Veolia Protests at Gabon Seizure

French utility group Veolia February 16 issued a statement strongly protesting that "armed men [had] commandeered Seeg, Gabon's energy and water company, acting on a decision of Gabon's water and energy ministry."

Veolia won Gabon’s public water and electricity concession in June 1997, under a 20-year contract with the Gabonese Republic whereby Veolia became the majority 51% shareholder of Seeg. It strongly protested against "this brutal action taken entirely contrary to the rule of law", and said for two decades it and its staff have "been committed to providing the best public water and electricity service to the country’s citizens," investing €558mn ($691mn) since 1997.

Veolia said that Seeg had tripled the number of people with a water and electricity supply, making the country one of the African continent’s leaders in this area by 2012. It said it is examining the legal consequences of this situation and expects Gabon to comply with the rule of law and with its obligations. Seeg itself said that it supplies electricity to 89.3% and water to 92.2% of the country's population, which it said made Gabon one of the leaders in service provision since 2012.

According to local press, the government claims that Veolia broke off discussions late last year aimed at negotiating a five-year extension to its licence to operate, which was due to lapse February 16 2018. Reports said that a new ad-hoc board entirely composed of Gabonese nationals had been appointed, unseating Seeg's French director-general Antoine Boo. Gabon's official news agency quoted water and energy minister Patrick Eyogo Edzang as saying February 19 the "requisition was effected without brutality."

Seeg is involved in electricity production, transport and distribution. Its 2016 annual report, published November 2017, said that it increased generation capacity to 452 MW, from 440 MW in 2015.

Gas-fired generation capacity accounted for 197 MW in 2016, followed by hydro with 170 MW and diesel-fired power plants 85 MW. Seeg's net power production in 2016 was 1 TWh, up 21.4% year on year, of which 43% was gas-fired and 35% hydro.