Republic of Congo bouncing back

The central African nation looked to be a hydrocarbons has-been, but chunky discoveries in recent years have reversed the trend

Despite gloomy forecasts a few years ago, and allegations of corruption in the hydrocarbons sector, the Republic of Congo (RoC) is nevertheless still churning out oil. It has even managed to nudge itself up the international production league table in recent years. New production, largely from France's Total and Eni, is expected to boost the country's oil output by some 40,000 barrels a day in 2017, to around 350,000 b/d. This estimate (from Opec data) is a notable turnaround for an industry, which seemed to have peaked a decade ago. Output has generally been in the 250,000-300,000 b/d range over recent years. Eni's discovery in 2012 of the Nene Marine oilfield, offshore from Pointe Noire ne