East African Community (EAC) Partner States have been urged to leverage on the latest technological advances to align the oil and gas sector in the region to the global goal of transition to clean energy.
The President of Zanzibar, Dr. Hussein Ali Mwinyi, further called on Partner States to leverage on new technologies to accelerate the exploration and production of their petroleum resources given that the world is moving at a very fast pace in terms of technological innovations.
“We are witnessing breakthroughs from sophisticated techniques for the extraction of petroleum from tight reservoirs to transforming our approach to decarbonising industries,” said President Mwinyi.
President Mwinyi was speaking at the Julius Nyerere International Conference Centre in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania when he presided over the official closing ceremony for the three-day 11th East Africa Petroleum Conference and Exhibition.
Mwinyi said that the primary bottleneck for development of the petroleum industry in the region was funding with global activists intensifying their opposition to financing fossil fuel projects and export credit agencies increasingly hesitant to support the projects.
President Mwinyi urged Partner States to reflect on how to overcome this challenge and to overcome the barriers to advance their petroleum resources and implement our energy transition plans effectively, adding that establishing a petroleum fund would go a long way in addressing many of these challenges.
“With the petroleum fund in place, we will support our projects and invest in training, research, development and innovation in the petroleum sector,” he said.
“With an emphasis on funding, the EAC Partner States should draw a lesson from the African Petroleum Producers Organisation in partnership with the African Export Import Bank. Under their partnership, they have agreed to establish the African Energy Bank to address the impending funding crisis in the African oil and gas industry triggered by the global energy transition,” added President Mwinyi.
The President observed that traditional financiers on whom Africa has relied for decades are withdrawing their support particularly in Africa, citing climate change concerns as the primary reason.
“On the utilisation part, the need for implementing more cross-border oil and gas infrastructure cannot be overstated. Through this infrastructure, the region can efficiently harness the petroleum resources for the greater good of the Partner States,” he said.
Mwinyi described the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) from Hoima in Lake Albert region, Uganda to the Tanzanian port city of Tanga as a landmark cross-border infrastructure project, adding that projects were required across Partner States borders to complement the EACOP.
The President hailed efforts by Partner States to promote investment opportunities in the exploration of oil and gas.
“Through more exploration, we will enhance oil and gas discoveries in the region to be one of the contributing players on the global stage. We should do more licensing rounds and participate in roadshows and conferences to aggressively promote investment in the petroleum upstream operations,” he said.
“Let us utilise our local experts, use multi-client companies and deploy every means to ensure we unlock our hydrocarbon resources,” he added.
Mwinyi emphasised the importance of striking a balance between fossil fuels and the energy transition occasioned by the need to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change.
“We should be mindful of the fact that the oil and gas sector has a pivotal role to play in the energy transition agenda and other crucial aspiration such as the Mission 300.”
Mission 300 is a World Bank Group and African Development Bank Group initiative, together with partners, to expand electricity access to 300 million people in Africa by 2030. The initiative will combine increased infrastructure investments with comprehensive policy reforms across the entire electricity supply chain. Nearly 600 million Africans, i.e., approximately 83% of the continent’s population, lack access to electricity.
President Mwinyi disclosed that Tanzania has leveraged on the petroleum product levy for her rural electrification programme that has provided electricity access to all villages in the country.
Also present at the event were Tanzania’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy, Doto Mashaka Biteko, Zanzibar’s Minister for the Blue Economy and Fisheries, Shabaan Ali Othman, Partner States’ line Permanent Secretaries, Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner, Albert Chalamila, and board members of state corporations in the oil and gas sector.
The Republic of Rwanda will host the next 12th East Africa Petroleum Conference and Exhibition.
Form more information on the Conference, visit: www.eapce25.eac.int
