Congress Moves To Block IMF Support For African Oil Fund Restrictions

Operating overseas can often elevated levels of risk for U.S. companies, and nowhere is this more a reality than for those in the oil and gas industry. From the EU to South America to Africa, U.S. often companies find themselves ripe targets for special actions from national and regional governments seeking onerous operational and reporting regulations and measures designed to extract a higher share of the proceeds from this extractive industry.

Targeting A Golden Goose

A current case in point involves an effort by the six member nations of the Central African Economic Monetary Community (CEMAC) and their efforts to enforce a 2018 law which they say enables them to take control of the foreign exchange of all companies operating in the region under the auspices of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The six member countries – Gabon, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, and the Central African Republic – consider the oil and gas industry to be a major prize in this effort given that it has long served as something of a golden goose for the region, generating as much as 40% of its overall GDP.