Territory · subsoil & natural resources · in English

The subsoil of Mandoul Occidental:
what we know, and what must be prepared.

It is often said that our subsoil is promising: oil has been produced since 2003 in the neighbouring Doba basin, our ancestors smelted local iron ore, and gold already draws young people from the department to the north. This page takes stock, source by source: what is established, what is not yet, what Doba teaches us, and what we propose so that, if resources are one day extracted here, they benefit first those who live on them.

7 sourced findings6 unknowns5 proposals
2003start of production in the Doba basininaugurated on 10 October 2003
5%of Chad covered by airborne geophysical surveysWorld Bank, August 2023
4.5%of direct oil revenue reserved in 1999 for the producing regionLaw 001/PR/1999
?known deposit in Mandoul Occidentalno public source found as of 30 September 2026

What we know

A producing neighbour,
a subsoil still little known.

Each finding refers to a public source, read on 30 September 2026. None of them, so far, locates a deposit in the department itself.

Oil has been produced next door since 2003

The Doba basin has been in production since its inauguration on 10 October 2003; its fields (Komé, Bolobo, Miandoum, Nya, Moundouli, Maikeri, Timbré) were run by the Esso-led consortium, around Doba, the capital of Logone Oriental. In 2023, the transitional Parliament nationalised ExxonMobil’s assets in Chad.

Sources: 1, 2, 3

The Doba basin is still being explored

In 2014, United Hydrocarbon reported oil in the Belanga North-1 well, in the Doba basin. In March 2025, the government announced that the Belanga field would come on stream in the third quarter of 2025. We know neither whether it did, nor exactly where the field lies.

Sources: 4, 5

Blocks straddling two basins

In 2011, ERHC Energy signed a production-sharing contract for block BDS 2008 (41,800 km²), which covers parts of the Doseo and Doba basins. We have not found what this block covers in Mandoul, nor whether it is still active.

Sources: 6

Seismic surveys all around, none located here

By 2012, about 30,000 km of 2D seismic and 600 km² of 3D had been acquired in Chad, for more than 150 exploration wells. In the south, Glencore acquired with BGP, between 2011 and 2015, four 3D surveys (1,200 km²) and 216 2D lines (4,500 km); in 2017, Delonex ordered 400 km of 2D and 1,200 km² of 3D over Block H, in the Doba basin. The Doseo basin, the eastern neighbour of the Doba basin, stretches some 450 km from west to east: a 2023 study counts about 25,000 km of 2D, 1,200 km² of 3D and 24 wells there. On block BDS 2008, ERHC flew a 4,720 km airborne gravity and magnetic survey in 2014 and then announced a 2D campaign, of which we have found no trace. None of these sources places a seismic line or a well in Mandoul Occidental, or says whether the Doseo basin extends beneath the department.

Sources: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

A barely studied subsoil

According to the World Bank, airborne geophysical surveys cover only 5% of Chad’s territory. Saying that the subsoil of Mandoul Occidental is promising is therefore a reasonable hypothesis, next to a producing basin: it is not yet an established fact.

Sources: 7

Iron, a long-standing source of wealth in the Sara country

In the Sara country, iron came from local ore, mined and then smelted in furnaces by smelters settled in ore-rich areas; south of Lake Chad it was iron, rather than cowries or cattle, that served as currency (Josette Rivallain, ORSTOM, 1988). The Ndjan, founders of Bédjondo and Bédaya, are known for their mastery of this metallurgy. Seismic crews encountered red, iron-rich clay soils and surface laterite in parts of southern Chad, without the source saying where; an iron-rich laterite is not necessarily a workable ore. Whether the department holds workable iron ore in quantity today, no public source we consulted says: it remains to be checked.

Sources: 12, 17The Kul and the iron currencies (in French) · The Ndjan foundation (in French)

Gold, for now, is elsewhere — and it draws our children

Artisanal gold mining in Chad has been reported in the north, in the Tibesti, since 2012. Our territorial diagnosis already documents children leaving the department for the northern gold sites, Péni being expressly named.

Sources: 8Territorial diagnosis (in French)

What we do not know

Questions
before promises.

We have found them in no public source. Anyone holding a documented answer can write to us: it will be published with its source.

  1. Whether an oil, mining or quarry permit currently covers all or part of Mandoul Occidental, for whom, and until when: we have found no map of permits published online.
  2. Whether seismic lines or wells have already crossed the department: tens of thousands of kilometres have been acquired in the neighbouring basins, but no public source gives their layout.
  3. Where the old smelters’ mines and furnaces stood, and what the department’s iron ore is worth today: grade, extent, depth. No public analysis says.
  4. Whether artisanal gold sites or quarries (sand, gravel, laterite, clay) operate in the department, and who authorises them.
  5. What the producing region has received as its share of oil revenue: the 2018 EITI report could not obtain these data from the body that manages it.
  6. The baseline state of the department’s water and soils: without it, no future damage can be proven.

Lessons of Doba

More than twenty years of oil,
right next door.

Logone Oriental has been through what Mandoul Occidental may one day face. What happened there shows what must be settled before, not after.

A local share written into law…

Law 001/PR/1999 reserved 4.5% of direct oil revenue for the producing region of the south, as additional funding. Chad has been part of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) since 20 August 2007; according to the 2018 EITI report, oil revenue management was then governed by Law 02/2014.

Sources: 9, 2

… is not enough

The revision of the law at the end of 2005 abolished the future generations fund and raised the share paid into the general budget from 15% to 30%. In 2021, a report from Komé found that electricity from the oil installations had never reached the neighbouring villages, and that buildings funded by the regional share had been put up in absurd places.

Sources: 10, 16

What we take from it

A resource does not, by itself, benefit those who live on it. The rules must be set before the first well, not after: who is consulted, what is protected, what returns to the territory, and how it is checked.

Our proposals

Set the rules
before the first well.

Proposals of 30 September 2026, to be approved by the association’s executive committee. They assume no deposit: they apply to a laterite quarry as much as to an oil well.

Something in return

What we will do
ourselves.

This subject falls under the theme Environment, Climate & Natural Resources, which is still looking for its coordinator (see the themes page). Geologists, petroleum and mining engineers, lawyers and environmental specialists: offer your skills.

Sources

Where each finding
comes from.

  1. Tchad : 8 dates qui ont marqué 22 ans d’exploitation pétrolière — Manara Radio Télévision, n.d.
  2. Rapport ITIE Tchad 2018 — EITI Chad, 2018 financial year.
  3. Doba, Chad — Wikipedia (English), accessed 30 September 2026.
  4. Tchad : United Hydrocarbon croise 16,5 m de pétrole avec Belanga North-1 sur le bassin Doba — Agence Ecofin, 2 April 2014.
  5. Le Tchad annonce l’entrée en production du champ pétrolier de Belanga au troisième trimestre 2025 — Ecomatin, 13 March 2025.
  6. ERHC’s Oil and Gas Exploration Interests in Chad — ERHC Energy, accessed 30 September 2026.
  7. Tchad : rapport diagnostique du secteur minier — World Bank, August 2023.
  8. Exploitation aurifère au Tchad — Wikipedia (French), accessed 30 September 2026.
  9. Le pétrole tchadien : miracle ou mirage ? Suivre l’argent au dernier-né — Catholic Relief Services and Bank Information Center, December 2004.
  10. Le Tchad révise sa loi sur le pétrole — Afrik.com, 30 December 2005.
  11. Chad Petroleum Sector Diagnostic Report — World Bank, February 2019.
  12. Land Seismic Acquisition Testing Strategies and Results, Southern Chad (A. Crook, P. Stephenson, C. Sandanayake) — CSEG Recorder, December 2015.
  13. Chad: Delonex plans for Block H — Africa Energy, 9 November 2017.
  14. Role of two-stage strike slip faulting in the tectonic evolution of the Doseo depression (Zhang et al.) — Frontiers in Earth Science, 2023.
  15. Airborne Gravity/Magnetic Survey Confirms Viability of Leads in ERHC Energy’s BDS 2008 in Chad — ERHC Energy, October 2014.
  16. À Komé, où est passé le magot du pétrole ? (reportage de Libération) — Le Tchadanthropus-tribune, 21 May 2021.
  17. Sara : échanges et instruments monétaires (Josette Rivallain), dans D. Barreteau et H. Tourneux (dir.), Le milieu et les hommes : recherches comparatives et historiques dans le bassin du lac Tchad, p. 195-213 — ORSTOM, 1988.

Titles of sources are given in their original language.

Further reading

The pages
this one connects.

TerritoryLocal governanceWho decides what, from the canton to the State: to whom our proposals are addressed.ProposalsOur proposals to the communePriority projects and measures for the town of Bédjondo.Our workFour pillars, twenty-one themesIncluding Environment, Climate & Natural Resources, which will carry this file.

This page translates the French page Sous-sol & ressources naturelles, which is the reference. Spotted a factual error or a more recent source? Report it (in French): it will be corrected and dated.