Trans-Gabonese Railroad management contract

concluded

In May 2003, the government of Gabon granted to Setrag a temporary four month management contract to operate national railway company Trans-Gabonese Railroad (the 'Transgabonais). The contract was then extended a few times until September 2005 when a new concession contract became operational. The management contract was granted after the Transgabonais consortium, which was granted a 20-year concession to operate the railway company in 1999, withdraw from the company operation in May 2003. Transgabonais was a 650-km stretch of railway connecting the coastal port of Owendo (just outside the capital, Libreville) and the timber- and manganese-rich areas of the south-east, around the city of Franceville. Setrag, a subsidiary of South African company Compagnie miniere de l'Ogooue (Comilog), which itself was ultimately owned by the French-controlled group Eramet, a mining firm operating in south-eastern Gabon. The Transgabonais railway was completed in 1986 and in 1999 a 20-year concession contract was awarded to Transgabonais consortium led by Belgian Transurb Technirail, and integrated by Societe nationale des bois du Gabon, and other private partners. The consortium withdrew from that agreement in May 2003 after having faced opposition to rising freight charges. The government also claimed that the operator had failed to pay its concession fees, meet required investment, provide sufficient business accounts, and meet facility maintenance expectations.