THT: With a rising demand for the services that energy provides due to a growing population – many in Africa (600-800 million people) who remain without access to modern cheap reliable energy – the developing world must be able to responsibly create long-term social and economic value by efficiently optimising the potential of their natural resources.
Oil & Gas Transition
The Africa Oil & Gas industry is in the early stages of the same operator transition that the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico have gone through with assets being transferred from majors to independents. IOCs are looking to responsibly exit out of assets which are either late life, not material or have a high carbon footprint.
In Somaliland a highly prospective, onshore exploration province numerous global oil and gas majors are targeting resources of over two billion barrels of oil. Onshore Somaliland a relatively unexplored region, with few exploration wells drilled, the total size of the blocks is approximately equivalent to the entire Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
This has attracted global oil and gas majors that include Genel, RAK GAS , ANSAN WIKFI, Sterling, DNO and Jacka resources and among others with fully signed and operational Product Sharing Agreements- PSC The PSCs with these companies have duly be entered into by the ministry of Energy & Minerals on behalf of the Somaliland government.
With the global energy industry seeing Oil & Gas majors recalibrate their strategies and business models to a lower carbon energy system, coupled with increased demand caused by the Russia war in Ukraine the industry majors are turning to African countries like Nigeria, Angola and Somaliland.
Latest to foray into the African oil and gas sector is Afentra plc (AIM:AET) which has a current carried interest in the Odewayne Block onshore southwestern Somaliland.
Apart from Somaliland the UK based Afentra plc an upstream oil and gas company focused on opportunities in Africa has Confirmed its selection as preferred bidder to purchase interests in Block 3/05 and Block 23 from Sonangol EP, Angola’s national oil company.
The British company has the purpose of supporting a responsible energy transition in Africa by establishing itself as a credible partner for divesting IOCs and Host Governments.
It is therefore hoped that the new player in Somaliland will hasten the oft delayed full scale production of oil and gas. This will also help realize the Ministry of Energy & Minerals vision “contribute to Somaliland’s social and economic development through the sustainable utilization of the country’s energy, minerals and petroleum resources for the benefit of all Somaliland people by 2030”