Equatorial Guinea orders Gepetrol plan to centralise fuel distribution

Equatorial Guinea’s vice-president has instructed Gepetrol to prepare a master plan positioning it as the country’s sole official fuel distributor, according to a government press-office report published on 21 October. The report describes a high-level meeting in Malabo on Tuesday and says the country had experienced three supply crises during 2026. The instruction is a proposed restructuring of distribution, not evidence that a monopoly has already taken legal effect. The government called for substantially larger short-term purchases and recovery of strategic storage tanks leased to Tradex. Additional storage infrastructure was proposed, alongside a longer-term national refinery intended to supply domestic and neighbouring markets. The vice-president gave officials 48 hours to present the plan and requested demand projections covering three, six, nine and twelve months. Officials were also to examine five years of consumption data. Sending limited quantities of domestic crude abroad for processing was another option described in the official account. No refinery investment decision, capacity, construction contract or committed financing was disclosed. The vice-president described the simultaneous lack of fuel at three operators as an unacceptable system failure, questioning supply management. The proposed arrangement would channel purchases by sector companies and partners in neighbouring countries through Gepetrol Servicios. The government said overseas processing would limit payments to refining services, presenting lower costs and higher revenue as expected benefits rather than measured outcomes. Nexus analysis: Central procurement could reshape the commercial role of existing distributors and concentrate working-capital requirements at Gepetrol. Storage availability, demand forecasting and financing are more immediate implementation tests than the proposed refinery. The government's stated objective of preventing shortages remains an objective, not a demonstrated result.