After years of either declining or stable domestic natural gas production, the Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo Brazzaville, began exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) for the first time when the first phase of a two-phase floating LNG (FLNG) project began operating in February 2024, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The development of LNG export capacity will allow the country to monetize natural gas production that was previously either flared or reinjected into oil wells.

Congo Brazzaville held an estimated 10 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proved natural gas reserves at the beginning of 2024, according to data from the Oil & Gas Journal. Before the FLNG facility began operating, any natural gas production that was not consumed domestically was either flared or reinjected into crude oil wells to enhance crude oil recovery.

According to the World Bank Group, Congo Brazzaville flared about 64 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas in 2022, more than four times its domestic natural gas production in 2022.

In 2024, the Italian energy company Eni, the project operator, completed the first phase of Congo Brazzaville’s first LNG export project. The Tango FLNG facility exported its first LNG cargo at the end of February 2024, which Eni announced on February 27.

The Tango FLNG facility has a production capacity of 29 Bcf per year. The second, larger facility will have a production capacity of about 115 Bcf per year and is near the Marine XII block, the source of its natural gas supply. The second facility is under construction and is scheduled to begin operating in 2025.

The Republic of the Congo, or Congo Brazzaville, is a significant regional hydrocarbons producer in sub-Saharan Africa. Most of Congo Brazzaville’s hydrocarbons production is located offshore. Congo Brazzaville exports most of its crude oil production, and revenues from crude oil exports play a large role in its economy, making its economy vulnerable to crude oil price volatility. In June 2018, Congo Brazzaville joined OPEC as a full member and is one of the six African nations in the organization

In 2023, Congo Brazzaville exported about 242,000 b/d of crude oil and condensate, and about 75% of total exports went to the Asia-Pacific region, according to the EIA. China was by far the top-importing country by volume, taking about 158,000 b/d of Congo Brazzaville’s crude oil in 2023. India was the second-largest importer from the Asia-Pacific region by volume, taking about 13,000 b/d of imported crude oil from Congo Brazzaville. Europe and the Western Hemisphere (which is made up of North America, Central America, and South America as well as the Caribbean) as a region imported only 38,000 b/d and 22,000 b/d, respectively.