The Democratic Republic of Congo has approved the opening of 52 new oil blocks. The decision threatens the global climate, the rights of the local population, and the rich biodiversity of the ecosystem. The blocks are in the Cuvette Centrale peatlands, the world’s largest terrestrial carbon sink.
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The decision was announced during a Council of Ministers meeting on 2 May 2025. At the meeting, the Minister of Hydrocarbons, Aimé Sakombi Molendo, said that,
“In addition to the 3 blocks already awarded (Mbandaka, Lokoro and Busira) to the CoMiCo company, 52 new oil blocks have also just been opened for exploration, constituting a portfolio of 55 blocks in the Cuvette Central.”
A 2018 investigation by Global Witness noted that the terms of the contract between CoMiCo and the DRC government, the identity of the real owners of CiMiCo were unknown. CoMiCo is held in part by a Guernsey-registered company owned by the South African oil, gas, and diamond investor. One of the blocks overlaps the Salonga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
“The company’s plans for operating in an area including a fragile UNESCO-protected World Heritage site,” Global Witness writes, “remain shrouded in secrecy.”
Molendo told the Council of Ministers meeting that the creation of the new oil blocks did not overlap with the protected areas, “which had previously been the subject of criticism from non-governmental organisations and civil society working in the field of the environment”.
In July 2022, the Democratic Republic of Congo launched an auction for 27 oil exploration blocks and three gas blocks. Greenpeace Africa described the decision to explore for oil and gas as a “carbon bomb”. And almost 125,000 signed Rainforest Rescue’s petition opposing the oil exploration blocks.
In a statement, Greenpeace Africa’s Irene Wabiwa said that,
“This auction not only makes a mockery of DRC’s posturing as a solution country for the climate crisis – it exposes Congolese people to corruption, violence, and poverty that inevitably come with the curse of oil, as well as more heat waves and less rains for all Africans.”
In 2014, Soco International and Dominion Petroleum pulled out of oil exploration in Virunga National Park in eastern DRC. In July 2022, Didier Budimbu Ntubuanga, then-hydrocarbons minister told the Financial Times that,
“A few years ago people shoved their noses into this, we saw actors like Ben Affleck and Leonardo di Caprio get on their high horse and ask for the project to come to a halt. This time we will not stop.”
In October 2024, Molendo, the Minister of Hydrocarbons, cancelled the 27 oil exploration blocks. The cancellation followed criticism about legal irregularities and environmental and human rights risks.
No oil blocks were awarded in the 26 months between the announcement of the in July 2022 and the cancellation. DRC did not announce any bids for the oil blocks.
However, when he cancelled the exploration blocks, Molendo said he would relaunch the auction “without delay”.
“The government will not back down”
In an interview last week with Jeune Afrique Molendo said that “The government will not back down.”
Molendo also said that DRC is in “advanced stages” of negotiations with two or three US companies that specialise in processing seismic data. He said that these companies are connected to the major oil companies.
“So we can say here that we are certainly moving towards greater collaboration with the American majors,” Molendo toldJeune Afrique.
In a statement about the 52 new oil exploration blocks, Rainforest Foundation UK pointed out that,
Despite assurances from the Minister of Hydrocarbons that experts from the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development had been consulted to ensure protected areas limits were respected, no public maps or documentation have been released, raising fears that critical conservation zones, including protected areas, may still fall within these new concessions.
A coalition called Notre Terre Sans Pétrole, which represents 176 Congolese and international organisations issued the following statement criticising the decision and calling for an immediate halt to the process.
Notre Terre Sans Pétrole: Oil versus Forests, a Destructive Choice by the Government
5 May 2025
The Notre Terre Sans Pétrole coalition, which brings together 176 Congolese and international organisations, strongly condemns the opening of 52 new oil blocks in the Cuvette Centrale. This decision was announced by the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo at the Council of Ministers on 2 May 2025. The coalition calls for an immediate halt to this process, which is causing serious concern in view of its ecological, social, and climatic consequences.
A choice incompatible with the DRC’s commitment as a “solution country”
At a time when the DRC is seeking to position itself as a key player in the global fight against climate change, and thus derive maximum sustainable benefit from carbon credits, this massive relaunch of oil exploration projects in the heart of the Congo Basin is a major inconsistency.1
It endangers the country’s densest and richest forest ecosystems, releasing enormous amounts of carbon and threatening biodiversity. The involvement of experts from the Ministry of the Environment in the assessments of these projects cannot disguise the reality: the government is seeking to greenwash a policy that is fundamentally incompatible with environmental protection, compliance with the Paris Agreement, and the country’s national and international commitments.
A major blow to the Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor
The area targeted by these new blocks overlaps a large part of the Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor (CVKK), an ambitious ecological restoration and sustainable development project.
This overlap threatens not only to jeopardise the international funding and partnerships that accompany this project, but also to discredit all the initiatives that are supposed to embody the vision of the DRC as a “solution country”.
How can we claim to defend the global ecological transition while organising the planned destruction of one of the planet’s last major carbon sinks?
A repeat of past failures in Moanda
The experience of Moanda , where oil exploitation has been ongoing for decades, demonstrates the resounding failure of this extractivist logic: chronic pollution of soil and water, irreversible damage to marine and coastal biodiversity, an increase in public health problems, community tensions, environmental destruction, and a total lack of positive benefits for local populations. All over the world, oil exploitation causes catastrophic ecological damage and leads to serious violations of the rights of local communities.
Reproducing this model in the Cuvette Centrale on such a large scale would amount to sacrificing Indigenous Peoples and local communities on the altar of illusory, short-term and fundamentally unjust development.
A clear risk of repeating the failure of 2022
In 2022, the call for tenders had already failed to generate interest from players in the sector, largely due to the economic non-viability of the proposed projects. Relaunching such a process today, in an even more unfavourable climate and financial context, exposes the DRC to another failure. Instead of persisting on this illusory path, the country should commit itself fully to development based on the protection and enhancement of its forests.
The Notre Terre Sans Pétrole coalition demands:
An immediate halt to the process of putting the 52 oil blocks up for sale in the Cuvette Centrale;
The cancellation of the three oil and gas blocks already awarded;
A complete moratorium on oil and gas exploration and production in the DRC.
Finally, we call on international partners, donors, multilateral agencies and companies not to support, finance, or participate in these destructive projects, which betray the aspirations of the Congolese people for a future of peace, justice and dignity.
REDD-Monitor’s comment: I’m not too sure about the argument in this statement about oil exploration being incompatible with deriving “maximum sustainable benefit from carbon credits”. In Guyana, for example, ExxonMobil, Hess Corporation, and CNOOC are exploiting a massive oil and gas discovery off the coast of the country, while the government of Guyana is selling carbon credits from the country’s forests — including from the territories of Indigenous Peoples who were not adequately consulted about the deal. In any case, if carbon credits were sold from DRC’s forests the buyers would be corporations and governments that would use the carbon credits to continue burning fossil fuels. However, I certainly agree with the Notre Terre Sans Pétrole coalition’s demand for an immediate halt to oil exploration in the Cuvette Central.
The world's reaction to this type of proposed destruction by DRC should be much greater than "not to support, finance, or participate in these destructive projects"; such actions should initiate severe UN sanction perhaps including DRC becoming a UN Protectorate. How can such actions still be occurring on this planet? And yes, someone selling drilling rights with one hand and carbon credits with the other is being both deceitful and trying to butter both sides of the bread. Greed uber alles.
The world's reaction to this type of proposed destruction by DRC should be much greater than "not to support, finance, or participate in these destructive projects"; such actions should initiate severe UN sanction perhaps including DRC becoming a UN Protectorate. How can such actions still be occurring on this planet? And yes, someone selling drilling rights with one hand and carbon credits with the other is being both deceitful and trying to butter both sides of the bread. Greed uber alles.