Gabon - Oil rents (% of GDP)

Oil rents (% of GDP) in Gabon was 18.80 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 50.20 in 1979, while its lowest value was 0.00 in 1970.

Definition: Oil rents are the difference between the value of crude oil production at world prices and total costs of production.

Source: Estimates based on sources and methods described in "The Changing Wealth of Nations: Measuring Sustainable Development in the New Millennium" (World Bank, 2011).

See also:

Year Value
1970 0.00
1971 0.67
1972 0.00
1973 2.52
1974 35.71
1975 28.91
1976 21.07
1977 26.33
1978 27.15
1979 50.20
1980 30.67
1981 14.06
1982 6.92
1983 14.72
1984 21.03
1985 24.21
1986 7.83
1987 17.61
1988 11.98
1989 24.72
1990 29.98
1991 18.87
1992 21.43
1993 26.02
1994 22.82
1995 25.33
1996 29.80
1997 26.78
1998 11.24
1999 22.18
2000 40.98
2001 23.85
2002 21.13
2003 17.30
2004 25.80
2005 36.64
2006 36.93
2007 35.38
2008 41.65
2009 24.18
2010 31.38
2011 36.11
2012 35.41
2013 29.89
2014 24.09
2015 9.93
2016 8.96
2017 15.40
2018 20.32
2019 18.80

Development Relevance: Accounting for the contribution of natural resources to economic output is important in building an analytical framework for sustainable development. In some countries earnings from natural resources, especially from fossil fuels and minerals, account for a sizable share of GDP, and much of these earnings come in the form of economic rents - revenues above the cost of extracting the resources. Natural resources give rise to economic rents because they are not produced. For produced goods and services competitive forces expand supply until economic profits are driven to zero, but natural resources in fixed supply often command returns well in excess of their cost of production. Rents from nonrenewable resources - fossil fuels and minerals - as well as rents from overharvesting of forests indicate the liquidation of a country's capital stock. When countries use such rents to support current consumption rather than to invest in new capital to replace what is being used up, they are, in effect, borrowing against their future.

Limitations and Exceptions: This definition of economic rent differs from that used in the System of National Accounts, where rents are a form of property income, consisting of payments to landowners by a tenant for the use of the land or payments to the owners of subsoil assets by institutional units permitting them to extract subsoil deposits.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: The estimates of natural resources rents are calculated as the difference between the price of a commodity and the average cost of producing it. This is done by estimating the world price of units of specific commodities and subtracting estimates of average unit costs of extraction or harvesting costs (including a normal return on capital). These unit rents are then multiplied by the physical quantities countries extract or harvest to determine the rents for each commodity as a share of gross domestic product (GDP).

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Environment Indicators

Sub-Topic: Natural resources contribution to GDP