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Misanet.com / IPS, 20 December - The Congo is holding its breath as skyrocketing petroleum prices on the world market provide hope of a revitalised economy and reconstruction of its war-torn infrastructure. Congolese authorities have revised the 2000 budget in light of the petroleum windfall. Gasoline receipts, initially estimated for the year at 187 billion CFA francs, have risen to 489 billion since the spike in oil prices on the world market. ''Congo has never got so much benefit from its petroleum resources as it has through the present confluence of events,'' stated Mathias Dzon, the Congolese Minister of Finance. The country ranks third, after Nigeria and Angola, among sub-Saharan oilproducers. Gabon ranks a close fourth. - It's manna from heaven, and just when we need it most, said a delighted Dzon. Authorities say the government is already using the windfall to fund, solely onits own, reconstruction projects that will mend the considerable damage wroughtby the 1997-98 civil war. International lenders have already approved a morethan 500 billion CFA franc reconstruction loan programme for Congo. According to Taty Loutard, Minister of Petroleum Affairs, oil receipts have already allowed some major projects to take place. For example, Brazzaville's Talangai Hospital, which services 350,000 people a year, has been enlarged, renovated, and newly equipped. Oil income funds have also been used to build new roads and repave sections of highway in the country's interior. Some important buildings damaged in the 1997 war are also being repaired. - The flow of petroleum is fuelling our reconstruction needs, stated Mr. Loutard. On the social front, the government has been able to stick to a regular salary timetable this year. It has not had to issue IOUs in all of 2000. The disbursement of educational grants and pensions, however, has always been irregular and remains so. The government has, however, loaned the public employee retirement and social security systems 2 billion CFA francs so they can cover their deficits in paying out pensions. Though the upturn in petroleum prices has had undeniably beneficial effects on the government's financial standing, it has forced Congolese citizens to scramble when searching for petroleum products. The capital, Brazzaville, is in a perpetual state of gas shortages. According to Loutard, the shortages are due to the city's dysfunctional distribution system. "There are resellers, known as 'Khaddafis', who buy three-quarters of allpetroleum products delivered to gas stations from the managers. Then theyresell them at exorbitant prices and manufacture a shortage," lamented the gasoline minister. According to Loutard, the capital receives regular supplies from Pointe-Noire,the country's economic centre on the Atlantic coast. - Every train from Pointe-Noire brings a shipment of diesel, hi-test gasoline, and jet fuel. Some people have installed their own ground tanks and buy three quarters of what comes in from Pointe-Noire in barrel quantities, he said. A litre of gasoline, which sells for 400 CFA francs at a gas station, costs 2,000 CFA francs at one of these resellers. Diesel is 200 CFA francs at a gas station, but resellers, who ply their trade near the city's main arteries charge 1,500 CFA francs per litre. Andre Obami-Itou, the temporary general director for Hydro-Congo, the company which sells petroleum products, has decided to suspend his company's contract with gas station managers. - From now on we're going to check and monitor everything. We need to be sure that when we deliver 3,000 litres to a gas station, the products get sold to average people, and are not siphoned off by these resellers, said Obami-Itou. Hydro-Congo decided several years ago to entrust the management of its gas stations scattered throughout the capital to private operators. But the plan was never realised. According to observers, the country's present oil boom may be a flash in the pan, since the wells now in use have been for some time. "Our oil fields are old. It's been seven years now that our reserves have been pumping, and they've been pumping at a constant rate," a source with connections in the petroleum industry told IPS. - If new wells aren't discovered, the Congo could see its production go waydown, said the source, who asked that his name not be revealed. According to forecasts, with 700 million barrels in reserve and an output of100 million barrels annually, Congo could see its production sag 15 percent bythe year 2005. Several big oil companies have had no qualms about backing out after a searchfor new wells yielded nothing. The US oil company Esso, one of 10 western oil companies involved in petroleum exploration off the coast at Pointe-Noire, has announced that it plans to leave Congolese waters after losing some 30 million dollars on the Mer Profonde Nord (MPN) exploration permit. Exploration on this permit has not revealed any new petroleum layers. Congolese authorities and several more optimistic operators are still nursing hopes that the Mer Tres Profonde Sud (MTPS) exploration permit will yield better results. "We're especially hoping that the deep, very deep, offshore waters, between 1,000 and 3,000 metres below sea level, hold some good news for us," declared Loutard.
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