SONABHY: mandate and scale
The Société Nationale Burkinabè d'Hydrocarbures (SONABHY) was created in 1985 as a state-owned company with a capital of $35 million (20 billion CFA francs). By law, the state grants SONABHY a monopoly over the importation and storage of hydrocarbons on Burkinabè territory. Distribution is liberalised: private distributors, including local affiliates of international oil companies and independent Burkinabè operators, source exclusively from SONABHY's storage infrastructure (source: SONABHY official website).
The scale of its operations reflects SONABHY's central position in the Burkinabè economy. In 2024, it generated a turnover of $2.51 billion (1,442.95 billion CFA francs), up 9% on the prior year, with a net result of $103.6 million (59.58 billion CFA francs). That was about 47% of the combined turnover of all Burkinabè state-owned companies, and its contribution to the state budget through taxes and dividends, $837.9 million (481.77 billion CFA francs), equalled 81% of total budgetary receipts from the public portfolio (source: Agence Ecofin, July 2025, citing SONABHY's 33rd General Assembly, June 2025).
Figures converted to USD at approximately 575 CFA francs per dollar. Sources: SONABHY; Agence Ecofin, July 2025 and January 2025; Trade Economics data as reported by Agence Ecofin.
How SONABHY procures: the international tender
SONABHY procures its petroleum products on the international market through two mechanisms: periodic open international tenders (appels d'offres internationaux) and term contracts. Both are published on SONABHY's website and the official Burkinabè public procurement portal. Suppliers bid on price referenced to international benchmarks (Platts quotations), delivery terms, and product specifications. SONABHY is the buyer of record; the adjudicataire supplies the tendered quantity on the terms offered.
Petroleum products are priced in USD internationally, which creates a currency exposure for SONABHY since its domestic revenue is in CFA francs. The CFA franc's peg to the euro gives some stability, but dollar-euro movements still affect SONABHY's effective import cost, a factor bidders and their banks weigh when structuring payment instruments.
The three coastal corridors and the transit chain
Because Burkina Faso has no port, all petroleum imports move physically through neighbouring coastal ports. SONABHY works through three maritime entry points: the Port de Lomé in Togo, the Port Autonome de Cotonou in Benin, and the Port of Tema in Ghana. Product is discharged at the coastal port, stored in SONABHY's coastal depots in Togo, Benin, and Ghana, then trucked to Burkina Faso's interior depots in Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso.
The choice between Lomé, Cotonou, and Tema depends on port availability, berthing costs, corridor logistics costs, and the supply contract's terms. Lomé has historically been competitive on port handling costs and offers a direct corridor north; Cotonou is well placed for eastern Burkina Faso; Tema and the Ghanaian corridor serve Bobo-Dioulasso and the western regions well. SONABHY coordinates the coastal storage and onward transport, using both its own vehicles and contracted private hauliers.
Product quality is set by whichever coastal port handles the discharge, since that is where the fuel is inspected and accepted before onward transit. All three, Lomé, Cotonou, and Tema, fall under the same regional commitment: since December 2016, Togo, Benin, and Ghana, alongside Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire, agreed to cap sulfur content in imported diesel and gasoline at 50 ppm, following a UN-convened push after Public Eye's "Dirty Diesel" investigation exposed much higher levels being sold into the region (source: UN Environment Programme, December 2016). In practice, this means a cargo destined for SONABHY needs to meet the receiving port's national specification, checked by an independent inspector, SGS or Bureau Veritas, at discharge, before it can be trucked onward to Ouagadougou or Bobo-Dioulasso.
The storage infrastructure expansion
On 24 January 2025, Prime Minister Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouédraogo inaugurated a major new storage depot at Péni, in the Hauts-Bassins region about 365 km from Ouagadougou. The facility cost $55.7 million (32 billion CFA francs) and adds 104,000 m³ of storage for super, gasoil, kerosene, and DDO (source: Ministère de l'Industrie, du Commerce et de l'Artisanat du Burkina Faso). It is part of SONABHY's 2023-2027 strategic plan to expand inland storage, improve supply security, and reduce the country's exposure to disruptions on the coastal corridors.
In July 2025, SONABHY also announced a $52.2 million (30 billion CFA franc) bond issuance on the UEMOA regional market, through titrisation de créances with a state guarantee on capital and 74% of interest, to finance further storage construction (source: Agence Ecofin, July 2025).
How oil companies engage with the Burkinabè market alongside SONABHY
SONABHY's importation monopoly covers the national supply chain, but distribution is open to private operators. International oil companies with local subsidiaries, Total Energies Burkina, Oryx, and others, buy from SONABHY at defined ex-depot prices and distribute through their retail and industrial channels. They are not independent importers; their commercial activity starts at SONABHY's depot gate.
For international traders or oil companies who want to sell into Burkina Faso rather than through it, the commercial counterpart is SONABHY directly, via the international tender process. SONABHY publishes tender notices and evaluates offers on price, quality certification, and delivery terms. A winning supplier delivers CIF to the nominated coastal port, coordinates discharge with SONABHY's coastal depot agent, and is paid under the tender's terms, typically a documentary letter of credit structured around SONABHY's banking relationships. SONABHY's scale and state backing make it a creditworthy counterpart, but the payment cycle follows the state's own budget and approval process rather than commercial convenience.
There is a second route that does not run through SONABHY's own tender terms at all. An international supplier can instead sell to a locally licensed company that holds the right to import petroleum products and resell them, including to SONABHY itself where the licence permits it. In that structure, the supplier and the local importer negotiate their own payment and delivery terms directly, a deferred LC, an advance, open account, or any other arrangement the two sides agree on, rather than accepting whatever terms SONABHY's own procurement cycle dictates. This matters because SONABHY's payment timeline follows the state's budget and approval process and can slip; a supplier working through a licensed local importer is negotiating with a commercial counterpart whose terms are set by contract, not by government disbursement schedules, which can suit a supplier who cannot carry that kind of payment risk on a single tender relationship.