RDF Revenue Specialists and the Programme Team is working tirelessly in all our partner countries to enable governments to run as efficiently as possible, despite the pandemic. We have seen several successes in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal and other countries in transitioning governments to digital platforms. In this month’s newsletter, we will focus on RDF’s work in the Republic of the Congo with the Ministry of Hydrocarbons (MHC).

The oil and gas cadastre project in Congo funded by the government of Congo through the Ministry of Hydrocarbons (MHC) (more precisely the Direction Générale des Hydrocarbons -DGH), is implemented by RDF. The objectives sought in carrying out the project aim, among other things, to improve the management of the oil and gas sector, facilitate management and access to information to boost investor confidence.

The project began in October 2018 with the oil and gas administration system (OGAS) and the Repository being installed.  OGAS is now used throughout the life cycle of an oil license. The system also has an integrated GIS server for managing geospatial data.

At present, OGAS in Congo manages information related to:

-50 titles including 12 exploration permits and 38 exploitation permit -81 oil blocks-17 Oil companies
The Repository for Congo is also operational, and contains the information already recorded in the petroleum register (http://congo-repo.revenuedev.org).

By setting up the OGAS Helpdesk, RDF is ensuring that the project team gradually takes control of the day-to-day operations of the system, with the assistance of the Revenue Specialist, so that in the long term, the members of the team take full ownership of RDF systems. Currently, digitization of data and the final configurations are on-going. Users are progressively trained according to the needs expressed by the administration. An RDF staff is permanently assigned to support the implementation of the project, throughout its duration, on site in Brazzaville.