Africa’s Oil Sector Continues to Rebound and Strengthen its Voice Through the African Energy Chamber

As the leading and most influential advocacy group for the majority of the companies and workers in the continent’s oil and gas sector, the African Energy Chamber has announced that the African oil industry continues to be strong and is rebounding well.

The rebound in global commodity prices has translated in renewed optimism and investment across the continent’s energy value chain, leading to improved policy dialogue and increased international investments across Africa’s energy markets.

The African Energy Chamber has capitalized on the market’s dynamism to multiply networking activities, advocate for reformed policy frameworks and further encourage investment in the continent’s energy industry.

Having become the most successful energy industry’s advocacy and trade association for Africa, the Chamber notably partnered for the first time with Africa Oil & Power, whose 3rd conference and exhibition was held in Cape Town on September 5-7th, 2018.

The event attracted over 800 delegates and investors from North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, and saw the participation of leading figures such as OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo, former Zambian President Rupiah Banda and many leading African Oil and Power Ministers, NOC’s, IOC’s and service companies.

As a relentless advocate of a strong African content, the Chamber has multiplied endeavors towards the development of local content policies and regulations in the continent, especially across its emerging frontiers. To assist Senegal in the development of a business-friendly and robust regulatory framework, the Chamber hosted a local content forum in Dakar on September 13th, during which Senegalese Prime Minister Mahammed Dionne reiterated Senegal’s commitment to both welcome foreign investors and implement a 50% quota of Senegalese content by 2030.

In encouraging investment and improving networking for the sector, the Chamber has also worked on resolving disputes between companies and African governments and positioned itself as a leading mediator for Africa’s energy stakeholders. It has also multiplied international partnerships, the latest one being with the Houston-based International Association of Geophysical Contractors (IAGC) in order to further promote exploration across Africa’s sedimentary basins.

“The last two months have been record-breaking for the African oil and gas sector and the Energy Chamber,” declared the chamber’s executive chairman NJ Ayuk. “We saw a tremendous uptick in membership registration over the past two months alone from NOCs, IOCs and service companies and raised more than $500,000 over that period. I am proud that the majority of our fundraising and support comes from African Energy Companies which shows the broad-based support of across Africa. This ensures that we are going to have the resources to advocate for an enabling environment when it comes to doing business in Africa and push for more for deals that they have been traditionally excluded from.”

The African Energy Chamber now intends to focus on the international exposure of Africa’s oil sector by taking its community and network across geographies, notably Russia and China. At the invitation of Alexander Novak, Russian Minister of Energy, and Anton Kobyakov, Advisor to President Vladimir Putin, the African Energy Chamber will be leading a strong delegation of African government and private sector officials to the Russian Energy Week next month to discuss Russian investment in Africa. Another such dialogue is being planned in Beijing in the first half of 2019 so that the chamber’s members benefit from an open discussion with Chinese investors and stakeholders.