4th Eastern Africa Oil, Gas & Energy Conference slated for June as region reshapes oil landscape

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

The 4th Eastern Africa Oil, Gas & Energy Conference 2013, is scheduled to take place in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, from June 18 to June 20.

This annual conference takes place at a time when the world and indeed Africa’s oil landscape has been reshaped by the discovery of oil and gas in commercial quantities in the Eastern Africa region.

Oil discovery in Africa began from its Northern region, then to the West and Central region and has in recent times been joined the Eastern block.

Recent large and world-class gas discoveries in Mozambique and Tanzania, with potential for more to come, and commercial oil flows in Kenya, show the potential of the enormous exploration frontiers of Eastern Africa, both onshore and offshore, which impact is rebalancing the Africa oil-gas industry landscape into a wider continental oil and gas/LNG game, with potentially global consequences.

  

The conference, which is hosted annually by Global Pacific & Partners, gives new insight in the opportunities, acreage, key players and corporate and government strategies in the Eastern Africa region, will include a pre-Conference 4th Eastern Africa Strategy Briefing by Dr Duncan Clarke, Africa’s foremost strategist in the upstream and will highlight presentations of CEOs, government officials, Ministers and key executives from within leading corporate and state oil companies.

Also to be held on the first day of the main conference on June 18, 2013, will be the 51st PetroAfricanus Dinner, while Dr Duncan Clarke, author of several historiography and economics books about Africa’s oil future, will provide key insights on the corporate upstream oil and gas game, governments and state oil firms and licensing agency strategies during the Strategy Briefing.

Commenting on the oil find in the region, Dr Duncan Clarke, Chairman of Global Pacific & Partners, said “The new discoveries will add substantial net wealth to the Eastern Africa’s littoral states where they are located, and induce higher economic growth rates and regional development.”

With its resurgence, Eastern Africa has been transformed into a fast-emerging oil and gas frontier region, with the on- and offshore potential including exclusive economic zones, deepwater opportunities and ultra-deep plays.

Further, the 15 nation states in the region are diverse in scale, resource potential, contract terms, and venture-types and in regard to exploration cycles and hydrocarbon discoveries.

Since oil was struck, increasing numbers of companies have entered open acreage and bid rounds, and more blocks have been leased than ever before, with more drilling commitments concluded, according to the organisers.

A press release issued by Global Pacific and Partners says that foreign state-owned companies like the China national Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) have invested in Eastern Africa ,while Super-Majors (Total, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell and BP) have shown renewed interest, and independents from around the world now abound.

During the 4th Eastern Africa Conference key speakers will reveal the exploration potential, future opportunities and growth in countries like Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, DRC, the Seychelles, Tanzania, Madagascar, Burundi, Rwanda, and regional oil giant Uganda.