Africa's oil and gas potential: Boom or hype?
By Alex Vines, Chatham House, Special to CNN
September 18, 2014 -- Updated 1105 GMT (1905 HKT)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* 6 of the top 10 global oil and gas discoveries in 2013 were made in
Africa
* Yet, developing these finds requires massive, long-term investments
* Countries must improve regulatory and business environment to
attract investors
Editor's note: Alex Vines is the Africa Programme Head at
<
http://www.chathamhouse.org/> Chatham House and the co-director of the
African Studies Centre, Coventry University. The opinions expressed in this
commentary are solely his.
(CNN) -- Africa's oil and gas potential will grow significantly over the
next two decades, driven by population growth, urbanization and the
emergence of a wealthier middle class on the continent.
<
https://www.pwc.com/en_NG/ng/pdf/pwc-africa-oil-and-gas-review.pdf> Six of
the top 10 global discoveries in the oil and gas sector in 2013 were made in
Africa, with more than 500 companies currently exploring deposits there.
There were nearly nine million barrels of crude oil produced daily in Africa
last year, with more than 80% of it coming from established players such as
Algeria, Angola and Nigeria.
This is all good news for Africa, but look behind the figures and the story
is more about gas than oil.
Excitement remains around large gas finds in Mozambique and Tanzania, but
even here there is much hype and unknowns.
The scale of these East African finds is not in doubt but developing these
discoveries will be massively expensive and a long-term investment.
Mozambique's gas investment in particular will be dependent on what future
gas prices will be -- and this is changing quickly due to the oil and gas
revolution......
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Received on Thu Sep 18 2014 - 09:16:30 EDT