The Republic of Congo (Congo Brazzaville) averaged 307,000Barrels of Oil Per Day in March 2026, higher than the average daily output the country has achieved in any month in the last three years.
Then production dropped to 292,000BOPD the month after, as if in response to President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s decision to ease out Bruno Jean Richard Itoua from the headship of the Ministry of Hydrocarbons.
That interpretation is far-fetched, of course. Stev Simplice Onanga was only appointed six days to the end of the month – April 24, 2026. He is an entrenched member of the country’s hydrocarbons ecosystem. And oil production doesn’t rise and fall on the wings of Presidential appointments.
Onanga had been advisor to the President on hydrocarbons since 2024.
He was Director General of the National Petroleum Research Company (SONAREP), a subsidiary of SNPC, the state hydrocarbon firm, until August 2021, when he was promoted to Director General of Hydrocarbons (2021-2023), from where he moved to Upstream Petroleum (2023-2024) within the Ministry of Hydrocarbons.
Congo Brazzaville’s oil and gas output wasn’t entirely in stellar performance mode under Onanga’s predecessor, the charismatic Itoua (also an alumnus of the SNPC), who ran the crucial ministry between May 2021 and April 2026. Itoua met a declining crude oil output, which averaged 270,000BOPD, in the month before he took the office (down from a peak of 340,000BOPD in September 2018). For most of his tenure, however, the production moved between 275,000 and 290,000BOPD, such that the 307,000BOPD delivered in March 2026 was an outlier, up 16,000BOPD on February 2026 output of 291,000BOPD, which was 16,000BOPD higher than January 2026’s 275,000BOPD.
The new minister has his work cut out.
