The African Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO) held the 5th Meeting of the CEOs of national oil companies (NOCs) today in Brazzaville. The presidence of the Meeting was handed over from Algeria’s Sonatrach to SNPC with a mandate of growing collaboration and partnerships between African state-owned energy companies.
With the attendance of CEOs and representatives from the NOCs of Algeria, Angola, Benin, Gabon, Republic of Congo, D.R. Congo, Libya, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Niger, and Côte d’Ivoire, the Meeting focused on addressing Africa’s main energy challenges. Access to capital and the need to develop sustainable operational practices featured high on the agenda.
The Meeting notably welcomed an intervention of Dr. Sultan Al-Jaber, CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and President of COP 28. With the UN Climate Change Conference only two weeks away, African NOCs discussed a common position on climate change and Africa’s approach to the energy transition. They notably considered signing into the Global Decarbonization Accelerator (GDA), an initiative to be launched in COP 28 and for which nearly 20 NOCs/IOCs have joined already across the world.
The day ended with a recommendation to consider signing the Global Charter on Decarbonisation and pushed African NOCs to ensure that Africa has a voice in the global discourse on energy transition, and agenda setting.
The establishment of the African Energy Bank, a joint project of APPO and the Afreximbank, was also part of the agenda. Participants were briefed on all potential avenues to raise the $5bn required for the bank, including the need to raise capital from sovereign wealth funds and African institutional investors. More importantly, the Meeting urged NOCs to consider subscribing to the share capital of the bank to fast-track its establishment.
Last but not least, several cooperation frameworks and agreements were sealed, especially when it comes to training and skills development. SONATRACH of Algeria entered into collaboration agreements on training with SNPC, GNPC (Ghana), SONAHYDROC (D.R. Congo), and SNG-Benin. On its side, SNPC and SONIDEP of Niger also entered into a cooperation agreement on the sharing of experience and expertise as well as capacity building.
In order to grow cooperation between African NOCs, participants decided to establish the NOC Technical Experts Committee, while GEPetrol agreed to host the next NOCs Meeting in Malabo in September 2024.