H.E. Stev Simplice Onanga is Minister of Hydrocarbons of the Republic of the Congo. Appointed on 24 April 2026, he formally took over from Bruno Jean Richard Itoua on 5 May 2026. He leads a sector central to the Congolese economy, which is expanding its natural gas activities alongside oil, including liquefied natural gas exported through floating LNG facilities.

Onanga has more than 20 years of experience in the petroleum sector. He holds a master’s degree in applied mathematics from France and a master’s degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Tulsa in the United States (2004). He worked as a reservoir engineer at the Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo (SNPC) and later served as Director General of SONAREP, the national petroleum research company.

At the Ministry of Hydrocarbons, he served as Director General of Hydrocarbons and, after that directorate was divided into four general directorates, was installed as Director General of Upstream Petroleum in August 2023. In November 2024 he was appointed Adviser to the President of the Republic and Head of the Hydrocarbons Department. He was made a Commander of the Order of Congolese Merit in May 2023.

Onanga’s stated priorities include accelerating investment by shortening project approval and execution timelines, treating local content as national economic policy, strengthening the SNPC so that it can operate its own assets and contribute more to production, securing domestic fuel supply, and developing gas as an industrial driver, including additional floating LNG capacity to position the Congo as a competitive regional gas hub.