African Petroleum body head reaffirms importance of the sector to African development

Africa cannot develop without oil and gas. So African Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO) secretary-general Dr Omar Farouk Ibrahim unequivocally proclaimed on Tuesday, in his address at the Africa Oil Week (AOW) 2024 conference, being held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Renewable energy wouldn’t allow Africa to develop, he further asserted.

He reminded everyone of the 2022 survey, undertaken by APPO, into the state and future of the African oil and gas industry in the light of the global energy transition. That had identified three key challenges for the sector – financing, technology and markets. He stated his address would be an update on the progress in dealing with these challenges.

The financing of African oil and gas projects was becoming a challenge because the traditional funders were withdrawing from the sector, because of climate change. The APPO report had recommended the creation of an African Energy Bank (AEB), to fill the emerging funding gap.

He highlighted that the treaty which activated the AEB had been signed in June. At that point, it had received 45% of its initial capital requirements. This treaty needed ratification by only one more country to come into effect. Further, the rate of funding for the bank had accelerated since the implementation treaty had been signed.

Regarding technology development, APPO had been working with the various forums created by the African national oil companies, such as the CEOs forum, the Heads of Research & Development forum, and the Heads of Training Institutions forum. The aim was to create regional centres of excellence, to avoid unnecessary duplication. These would be based in the countries which were the most advanced in the relevant expertise.

Ibrahim also highlighted major African pipeline projects that had been developed (the West Africa Pipeline) or were being developed (the Central African Pipeline System) or planned (the Trans-Sahara Gas Pipeline).

He strongly urged African countries to go to next month’s UN Climate Summit (COP 29), in Baku, Azerbaijan, with a common objective. One aspect of this should be to push for a moratorium on the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (which would impose a carbon tariff on imports to the EU), before it was implemented.

Africa, he highlighted, didn’t create climate change. Developed countries had the technology to cut carbon emissions in the atmosphere, and they should do so, to give African countries the space to develop.

He also announced, to significant applause, that with effect from next year, AOW would move to Accra, in Ghana. (He also criticised the plethora of energy conferences in Africa, while exempting AOW.)

(APPO has 18 African member countries – Algeria, Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Libya, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa.)