- On March 20, 2024, six people lost their lives on the Becuna offshore oil platform following an explosion.
- According to the Environmental Investigation Agency, employees had previously raised concerns about security issues on the platform that were allegedly ignored by Perenco’s Paris headquarters.
- Since the explosion, the only compensation that has been paid out is to a French employee’s family, who received $10 million.
“It’s really very, very, very dilapidated. … It’s really filthy, it’s not a safe platform. We had to block off some parts of the platform because the floor was covered in oil, and cables were lying around everywhere. It was dreadful.”
These statements were collected by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a US- based nonprofit organization specialized in exposing environmental crimes. In May 2025, they published a report on the French oil company Perenco, revisiting an incident in Gabon that went almost unnoticed by the general public.
On March 20, 2024, six people died on the Becuna oil platform off the coast of Gabon, in an explosion that occurred during a reconditioning operation.
An explosion that, according to statements from witnesses on site at the time, could have been prevented. Only a few days earlier, another team had flagged safety issues on the platform, following oil leaks reported two weeks prior. “The necessary safety measures were not in place. When an accident happens on an oil site, this means that certain basic safety protocols haven’t been followed. And that was the case at Becuna,” states one of the sources cited in the report, who preferred to stay anonymous out of fear of retaliation from the company.
Georges Mpaga, president of a network of civil society organizations in Gabon, the Réseau des organisations libres de la société civile pour la bonne gouvernance du Gabon, and one of the first in the country to file complaints against Perenco, says he is not surprised.
“Perenco always operates with a predatory mindset, not with an eye toward sustainable development, protection or improvement of its production systems,” he says. “They work with subcontractors who aren’t compliant, they don’t pay for social security or medical insurance. … It’s an entire mafia that revolves around oil production. We will push for the government to take action.”
According to the EIA’s report, Perenco’s Paris office asked the team on site during the explosion to disregard previous oil leaks and that safety warnings be excluded from the daily reports.
The multinational company denies these accusations. “We acknowledge the recent report published by the EIA,” a Perenco spokesperson told Mongabay. “This report contains a large number of false and defamatory allegations, and we are currently weighing the options available to us. Therefore, it is not appropriate to comment further on this report.”
According to EIA, following the accident, none of the victims’ families received compensation for their loss, except for the family of one victim, a French national, who received $10 million in exchange for a nondisclosure agreement.
“We call for the families of all victims to be compensated. Not just French families, but the African ones as well, and for transparency regarding the safety conditions on the Becuna platform,” said Luke Allen, Africa program campaigner for the Environmental Investigation Agency.
Banner image: Perenco’s offshore platform in Gabon. Image courtesy Anthony de Faria / Perenco.
This article was first published here in French on 28 May, 2025.
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