Day 1 Highlights

AOW Day 1 Highlights

It has been a great start to the week! We kicked things off last night at our networking drinks, sponsored by NOV. Today we held the first full day of AOW. We had a number of noteworthy sessions to kick off the week, including an exclusive address from the South African Deputy President, His Excellency Mr Paul Mashatile. It has been a day full of insightful content. Catch up on the latest content below.

Tuesday's key sessions

Paul Shipokosa Mashatile: “Africa must keep the lights on during its transition period”

African energy transitions must be set according to the continent’s own timeline and developmental priorities, South African Deputy President Paul Shipokosa Mashatile told crowd of ministers, executives and investors gathered at AOW 2023 this morning in Cape Town. Deputy President Mashatile called for an independent and prosperous African continent where natural resources development and regional cooperation work as enablers of industrial growth and jobs creation. He spoke about the continuing status quo around energy access which urgently calls for growing African economies to come together and address their energy crises. He reiterated that unreliable and expensive access to energy undermines efforts to address unemployment and poverty across the continent.

Securing Global Energy Demand with Africa’s Resources

In the morning, a key panel discussion brought executives from Tullow Oil, Equinor, Eni and Aradel Holdings Plc around a critical conversation on the monetization of African resources. Executives recognized the growing potential of the continent to be a major destination for gas investments but called on policy clarity and certainty to unlock further value from African resources. A key takeaway is on the need to mitigate risk by developing projects and business strategies to rely on various income streams, including oil and gas upstream, midstream, and downstream.

Country Spotlights: South Africa, Angola, and Namibia

Day 1 was marked by a series of spotlights one some of Africa’s most dynamic oil & gas frontiers. A spotlight on South Africa focused on the diversification of the country’s energy mix and the need to develop the gas sector efficiently and sustainably to meet the country’s energy transition targets. It gathered leading executives from the Strategic Fuel Fund (SFF), PetroSA, and the Petroleum Agency SA. In Angola, ANPG representatives showcased the country’s latest opportunities and presented some of the key blocks on offer. Finally, a spotlight on Namibia addressed the tremendous exploration success seen in the Orange Basin and addressed opportunities to explore further within the Walvis Bay Basin while putting in place sound policy to build local content.