Cameroon’s Ministry of Finance has projected a rebound in hydrocarbon activity from around 2028, after a steep decline in 2027.
The rebound is expected to be led by Chevron operated Yo Yo field, an offshore gas-condensate discovery in the Douala Basin, which is part of the cross-border YoYo-Yolanda field with Equatorial Guinea. The gas will be fed into via Equatorial Guinea’s Gas Mega Hub, supporting LNG and downstream industries. First gas is likely closer to 029 than the announced 2028.
Cameroon expects that operators will start working, in earnest, on the five blocks recently awarded for as production-sharing contracts, including the Bolongo block in the Rio del Rey Basin awarded to Octavia Energy Corporation Limited and the Etinde Exploration, Tilapia, Elombo, and Ntem blocks in the Douala/Kribi-Campo Basin, awarded to Murphy Oil.
The ministry’s 2027-2029 Medium-Term Economic and Budgetary Programming Document sees a 24.6% in 2027, the first full year after the exit of the floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) production vessel Hilli Episeyo.
Anglo-French independent Perenco’s operated fields such as Sanaga South and Ebome are in steep decline, so is Addax Petroleum’s Makoko-Abana accumulation. Commodity trader Glencore’s total attributable 2025 production from the Bolongo project totaled 161,000 barrels, down from 201,000 barrels in 2024, a 20% year-over-year decline.
The departure of Cameroon’s only LNG export facility will end the partnership between Norwegian shipowner Golar LNG, operator of the Hilli Episeyo, the state-owned National Hydrocarbons Corporation (SNH), and Perenco, Cameroon’s largest oil producer. The vessel’s annual LNG production capacity was increased from 1.2Million tons to 1.4Million tons in 2022.
Perenco is redirecting and repurposing the gas, sourced from the Sanaga South and Ebomé fields, to pipe it entirely to the Bipaga Gas Processing Centre on the mainland. The centre will increase the extraction of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG/butane), targeting the state-subsidized domestic cooking gas market to reduce Cameroon’s reliance on fuel imports. The Bipaga Gas Processing Centre came on stream in 2024, supplying natural gas through a dedicated .27-kilometre pipeline to the Keda Cameroon Ceramics Ltd manufacturing plant. The plant consumes up to 6Million standard cubic feet per day (MMscf/d) under a 20-year gas sales contract signed between Perenco and SNH.
The government expects the sector to rebound gradually, with activity forecast to grow by 14.9% in 2028 and 18.1% in 2029. The recovery is expected to be driven by the start of production from new oil and gas fields like Yo-Yo, as well as work by an experienced company like Murphy Oil.
The awarded blocks are still in the contract negotiation phase and the projected rebound remains contingent on Cameroon’s ability to convert newly awarded exploration acreage into producing oil and gas assets.
