Day 3 Highlights

AOW Day 3 Highlights

The final day of content has come to an end. Thank you to our industry experts who spoke on the agenda today, it was another day of discussing the most prominent topics in the energy industry. We had a number of different Forums take place today, here are some of the highlights:

Thursday's key sessions

Finance and M&A Forum

Day 3 was marked by a series of high-level conversations on the financing and funding of African energy projects. The day gathered leading executives from development finance institutions (DFIs), commercial banks, private equity investors, lawyers, and advisors at a time when investments in African energy are stagnating or declining in selected markets. By engaging with operators, representatives of the Africa Finance Corporation, Deutsche Bank, Afreximbank, ICA Finance, Absa were able to analyze funding trends and propose solutions to attracting capital into Africa.

Key takeaways include the need to focus on internal financing mechanisms and domestic capital, along with the development of dual-currency funding mechanisms. Amidst challenging access to global capital, most stakeholders agreed that more efforts need to be given to unlock domestic capital.

Participants stressed the need for sponsors to present sound and credible technical documents to enhance the bankability of the projects and embrace better ESG strategies and propositions. In that regard, special attention must be given to corporate governance standards which remain the most relevant ones to unlock investments.

Independents Forum

AOW 2023’s Independents Forum delivered insights into some of Africa’s most dynamic independent operators and asset owners, including ND Western, Aradel Holdings, Afentra, ReconAfrica, Capricorn Energy, Maurel & Prom, and Invictus Energy. The Forum was once again the perfect opportunity to interact with various companies with high-growth potential and getting to know about energy dynamics in specific markets.

Invictus Energy notably shared its optimism on its ongoing exploration campaign in Zimbabwe and shared details on the potential to transfer Southern Africa’s energy security with gas. In West Africa, ND Western shared details on its Special Intensive Training Program (SITP), a groundbreaking training initiative it will launch in Nigeria in 2024.

Technology Forum

AOW 2023 closed with a Technology Forum that addressed the innovations, best-practices, policies, and technologies that must be put in place to decarbonize the African upstream. In a session titled “Leading the Charge Towards a Lower Carbon Future”, executives from NOV, Equinor, Halliburton and SLB stressed the need to focus on decarbonization from the initial exploration and field development plans stage. Participants agreed that a proper mindset needs to be put in place to anticipate future trends and pave the way for decarbonization technologies and practices to be put in place. This goes through implementing clear policy frameworks and providing incentives to operators so that future plans for carbon capture, storage and utilization (CCUS), flaring reduction, and methane management, have better chances to succeed and be executed. Last but not least, panelists insisted on the need to promote partnerships and stakeholders’ cooperation to prepare the value-chain for low-carbon business models, from upstream production to consumption downstream.