Author:
Ngulwe Tumaini wa Rusaati, Hélène Magambo, Patient Kambale Mulekya, Kabamba Kisadi

Doi: 10.26480/jtin.01.2025.10.13

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

For many years, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has awarded oil and gas blocks to several oil companies in an effort to boost the oil and gas industry’s economy. Notwithstanding the potential profitability of oil and gas resources, the sector remains unexploited for decades. This situation has lagged the country behind its neighbors. This research attempts to investigate the upstream and the issues that potentially affected the oil and gas sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) using the SWOT method. The results demonstrated that while the sector’s weaknesses and threats are mostly political and environmental, its strengths and opportunities are economic. This study raises awareness among DRC’s policymakers of the strategic exploitation of these resources, which represents the nation’s strength, to effectively respond to the economic crisis, and calls for further research into the downstream oil and gas sector to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the industry.