Cameroon

CIA Factbook
Political rights and civil liberties (Freedom House)
French-English online dictionary
Travel and accommodation

Source: CIA Factbook

Maps and images

• Cameroon Google Satellite Maps
• Cameroon Cities,Towns, Airports, Maps, Images
• Cameroon Image-1
• Cameroon Image-2
• Cameroon Minerals

Gold in Cameroon

Gold Home

• Artisanal mining in various locations

• Lom River Gold Corporation (formerly Lorica Resources Inc) from Canada had an option to obtain a gold prospect in south eastern Cameroon.

• Siqued (German) has an exploration permit for gold in Cameroon ( 3,000 km²) and employs several Cameroonian geologists in Buea.

Nickel

• Geovic Mining Corporation announced that its 60%-owned subsidiary, Geovic Cameroon (GeoCam), planned to resume test pitting in February 2007 and drilling in March 2007 at its cobalt-nickel project in Cameroon. The overall program included 600 shallow drill-holes and test-pits targeted to increase mineral resources and mineral reserves at its Nkamouna and Mada deposits, in Cameroon. The Nkamouna project, the first of seven deposits being developed, contains 26,3 million tons of proven ore reserves and 26,4 million tons of probable ore reserves at average grades of 0,24% cobalt, 0,72% nickel and 1,22% manganese. The project will have the capacity to produce 4 000 t cobalt plus 3 000 t of nickel during the first year of production. The project life is 21 years and GeoCam intends to improve and expand the Nkamouna project infrastructure in the last half of 2007 and start major construction in April 2008. Production is scheduled to start in mid-2009. Geovic Cameroon received a feasibility study on the Nkamouna cobalt/nickel project which indicated that yearly cobalt production could be increased by 26% to 9,2-million pounds and nickel production by 17% to seven-million pounds, it said in December, 2007. The project includes a shallow openpit mine, ore concentration facilities and a 2 000-t/d processing plant.
  Geovic explained that the feasibility study capital cost estimates provided for a 33% higher production rate, increased costs for equipment, material, fuel, supplies, labour and transportation, and the effects of a significant decline in the value of the US dollar since 2005.
  

Oil and Natural Gas

Click HERE for an overview

Cameroon has experienced a fairly steady decline in its domestic oil production over the past 20 years. The country is still a net oil exporter, but if new fields do not come online in the near future, Cameroon could become a net oil importer. Currently, Cameroon does not produce any natural gas, but the country has plans to develop its natural gas reserves for generating electricity in the future. The majority of electricity generated in Cameroon comes from hydroelectric power stations, though droughts can often leave the country dealing with electricity shortages.
As of January 2006, Oil and Gas Journal estimated that Cameroon had proven oil reserves of 400 million barrels, with the majority of reserves located offshore in the Rio del Rey basin of the Niger Delta. Less significant reserve deposits are located in the Douala/Kribi-Camp basins off Cameroon’s western coast, and onshore in the northern Logone-Birni basin.
n 2006 Cameroon produced 90,000 bbl/d of oil in 2006. Oil exported from landlocked Chad is transported via the Chad-Cameroon pipeline, which ends at Cameroon’s Kribi terminal.
The Cameroonian government revised its petroleum laws to include financial incentives and tax breaks on exploration in both 1999 and 2002. Although the country has been well explored, Cameroon’s state oil company, the Societe Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH), believes that discovery and development of smaller fields is still possible. Renewed interest in oil investment has led to exploration in all three of Cameroon’s major petroleum basins -- Logone Birni, Douala and Rio del Rey. SNH, which Cameroon has committed to privatize, engages in exploration and production in conjunction with several foreign oil companies, the largest being Total.

• Oil production: 82,300 bbl/day (2005 est.)
• Oil proved reserves: 90 million bbl (2006 est.)

• Natural gas proved reserves: 110.4 billion cu m (1 January 2005 est.)

• Major companies active in Cameroon include ExxonMobil, Chevron, Petronas, Total, Shell and Perenco.

• In 2005, Total brought its Bakingili discovery online. In 2005, SNH awarded Total the first production sharing contract (PSC) in Cameroon’s history for the Dissoni permit in the Rio del Rey basin. In 2006, Total announced that it struck oil after drilling its first well on the block.

• Interoil Corporation also conducted exploratory drilling in three fields.
  
  
• In 2007, Cameroon had plans to open a licensing round which will offer six oil blocks for bid in the Rio del Rey region. The blocks will be awarded under PSCs. In the medium term, Cameroon is expected to open a licensing round for the Bakassi Peninsula, which Nigeria agreed to withdraw from in June 2006. Industry experts believe Bakassi acreage could contain significant amounts of oil reserves as it borders areas in the Gulf of Guinea that, in the past, have yielded numerous oil discoveries.
  
  
• Tullow Oil and partner Addax Petroleum signed an exploration licence with the Cameroon Government for the Ngosso Area in December 2002. Addax operates the licence with a 60% interest, while Tullow holds the remaining 40%. The Ngosso licence, which lies in shallow water, contains a number of existing small oil discoveries - Narendi, Odiong and Oongue - in addition to numerous exploration opportunities. One of the objectives of the initial work programme is to appraise these discoveries with a view to establishing their commerciality.

Source: Tullow Oil