finance Minister to budget for disbursement of oil royalties to Kongo Central starting 2023

The President of the Republic Félix Tshisekedi returned in his communication during the 80th meeting of the Council of Ministers held on Friday December 9, 2022 to the issue of the allocation of oil royalties. He recalled the provisions of Law No. 11/011 of July 13, 2011 on public finance provides for the granting of a monthly allowance of 10% of the share due to the provinces in favor of the producing province as compensation to repair including environmental damage resulting from oil extraction.

“To date, only the province of Kongo Central is in the effective oil exploitation phase, however the President of the Republic Félix Tshisekedi expressed concern that since the promulgation of the law relating to public finances, this province has not was never able to benefit from his rights outside the 2012 and 2013 financial years, during which two monthly installments were disbursed due to a disbursement for each of the years” explained Félix Tshisekedi in the minutes of the 80th meeting of the Council of Ministers read by the Minister of Communication and Media Patrick Muyaya, Friday December 9, 2022.

In the meantime, the exploitation of oil continues with all these impacts without any counterpart. This constitutes a real prejudice for this province which limits its ability to intervene to mitigate or mitigate the said impacts.

“In view of the foregoing, the President of the Republic has instructed the Minister of State, Minister for the Budget and the Minister for Finance to take all measures to ensure, from the start of the 2023 fiscal year, not only the disbursement of this royalty but also to foresee the terms of the payment of loss of profit recorded relating thereto to date” adds the minutes of the meeting

Perenco is currently the only oil company operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo, more precisely in the province of Kongo Central. This company operates 11 onshore and offshore fields in the DRC for an average production of 25,000 boepd. The onshore drilling program, started in 2002, has enabled the commissioning of approximately 25 wells per year.

All of the gross production is transported to the Kalamu floating terminal, which has a storage capacity of one million barrels of oil.