Congolese billionaire Lucien Ebata plans a 20-fold jump in his oil output

Congolese oil tycoon Lucien Ebata says his oil company, Trident OGX, plans to raise its production as much as twentyfold over the next two years, from about 2,500 barrels a day to between 45,000 and 50,000.

Ebata, the company’s chairman and chief executive, said Trident OGX first aims to reach 10,000 barrels a day, then turn its attention in 2027 to the Mengo field, which he expects to carry output to the higher range, according to the news site Vox Congo.

He spoke ahead of a meeting of oil experts in Brazzaville, held from Oct. 7 to Oct. 9, that sets the prices used to value the country’s crude for the third quarter of 2026. Ebata said the company’s goal in the talks was to align its pricing “with financial strategy, market position and overall profitability.”

He linked the company’s plans to the development of the Mengo-Kundji-Bindi permit, known as MKB, and said Trident OGX owed accountability to its partners.

The MKB fields

The MKB permit covers three onshore fields discovered in the 1980s, 15 to 25 kilometers from the Djeno oil terminal near Pointe-Noire. Congo’s state oil company, Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo, ran them for years before handing operations to Trident OGX in May 2022.

Under a production sharing contract signed in June 2018, the state and the national oil company hold 60% of the permit and Orion Oil Ltd., part of Ebata’s Orion Group, holds 40%. A government decree in December 2021 granted the permit for 20 years.

In October 2023, the African Export-Import Bank agreed to lend Trident OGX’s Congo unit $300 million to fund a seven-year development program on the permit. Afreximbank said at the time the project could raise Congo’s crude production by about 30%. The plan includes the use of hydraulic fracturing.

Officials at the Brazzaville meeting also faced pressure from a fuel shortage in the country. Nyvia Faida Ebenga Akiera, chief of staff to the hydrocarbons minister, said the talks should ensure an objective valuation of the country’s oil and keep a balance between the interests of the state and investors.

The adviser and the publisher

Ebata, 57, is one of the best-connected businessmen in the Republic of Congo. Born in Ollombo, in the Plateaux region, he trained as a lawyer in Cuba and Canada and holds Congolese and Canadian citizenship. He worked for Canadian government departments and as a lobbyist before founding Orion Group, which trades crude and refined oil products, mainly in Africa, and later expanded into aircraft and car leasing.

He has served as a special adviser to President Denis Sassou Nguesso. He is also the publisher of Forbes Afrique, the French-language African edition of Forbes, which he launched in 2012.

His business has drawn scrutiny in France. In January 2012, border police at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport stopped him carrying €182,000 and $40,000 in undeclared cash, which led to a long investigation by France’s financial prosecutor. In October 2021, Ebata was formally placed under investigation for money laundering, active bribery and failing to declare capital.

In January 2023, the French newspaper Libération reported that investigators suspected Orion Oil had overcharged the Congolese state oil company on fuel sales and paid cash to officials. Ebata’s lawyer, Antoine Vey, said French judges had no jurisdiction over a foreign company’s contracts and filed a defamation complaint against the newspaper. Congo’s government called the report defamatory. Ebata has not been convicted of any offense, and Billionaires.Africa found no record that the case has gone to trial.