Brighter days for Cameroon’s petroleum industry

By Numh Rogers in Yaounde
The National Petroleum Company (SNH) has announced a 24.58% increase in crude oil production in Cameroon. The announcement was made at a board meeting held in Yaounde on 3 June.
    Production hit a record 8.82 million barrels for the first quarter of the year, officials said. The boom was largely due to peak production at the Dissom oil wells, and the exploitation of the Padouk and Muia oil fields.
    World Bank experts have predicted a tremendous increase in oil production in Cameroon. They forecast that production could more than double if new oil wells are well exploited. SNH also projects production at 57 million barrels in 2016, as opposed to 24.4 in 2013.

    Cameroon’s minister of finance Alamine Ousmane Mey presided that government estimates to get 718 billion francs from the sale of the projected 30 million barrels in 2014.
    The recent boom follows a slump between 2009 and 2011, which saw production falling by 5.4 million barrels in 2 years. Things picked up in 2012 when 244 million barrels were produced. Cameroon still boasts important unexploited wells both offshore and onshore.