Gabon Limits Expatriates In Oil Sector

Gabon Limits Expatriates In Oil Sector

The Gabonese government has agreed to limit the number of foreign workers in its oil sector to 10 percent and to require all executive posts to be held by Gabonese.

Trade unions in the oil sector had demanded the new policy, saying that legislation to implement the limits will be finalised by the end of the year.

Union spokesman, Arnaud Engandji said oil firms in the country would have two years to adjust to the 10 percent limit and six months for what he called the ‘gabonisation' of all executive positions.

Engandji said an accord on the limits was signed on Friday by Oil Minister Julien Nkoghe Bekale, Labour Minister Maxime Nozo Issondou and ONEP Secretary-General Guy-Roger Aurat Reteno.

Diversification

The deal averts the risk of a strike in Africa's seventh largest crude-oil producing economy, where a recent report estimated that foreign workers hold 1,893 of the total 8,590 staff positions, with Gabonese holding just 17 percent of executive posts.

Oil accounts for about half of Gabon's $14.5 billion-a-year economy – a dependence it is trying to reduce through an economic diversification programme.

Foreign investors in the sector include Royal Dutch Shell, Total, Tullow Oil Plc, Canadian Natural Resources and many others.

Reuters/AyoKoya/Yinka