clean(ish) energy

Europe’s big oil companies exploit natural-gas loophole in Africa

in depth

This article is part of the dossier:

Africa’s natural gas loophole

By Pierre-Olivier Rouaud

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Posted on May 24, 2021 16:38

Flames shoot out of a chimney at Petroleum and Natural Gas company factories by a salt lake at the Wadi al-Qamar (Moon Valley) along a highway of Alexandria
Flames shoot out of a chimney at Petroleum and Natural Gas company factories by a salt lake at the Wadi al-Qamar near Alexandria, Egypt December 6, 2020. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

Energy majors are increasingly reluctant to take on new oil projects, but they have not abandoned hydrocarbons altogether, with natural gas experiencing an upswing. In the second part of our series, we look at how the energy majors are increasingly reluctant to take on new oil projects.

This is part 2 of a 4-part series

Big oil companies are applying their energy transition strategy to their African operations, whether the continent’s states like it or not. The problem for the latter does not lie with oil fields currently under production, which will never have trouble finding investors, even if European majors are exiting such investments. In Nigeria, for instance, Shell, Total and Eni recently sold a 45% interest, valued at $1.1bn, in the onshore OML 17 oil field[HC1]  to the billionaire entrepreneur Tony Elumelu.

Instead, the risk is that there will be a slowdown in the development of new projects. In late 2020, during Africa Oil Week, BP’s Africa new ventures vice president, Jonathan Evans, said that, in view of carbon reduction requirements, BP would limit its oil extraction projects on the continent going forward.

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