Trading & Exploitation (Tradex), a subsidiary of Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH), plans to start operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as early as 2025. Tradex manages Cameroon’s interests in oil and gas. Sources say the company received approval from its Board of Directors in June 2024 to open a subsidiary in the DRC, where it specializes in aircraft and ship bunkering and distributing petroleum products.

"Everything is ready! We've already obtained all the approvals. All that remains is the appointment of the Managing Director of Tradex RD Congo, which will happen before the end of 2024. We plan to launch operations as early as 2025, thanks to our shareholder Geogas," an internal source at Tradex said. Tradex is 54% owned by SNH, 36% by French company Geogas, and 10% by local private investors.

With this new subsidiary, Tradex will operate in four Central African countries. In addition to Cameroon, where it has service stations in 32 towns and villages, Tradex also works in the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, and Equatorial Guinea. The company opened its first service station in Equatorial Guinea on February 18, 2021, but was active there since 2015.

In the DRC, Tradex will compete with major players like TotalEnergies, which has been operating in the country for over 30 years. TotalEnergies sells over 200,000 tonnes of petroleum products yearly in the DRC, through nearly 45 service stations.

Despite this competition, Tradex has strong financial results. In 2023, it reported a net profit of CFA14.7 billion (over $24 million), its best performance since it was founded in 1999. The company's sales grew 32% over five years, from CFA291.3 billion ($485.5 million) in 2019 to CFA387.3 billion ($645.5 million) in 2023. According to Jeune Afrique's 2022 ranking of Africa's top companies, Tradex was the fourth most successful company in Cameroon and ranked 226th across Africa.

Brice R. Mbodiam, Business in Cameroon