Africa's main oil producers and exporters met on May 19 in Luanda, the Angolan capital. They are looking for solutions to increase investments in the oil sector and the energy transition.

“Many things have happened today in the world to make us believe that they are not serious about the energy transition because when the security of the national interest, energy security, is threatened, they forget about the transition and come asking for more oil and gas and even coal ”said Omar Ibrahim, secretary general of the Organization of African Petroleum Producers.

“We are a multi-energy company with a very clear ambition to be carbon neutral by 2050. What that means, that means we are not going to stop oil and gas production, clearly not, because it has been our business for a number of years.” . We will continue, but we will continue doing it in a different way, with low-cost, low-carbon projects. It is important and will be our entire strategy in Angola and Africa”, explains Olivier Jouny, Secretary General of Total EP Angola.

The lack of investment in the African oil and gas sector in recent years has led to a sharp drop in production.

With the partial embargo on Russian oil and gas, OPEC and its allies had set their sights on capturing a larger share of the world market. But that didn't happen.

In March, Angola and Nigeria, according to OPEC data, accounted for almost half of the oil supply deficit in the world market.

However, Nigeria assures, the consequences of “political tensions between Russia and Ukraine” have not affected the local industry.

“There is no doubt that the political tensions between Russia and Ukraine have caused supply disruptions in the market and therefore there is a shortage of supply in the market, but this does not affect Nigeria because we have high quality crude oil, which it is always demanded. by the market to be blended with other crude oil productions around the world,” said Mele Kyari, Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

One of the conclusions that emerge from this congress is that, at the moment, the main oil-producing countries in Africa do not produce enough to meet the demand derived from the Russian oil and gas embargo. But they admit that there is greater investor interest in the oil and gas sector in Africa.”

Source: BusinessAfricaNews