Fifteen ministers from the energy-producing nations in Africa, including countries such as Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and Tunisia, agreed to meet at the Africa Oil Week (AOW) in Cape Town from 4-8 November 2019 to broker new partnerships for their energy sectors
The ministers will use the Africa Oil Week Summit as a platform to discuss national strategies, sovereign competitiveness, issue licenses, and finalise tenders.
With increasing pressure on sovereigns to develop attractive operating environments, ministers will detail their hydrocarbon strategies to an audience of more than 1,500 senior executives from the entire upstream value chain, including NOCs and IOCs, independent operators, the geoscience community, service companies and EPCs, and the investment community.
Highlights of ministerial attendance in 2019 will include:
Slim Feriani, Tunisia’s energy minister, will be joining the government speaker line-up for the first time in the history of AOW. Although Tunisia is well known for oil production, Feriani recently announced that the nation is planning to double its gas production this year from 35,000 boe to 65,000 when the southern gas field of Nawara comes onstream in June. At AOW 2019, he will provide more details on the status of Tunisia’s oil and gas resources.
Irene Muloni, Uganda’s minister of energy and mineral development. In 2018, Uganda hosted a roadshow at Africa Oil Week to showcase the country’s ‘proven oil and gas reserves that makeup close to 12 per cent of world oil production’. She will expand on this theme this year with an update on the country’s most recent petroleum exploration project.
Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima, minister of mining, industry and energy for Equatorial Guinea. Renowned for its offshore crude oil fields, Equatorial Guinea produces approximately 13.5mn tonnes of crude oil per year, with 149mn tonnes of recoverable oil reserves. At AOW, the minister will provide more details on the attractive policy and regulatory environment for the energy sector in the country.
Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, state minister for petroleum resources, Nigeria. Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer and exporter, but it also has large gas reserves for development, attracting interest from local operators such as Seplat and Oando who are sponsoring Africa Oil Week in 2019.
The event will also be attended by ministers from South Africa, the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Djibouti, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Gambia, Mali, Zambia, Rwanda and Chad.
