It was in Yamoussoukro, on July 24, 2026, that the Minister of Mines, Oil and Energy, Mamadou Sangafowa Coulibaly, lifted the veil on this structuring project, revealing the contours of an energy policy geared towards autonomy and export. One figure is enough to measure the ambition of the project, 170,000 barrels per day. This is the processing capacity announced for the future San Pedro refinery, greater than that of the Société Ivoirienne de Raffinage (SIR), the country's only refinery based in Vridi. The choice of San Pedro, the country's second port city, owes nothing to chance. Its position on the Atlantic coast offers direct access to import crude oil and export refined products, while opening a logistical gateway to western Ivory Coast, Guinea and Mali. Above all, the site makes it possible to somewhat free up Abidjan, where industrial land is becoming scarce, by creating a second national energy center capable of relieving the current infrastructure of the economic capital.

The Petroleum Stock Management Company of Côte d'Ivoire (GESTOCI) will support this movement with the construction of a 40,000 cubic meter depot in San Pedro, strengthening the regional logistics network alongside new facilities planned in Odienné and Ferkessédougou. This announcement is part of a much larger project, that of the Integrated Mineral Resources and Energy Policy (PIRME), a program estimated at 38,000 billion CFA francs, 88% financed by the private sector. The objective being to locally transform the crude extracted from the Baleine and Calao deposits, rather than exporting it in its raw state and then importing refined products, a costly strategy that the country intends to abandon.

Ultimately, the Government is aiming for 2030 to become a net exporter of petroleum products, with this second refinery as the centerpiece of regained energy sovereignty and accumulated regional radiation.