Yemisi Izuora
About seventeen ministers from Africa’s largest energy producing nations are expected to meet at the Africa Oil Week conference to be held in Cape Town in November to discuss the future of the energy sector.
The event will group delegates from among others Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and Tunisia from November 4 to 8.
The event organisers said the ministers would be using Africa Oil Week as a platform to discuss national strategies, sovereign competitiveness, issue licences and finalise tenders. With pressure growing on sovereigns to develop attractive operating environments, the ministers will be detailing their hydrocarbon strategies to an audience of more than 1,500 senior executives from the whole/ upstream value chain.
The ministers who are expected to attend include Tunisian Energy Minister Slim Feriani who will be joining the government speaker line-up for the first time in AOW’s history.
African News Agency (ANA), reports that Feriani will be joining the government speaker line-up for the first time in AOW’s history.
Though Tunisia is well known for oil production, Feriani recently announced that the nation was planning to double its gas production this year from 35,000 barrels of oil equivalent to 65,000 when the southern Nawara gas field comes onstream in June. He will be providing more details on the status of Tunisia’s oil and gas resources at the event.
Ministers from South Africa, Republic of Congo, Uganda, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Djibouti, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Gambia, Mali, Zambia, Rwanda and Chad will also be speaking at the event, the organisers said.