Day 2 Highlights

AOW Day 2 Highlights

What a brilliant day 2 at AOW, thank you for your participation. See below for some of our favorite highlights.

Wednesday's key sessions

Olu Verheijen: “Nigeria will curb its emissions, not its ambitions”

Day 2 at AOW started with an insightful keynote speech by Olu Verheijen, Special Advisor on Energy to Nigeria President Bola A. Tinubu. She spoke about Nigeria’s efforts to grow sustainably but declared that this would not be done at the detriment of the country’s developmental ambitions. Olu Verheijen shared Nigeria’s plans to grow LNG and petrochemicals export and displace diesel with natural gas. She stated that Nigeria would enable a range of policies and incentives and continue to work toward a transition to market-based prices for gas and electricity.

Country Spotlights: Nigeria and Ghana

The day was marked by two country spotlights on Nigeria and Ghana, which are amongst the most promising energy frontiers in West Africa. Nigerian officials and operators expressed optimism about prospects within Nigeria’s biggest economy but called on additional fiscal incentives to be given to encourage exploration and production.

A key recommendation made by Ahonsi Unuigbe is to propose additional fiscal measures to incentivize investments. The granting of royalty holidays would notably encourage investors to take the upfront exploration risks, Ahonsi Unuigbe said. Similarly for production sharing contracts (PSCs), the Government could increase the Cost Oil Share such that there is a higher cost recovery for investors taking exploration risk, while the government’s share through Profit Oil could be deferred to give investors a stronger appetite.

In Ghana, representatives from the Ministry of Energy, the Ghana Petroleum Commission, and Tullow spoke about the upcoming growth cycle in the country. A special focus was given on gas monetization and the ways to decarbonize Ghana’s upstream by valorising gas for domestic consumption across industry and power.

Stakeholders from Ghana addressed some of the country’s upcoming drilling and development projects, and agreed on the high exploration potential that the country offers.

Monetising Africa’s Gas in the Next 7-10 years

The most followed session of the day gathered the African Development Bank, Seplat Energy, Equinor, ND Western, the Standard Bank Group and Eni around a key discussion on how to monetise gas by 2030. Panelists shared various perspectives on the potential to grow export and domestic gas markets while articulating project strategies that favour decarbonistion. Private sector stakeholders agreed on the need to build capacity and develop skills across Africa’s gas value-chain, while making sure future gas projects favour industrialization and socio-economic development. ND Western notably spoke about rapidly growing demand for gas and energy in Nigeria, and called for additional creativity on bringing stakeholders together around solutions for domestic gas monetization.