A series of international investigations, including the recent report “Fueling Ecocide” (2025), sheds light on the opaque practices of junior oil companies operating in Gabon. Between concealed environmental disasters, fatal accidents, and the recycling of controversial executives, the sector appears to be sinking into an unprecedented ethical drift in the country.
This is far from the first time observers have sounded the alarm in Gabon. Indeed, other investigations—including one conducted by the Gabonese state under the Bongo administration—have already highlighted abuses and operational failures within the oil industry.
During the golden age of oil production in Gabon, major companies Shell and Total reigned supreme over crude oil extraction. However, as reserves became depleted, these historic giants gradually withdrew, leaving the field open to so-called “junior” companies. This shift marked the arrival of operators whose methods are often considered less rigorous, with internal operating practices that have led to critical repercussions in terms of safety, social conditions, and environmental protection.
It was in this context that the Franco-British group Perenco established itself as the country’s leading producer, making Gabon its most important subsidiary worldwide. This dominance, however, has come with an alarming track record: the company’s facilities have become the scene of recurring accidents. Between 2022 and 2023, several environmental disasters—some of which resulted in loss of life—tragically illustrated the fragility of the operator’s safety standards.
A Heavy Record of Accidents and Persistent Impunity
The chronicle of incidents linked to Perenco’s activities in Gabon reveals a series of serious failures that have gone without any real judicial response. The Cap-Lopez terminal provided one of the most striking examples, with the explosion of a storage tank leading to a massive hydrocarbon spill in the immediate vicinity of beaches popular with the country’s economic capital. Even more tragic was the disaster that occurred in March 2024 at the Bécune field, which claimed the lives of at least six employees following an explosion during work on a well. Despite the scale of this incident and the resulting marine pollution, national authorities appeared to ignore both the accident and the company’s alleged cover-up strategy.
It was ultimately the British NGO Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) that exposed these practices in spring 2025 through a comprehensive investigative report. This document highlights what observers now call the “Perenco culture”: operational management focused on extreme cost-cutting and production maintained at any price, often to the detriment of the safety of people and property. The organization describes a system of social dumping, discriminatory treatment between local staff and expatriates, and institutionalized opacity involving falsified reports and suspicions of active corruption of local authorities.
Testimonies collected by the EIA from former technicians are particularly revealing. They describe safety protocols deliberately ignored, the repeated use of obsolete equipment, and reliance on unqualified labor for high-risk operations. The report also underscores a brutal human-resources approach in which competent employees who raise concerns are systematically sidelined in favor of more compliant teams, thereby entrenching a culture of generalized negligence across the group’s facilities.
Despite these revelations, the reality remains one of total impunity: no sanctions, no trials, and no official reports have been made public. While three Perenco Gabon executives were briefly detained, EIA investigators report that they allegedly regained their freedom after paying undisclosed commissions. This disastrous human and environmental toll took shape under the leadership of Benoît de la Fouchardière and Adrien Broche, who at the time benefited from the goodwill of Oil Minister Massassa, who even awarded Adrien Broche the National Order of Merit in January 2023.
This protection also appears to rely on regional influence networks. As the press reported in May 2025, Benoît de la Fouchardière enjoys the steady support of a close associate from Cameroon who holds a prominent position within the African Energy Chamber—an organization to which Perenco is a generous donor and on whose board he sits. This system of reciprocal favors between private interests and energy-promotion bodies illustrates the difficulty of achieving genuine transparency in a sector where personal connections seem to outweigh environmental and human responsibility.
When the Perenco Culture Contaminates the Entire Industry
Perenco’s influence does not stop at its own oil fields; it appears to spread through a network of former executives who propagate its management methods among other sector operators. The career path of Christophe Blanc is a striking example. A former Perenco executive, he joined Maurel & Prom as managing director in Gabon, where his tenure was marked by intense social tensions, including a major strike in 2017 triggered by accusations of discriminatory behavior. Surprisingly, he was later rehired by Perenco to take over as managing director in Gabon, succeeding Adrien Broche—illustrating a game of musical chairs in which the same profiles circulate within a closed loop.
This operational culture also seems to have permeated Assala, now under the banner of Gabon Oil Company (GOC). A confidential report from the Directorate General for the Environment and Nature Protection (DGEPN), dated October 2023, revealed Assala’s involvement in a concealed pollution scandal. Drone images proved that company trucks were dumping pollutants directly into the forest. Despite a prior formal warning for similar offenses less than a year earlier and the clarity of the evidence, no concrete sanctions were made public.
At the same time, another major hydrocarbon pollution incident near Rabi, in a protected area home to forest elephants, was allegedly deliberately concealed from authorities through backfilling operations at the time of the company’s sale. According to internal sources within Assala-GOC, this strategy of maximizing production at the expense of the environment was driven by an operational team then led by Jérôme Garcia, himself a former Perenco executive. Supported by colleagues Guillaume Vandystadt and Brice Morlot, he is accused of prioritizing short-term returns in complete contradiction with the company’s official environmental commitments.
The guilty silence of the authorities
Despite the seriousness of the investigations conducted, the silence of the Gabonese authorities raises questions. To date, no public sanctions have been announced and no final reports have been leaked. Behind the scenes, ministry inspectors report being subjected to intense hierarchical pressure and instructed not to disrupt the “balance of the sector.” This administrative omertà has allegedly led, according to internal sources, to the dismissal of cases that were nevertheless damning.
The career of Jérôme Garcia appears, in this regard, as a symbol of the impunity inherited from Perenco’s methods: closed-door management, tightly controlled communication, and a relentless pursuit of production at the expense of environmental standards. From Latin America to Africa, his career seems marked by environmental damage. Testimonies collected in Cameroon, Peru, and Guatemala paint the picture of an executive operating outside international standards. The EIA report further notes that in Guatemala, under his leadership, Perenco’s activities were associated with massive deforestation and murky networks, leaving behind devastated lands that were never restored.
This harmful influence continues to spread throughout the Gabonese sedimentary basin via loyal collaborators. This is the case with Brice Morlot, who, after following Jérôme Garcia at Perenco and then Assala, joined BW Offshore to lead operations on the Dussafu permit. This constant circulation of executives steeped in the same culture of secrecy raises a fundamental question about the state’s regulatory capacity. Faced with these personal interests driven by profit, one may wonder when the highest levels of government will finally decide to break this vicious circle and place environmental preservation and worker safety above short-term profits.
Article produced in collaboration with leconfidentiel.net
