After more than a decade of inactivity triggered by insecurity in the country’s Far North, Cameroon is considering reviving operations at the long-suspended Zina-Makary oil block, a move that could reshape the country’s upstream oil outlook if approved.
According to the 2024 activity report of the National Hydrocarbons Corporation (SNH), a special operations committee is expected to review conditions at the site and potentially lift the force majeure declared in May 2014. If the suspension is formally lifted, exploration and development work could resume in one of Cameroon’s most strategically significant sedimentary basins.
The Zina-Makary block lies within the Logone Birni basin, a vast geological formation in Cameroon’s Far North region covering roughly 27,000 square kilometers. Of this area, 8,506 square kilometers were previously awarded to China’s Yan Chang Petroleum, which signed a production-sharing agreement with the Cameroonian government in April 2009 for exploration activities in both the Zina and Makary blocks.
Operations were halted in 2014 as escalating security threats—particularly incursions linked to Boko Haram—made field activity increasingly untenable. The deterioration in the security environment led authorities and operators to invoke force majeure, effectively freezing all exploration and investment activity.
Since then, SNH has repeatedly flagged the broader economic and strategic cost of prolonged disruptions to upstream oil development. In earlier reports, the state-owned company noted that insecurity not only delayed its 2015–2019 development strategy but also dampened investor appetite for exploration across several licensed blocks.
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At the time, two major areas remained under force majeure status: the Bakassi peninsula in the Southwest and Zina-Makary in the Far North. While SNH has not disclosed precise financial losses linked to the suspension, it has consistently emphasized that sustained exploration is essential for replenishing national reserves, particularly as production from mature fields continues to decline.
Before operations were halted, prospects in the Logone Birni basin were considered promising. SNH leadership had previously underscored the importance of accelerating exploration to secure future output, noting that drilling campaigns were being planned in the early 2010s following encouraging geological assessments. In 2012, operators had envisioned drilling roughly a dozen exploration wells across licensed areas, including at least one within the Zina-Makary block, after earlier exploratory results raised expectations about the basin’s potential.
The possible lifting of force majeure therefore represents more than a procedural adjustment. It signals a potential re-entry of international and domestic operators into a region long considered geologically promising but operationally constrained. Analysts say renewed activity could help Cameroon diversify and strengthen its upstream portfolio at a time when many existing oil fields are aging and output stability is increasingly uncertain.
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For Cameroon, the stakes are significant. The oil sector remains a key contributor to export earnings and public revenue, but production from legacy fields has been under gradual pressure. Reviving exploration in frontier basins like Logone Birni is seen as a critical step toward sustaining long-term reserves and attracting new investment into the sector.
However, any restart will depend heavily on sustained improvements in security conditions in the Far North, as well as investor confidence that operations can proceed without renewed disruptions. While the committee’s review marks an important procedural milestone, industry observers caution that translating policy intent into operational reality will require both security guarantees and renewed capital commitments from partners such as Yan Chang Petroleum.
If successful, the reopening of Zina-Makary could mark one of Cameroon’s most significant upstream re-engagements in over a decade, potentially reshaping exploration dynamics in one of Central Africa’s underdeveloped but closely watched oil basins.
