The Africa E&P Summit brought together Africa’s upstream industry for the unique event shaped for companies active in Africa’s oil and gas industry and provides deep-driven insight into the continent’s fast-changing exploration horizon
Industry players, decision-makers active in Africa, independents, finance, legal and service and supply companies and African governments and NOC’s seeking investors participated during the two-day online conference.
Garrett Soden, president and CEO of Africa Energy, kicked off the conference on a positive note talking to the title ‘A Bright Spot in African E&P’, maintaining that there is still a position for independent explorers that are well financed, with a strong technical team and world class assets.
International energy players Galp, BP and Standard Bank focused on what they believe is important for Africa going forward and how their companies have navigated through the disruption. As Africa competes for finance and focus within global exploration portfolios, Galp’s executive director and head of E&P Thore Kristiansen, BP’s vice-president exploration, Africa, Jasper Peijs and Standard Bank’s global head, oil and gas - corporate and investment banking Dele Kuti spoke on where Africa sits in their global portfolio and glean an insight into the strategic outlook for Africa. The roundtable focused on what are the hurdles Africa faces in the coming decades, how can global companies unlock major opportunities for Africans on the continent and shareholders alike and others.
Namibia, Ghana, Senegal and Liberia were featured in Africa Licensing Promotion & NOC Showcase session. Maggy Shino, petroleum commissioner, Ministry of Mines & Energy, Namibia; Egbert Faibille Jnr, CEO at Petroleum Commission Ghana; Joseph Medou, director general, PETROSEN; Honorable Archie Donmo, director-general, Liberia Petroleum Regulatory Authority (LPRA) discussed Africa’s latest licensing opportunities, prospects and NOC’s with a focus on unlocking potential in these regions. The session discussed some of the interesting opportunities available in licensing and open acreage in Africa in 2020 and beyond with a focus on providing governments an opportunity to pitch and engage the international E&P community to invest.
Amalia Olivera-Riley, head of exploration for Tullow Oil, delivered a keynote ‘Leading Teams Through Disruption’ on her personal learnings and experiences of finding a way through the uncertainty. This was followed by a session with Africa Oil Corp, Kosmos Energy, Springfield Group and FAR Limited on the challenges that face Independent players in Africa and how they plan to take things forward.
Director-general at Liberia Petroleum Regulatory Authority (LPRA), Honorable Archie Donmo, spoke on investing in Liberia – one of Africa’s last true frontier regions, followed by the latest updates on the Liberia Harper Basin License Round, with LPRA, NOCAL, TGS and Core Laboratories.
Tullow Ghana hosted roundtable with senior stakeholders from Ghana’s oil and gas sector asking what priorities the Government of Ghana and oil and gas companies should focus on over the next decade as the pandemic ebbs and as the industry looks towards energy transition. The panel discussed the opportunities and challenges in the sector on the road to 2030 including the optimum approach to local content and localisation in an uncertain world.
The day two featured a list of senior roundtable discussions. Amalia Olivera-Riley, head of exploration, Tullow Oil; Jozsef Marton, managing director, Preng & Associates; Oisin Fanning, CEO, San Leon Energy; Jan Maier, vice-president exploration, Africa Energy discussed how E&P companies can best position themselves to ride out the challenges of the following decades. As weak market sentiment for oil and gas stocks is opening up E&P opportunities in Africa for private equity-backed and small caps, the roundtable discussed how these companies see the future in Africa.
Tom Perkins, acquisitions and divestitures, Stellar Energy Advisors; Keith Myers, president, research, Westwood Global Energy Group; Richard Hood, senior research analyst, Wood Mackenzie; Philip Birch, exploration director, Impact Oil & Gas discussed the ways the industry overcome the challenges and dynamics of Africa’s upstream. The factors at play affecting Africa’s E&P sector in a disrupted world, governments’ respond to the major challenges of now and opportunities and shifts were also the major focus areas.
