There are companies you visit out of courtesy, and others you visit with a warrant. Perenco, the discreet but tentacular Franco-British oil giant, is said to have received the second kind of visitor on 16 June 2026: investigators, as part of a National Financial Prosecutor (PNF) case for bribery of foreign public officials. One more search in a file that, far from closing, seems on the contrary to be putting out to sea.

According to the specialist and pan-African press, the investigations, entrusted to the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offences (OCLCIFF), are said to go back to several preliminary inquiries opened as early as March 2023. The scope is said to have widened since, with at least two fronts open in central Africa: Congo-Brazzaville and Gabon.

😏 The cynical take
Oil has this magic quality of rising to the surface on its own; so, sometimes, do commissions. When a company operates across three continents and some twenty countries, the “close relationship” with local powers becomes an art: it's called lobbying when it's legal, and a PNF file when a judge takes too close an interest.

The Congolese strand: a president's daughter in a subsidiary's capital

The best-documented strand is said to concern Congo-Brazzaville. It would bear on the conditions of the 2017 award of the Pointe-Noire Grand Fond Sud oil block. According to the elements reported, Julienne Sassou-Nguesso, daughter of President Denis Sassou-Nguesso, is said to have entered “in a concealed manner” the capital of the subsidiary holding interests in this field, taking around 15% of the shares and drawing dividends.

In January 2026, another file is said to have fed the context: the Norwegian prosecutor is said to have charged two businessmen and the company Hemla Africa Holding, a Petronor subsidiary, over the alleged payment of around $25 million to the Congolese president and his circle. Enough to sketch, in outline, a geography of money said to flow from the African subsoil to accounts better exposed to the fiscal sun.

😏 The cynical take
“Entering the capital in a concealed manner”: the phrase deserves an award for understatement. Picture the discretion of a shareholder who owns 15% of an oil subsidiary the way one might own a second home whose address has been mislaid — just enough to collect the rent, not enough to appear on the doorbell.

The Gabonese strand: the state files a complaint

In Gabon, the script is said to be almost reversed: it is the state itself that, in 2026, is said to have filed a complaint with the PNF over alleged money laundering and corruption linked to oil revenues. When the client becomes the plaintiff, the commercial relationship has generally cooled, shall we say, noticeably.

Key points

  • A fresh search is said to have targeted Perenco on 16 June 2026, in a PNF case for bribery of foreign public officials.
  • Investigations entrusted to the OCLCIFF, opened as early as March 2023, with a now-widened scope.
  • Congo: 2017 award of the Pointe-Noire Grand Fond Sud block; Julienne Sassou-Nguesso is said to have taken ~15% of a subsidiary “in a concealed manner”.
  • Norwegian strand: ~$25m of alleged payments to the Congolese president and his circle (January 2026 charge targeting Hemla Africa Holding).
  • Gabon: state complaint in 2026 over alleged laundering and corruption. Investigation ongoing, presumption of innocence.

Magouilles & Compagnie verdict

Magouille or calomnie? At this stage, nothing is tried: Perenco, like those named, enjoys the presumption of innocence, and a search is not a conviction. But the file gathers the classic ingredients of the genre: an opaque sector, oil blocks handed out among a few, a head of state's daughter in the capital, and now a state turning plaintiff. Holding verdict: a barrel of clues just waiting to be refined by the courts.