exclusively relying on regional and established resources and
supply infrastructure. Centre, Cape Town, South Africa, a unique, yet ideal environment
to facilitate networking for stakeholders in Africa’s energy arena.
To address the continent’s existing energy infrastructure
gap, African governments are proactively aiming to expand
electricity access, deliver clean cooking solutions and pursue
inclusive sustainable energy development. While these efforts
are locally supported through existing platforms such as
the regional power pools, the AfCFTA provides an entirely
new platform to expand these efforts regionally and pursue
energy development to relieve the infrastructure restraint. For
instance, one key anticipated outcome of the agreement is
the acceleration of industrial output that would comparatively
depend on the availability, affordability and security of energy
supplies at a scale for industrial growth. INTEREST IN OIL AND GAS ON
THE RISE
Improved energy trade and energy integration initiatives
will boost economic development in Africa by reducing
transaction costs and enabling market and economic
collaboration, conclusively accelerating investment
incentives. Further, removal of impediments to intra-African
trade by AfCFTA portends additional US public and private
investment in Africa’s oil and power sectors, since increased
investment is aligned with US policy as well as sound business
consideration.
Africa is renowned for its abundance of renewable energy
resources, amongst which include wind, solar, geothermal
and hydropower. These constitute a consequential impetus
for regional energy integration. Progression and mobilisation
of such clean renewable energy sources through regional
collaboration efforts afford the continent’s citizens improved
environmental quality. “Developing renewable energy
resources to address the demand for energy in Africa, will be
in the spotlight at the upcoming Africa Energy Indaba. The
conference will discuss the AfCFTA and how investors and
energy project developers can benefit from the agreement
and how this can catalyse the development of renewable
energy projects.” says Liz Hart, managing director, Africa
Energy Indaba.
Similarly, renewable energy resources are site specific and
can therefore be exclusively transported through electricity
interconnections. Additionally, power interconnections remain
the only expedient alternative to making fuels or resources
such as lignite, hydropower and renewable resources,
available to other areas. Electricity interconnections, realised
by regional integration, enable the expansion of these energy
resources to benefit the continent at large.
The 2020 Africa Energy Indaba is set to assemble leaders from
the regional and international power and energy community
to deliberate the status of critical projects, identify lucrative
investment and development opportunities, how best to
capitalise on those prospects as well as to share industry best
practice. The 12th annual event will be hosted on 3rd and
4th March 2020 at the Cape Town International Convention
www. africanmining.co.za
African Mining Publication
Oil and gas companies discovered 12.2 billion barrels of oil
equivalent (boe) in 2019, the highest volume since 2015,
according to estimates from Rystad Energy. There were 26
discoveries of more than 100 million boe last year, with offshore
regions dominating the list of new oil and gas deposits.
Guyana continued to be a success story. ExxonMobil added four
new discoveries within its offshore Stabroek block, while Tullow
Oil’s Jethro and Joe exploration wells established the presence of
a working petroleum system to the west of the Stabroek block.
Rystad estimates that the discoveries in Guyana hold
cumulative recoverable resources of around 1.8 billion boe.
“ExxonMobil can be declared explorer of the year for a second
year in a row thanks to its ongoing efforts and results in
Guyana, along with significant investments in Cyprus. The
supermajor was exceptional, both in terms of discovered
volumes and value creation from exploration,” says Rystad
Energy upstream senior analyst Palzor Shenga. ExxonMobil
discovered around 1.07 billion boe in additional net resources
in 2019.
Rystad estimates the value creation from these volumes to be
about USD2.7-billion, driven by the Guyana prospects. BP’s Orca
gas field off the coast of Mauritania was not only the largest
single discovery, but also the deepest water find of 2019. Rystad
estimates that Orca holds about 1.3 billion boe of recoverable
resources.
Recent gas discoveries in the region now support plans to
build an additional LNG hub in the Bir Allah area in Mauritania,
according to Rystad.
Other key offshore discoveries in 2019 included Total’s Brulpadda
in South Africa, ExxonMobil’s Glaucus in Cyprus, CNOOC’s
Glengorm in the United Kingdom and Equinor’s Sputnik in the
Norwegian sector of the Barents Sea.
Many of 2019’s high-impact wells did, however, turn out to be
duds, according to Rystad.
“Although the discovered volumes for 2019 surpassed the
preceding year, it was a disappointing year for high-profile
wells as many prospects with significant estimated pre-drill
resources failed to deliver. Over 10 billion barrels of estimated
pre-drill volumes were at stake in wells that failed to encounter
hydrocarbons,” says Shenga.
African Mining
African Mining February 2020
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