Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko said that country has taken a further step in their announced desire to renegotiate oil, gas and mining contracts so that they benefit more the population, with the establishment of a commission of experts.

The commission, made up of senior officials of the Senegalese administration, experts in the oil, mining, fiscal and economic fields, was launched Monday in the presence of the head of government, said public television RTS Monday evening in a report.

It “stems from the desire to respect a commitment. We had to regret and vigorously denounce the way in which agreements and conventions were concluded at the expense of most of the time the strategic interests of Senegal and its people,” Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, appointed by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, appointed by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, elected in March, told RTS

We had made a firm commitment to review these various agreements, to review them and to work to rebalance them in the direction of the national interest,” he said. “The logic is to work in a scientific, rigorous, methodical manner on all aspects (of) these conventions. The first exercise (will be) to review these conventions in the light of the various legal bases on which they are based,” he added

The country became an oil producer in June and should start exploiting its natural gas in the second quarter of 2024. Ranked among the 25 least developed states in the world, it relies on these resources to make an economic leap. But the new authorities have promised to renegotiate contracts signed under the former government because they consider them