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Central African Republic lawmakers have voted to end the fuel import monopoly a Cameroonian company has held since 2023, after auditors commissioned at the International Monetary Fund's request found the country's pricing structure had no justification.
The National Assembly adopted the law reorganising the petroleum sector on July 13. The vote was unanimous.
The law liberalises the import of petroleum products and derivatives, tightens control over the tax revenue the sector generates, and creates a regulatory authority responsible for oversight and transparency. Companies may apply for import licences again.
That ends the exclusive position of Neptune Oil SA, run by Antoine Ndzengue. He also chairs the Groupement des professionnels du pétrole, the body representing petroleum operators in Cameroon.
A ten-year deal signed weeks after Total left
The Central African government signed the exclusive supply convention on Sept. 29, 2023. It ran for a decade, covered petroleum products and domestic gas, was approved in the council of ministers and took effect on Dec. 1 that year. Only Tristar, which supplies the United Nations peacekeeping mission MINUSCA, was exempt.
The timing drew attention. TotalEnergies had left the country weeks earlier after a dispute with the state, its assets bought by French merchant bank Rochefort & Associés through a vehicle called TransAfrica Market Oil, or Tamoil.
Tamoil's margin came from importing fuel and reselling it. Within weeks of the purchase it was obliged to buy from Neptune instead, then sell at pump prices the state set.
The two companies fell out. Neptune served formal notice on Tamoil claiming more than 2.5 million euros in unpaid invoices for product already delivered.
What the researchers and auditors found
The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime published a study of the sector in November 2025, part of a mapping project run jointly with the Institute for Security Studies.
The Geneva-based research organisation found the fuel sector had been centralised around Neptune Oil, which it described as a politically connected Cameroonian company granted an exclusive ten-year import licence in 2023, "sidelining all other licensed marketers in violation of existing law."
The report attributed excess revenues of between $17.5 million and $30 million during 2024 to what it called a cartel-like structure made up of complicit state officials, a monopolistic importer and security services. It recommended an independent audit of the pricing system, full disclosure of import agreements and tax exemptions, and stronger enforcement.
The IMF pressed for that audit. Canadian consultancy CPCS delivered its report, dated October, to the authorities after long delays. RFI obtained a copy. The auditors identified a gap between the assumed purchase price of fuel and actual market prices, and concluded the difference had no basis and raised the cost of petroleum products artificially and substantially.
Prices are still climbing
The vote has not settled supply. Deputies raised fuel costs in provincial towns during the parliamentary debate, saying a litre sells for between 3,000 and 5,000 CFA francs in some localities and higher in places. At the currency's fixed rate against the euro, that is roughly 4.60 to 7.60 euros a litre. Bangui pays considerably less.
The capital has run through repeated shortages across the monopoly period. The country is landlocked and depends almost entirely on the corridor running up from the Cameroonian port of Douala.
What comes next
BOCOM, another Cameroonian operator, is expected to enter the market as competition reopens, according to Cameroonian business publication EcoMatin. The new regulatory authority will decide who receives licences and on what terms.
Whether liberalisation reaches the pump depends on how quickly those licences are issued, and on whether the Douala corridor can carry more volume than it does now. The law changes who is allowed to import. It does not change the geography.
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