Jerome Onoja Okojokwu-Idu
Oil and gas industry stakeholders in Africa have called for more collaboration among African countries to create value in the industry.
They stated this at the recently concluded Offshore Technology Conference (OTC), in Houston – Texas, United States.
Speaking on a panel session at the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) organised session, which was moderated by the Group Chief Executive Officer of Oildata Energy Group, Emeka Ene, they harped on the need for technology innovation to engender cross-border collaboration.
The Vice Chairman of PETAN, Ranti Omole, listed some efforts by the association towards fostering increased collaboration on the continent. He said that PETAN has created a local content committee with Mozambique, and Tanzania, among others.
According to him, the short term objectives of the committee is to identify likely areas of challenges hindering collaboration, set up database and also look at the differences that exist among various local content laws on the continent.
“Some of the early key things that we want to do or that we have done is to identify the various likely challenges that starts with the language, which we think, rather than being a barrier, is an opportunity for you to learn another language. Because we have three languages in Africa — English, French and Portuguese,” Omole said.
“Two, we try to see how to have database of the legal and the statutory requirements, because they differ from one country to the other. And also the local content regulations differ from one country to the other. And that database, which we want to share across also has database of all the various service providers in various African countries; also assist countries. Imagine countries that don’t have service associations like PETAN,”
He informed that Senegal inaugurated its technology association for service providers in the country, at the Conference, adding that it is part of the initiatives of PETAN local content committee to create recognizable technical services associations in Africa that can work together with like minds, same focus and objectives.
The General Manager of Engineering Project at Manser Engineering, Emmanuel Heza, said that collaboration among African countries hinges on three elements.
“The subject of collaboration amongst African countries, I believe is first situated on three pedals — the timing as in why and when it makes sense to do the collaboration. And the second thing is about the governance, as in how we actually do effectively collaborate. And the third one really has to do with the instrument in place. So in terms of instrument in place, we have the AfCFTA, we have the local laws and regulations that are taking place in various countries,” Heza said.
Also speaking on the panel, the B2B Manager of Onyx Energy, Tanzania, Dr. Harriet Wandira, said that Africa needs to improve on the technologies that it has and support its teeming youth population to enroll and improve on technology and innovation.
“When we talk about cross-border integration, we are talking about how we Africans trust ourselves, trust our capabilities, trust what we have — the resources — to be able to actually produce qualified fuel products that we can sell to each other or globally,” Wandira said.
“It is important for us to go in detail. I know we have a lot of experts like engineers as Simbi (Wabote) mentioned. We need to use the example of the pandemic to be able to simplify how we can solve our issues now going forward. Why am I bringing it back to the pandemic? Technology was the only solution to our network globally and in Africa. We need to improve on the technology that we have. We need to support our 70 percent youth to be able to enroll and improve on technology and innovation, to be able to work together and integrate our services in different countries.”
She noted that the oil and gas industry is key to supporting other sectors of the economy, hence, the need for more collaboration and integration of services on the continent.
On his part, the APP Manager, Ibrahima Tela, said that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) initiative will be a key driver in improving collaboration among African countries and creating value on the continent.
AfCFTA’s focus is on addressing pertinent issues such as settlement of payment, rules of origin and standards. Tela said that the continent is already addressing some of the identified challenges hindering collaboration, saying “We have already started bridging those gaps identified.”
He also stressed on the need for the use of technology in information sharing, breaking of barriers and identifying opportunities that exist in various parts of the continent.
The Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Dr. Bello Aliyu Gusau, noted the importance of capacity building in engendering cross-border collaboration in Africa.
Represented by the General Manager, Strategy and Planning at the agency, Jide Adebule, he said that in over 20 years existence of the PTDF , the agency has established endowment programmes in different universities in Nigeria to build capacity.
