Future demand for African oil and gas can be extended if producers and refiners significantly reduce their carbon footprint.“Decarbonising oil and gas production could help African countries reduce emissions while also extending their licence to operate into the future,” according to McKinsey analysts Acha Leke, Peter Gaius-Obaseki, and Oliver Onyekweli.“Focusing on sustainability and decarbonisation also presents an opportunity for oil and gas producers to reduce their cost of capital and retain access to customers who are increasingly prioritising production that has lower carbon intensity,” they state in a report The future of African oil and gas: Positioning for the energy transition. “Investment in lower-carbon-energy infrastructure projects, especially gas pipelines, processing infrastructure, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), could enable African countries to promote intraregional trade and boost global exports of African energy products, while also helping to strengthen regional energy access. “To ensure bankability, these infrastructure projects would likely need to incorporate decarbonisation or carbon offset levers,” they state.South Africa’s deputy minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Dr Nobuhle Nkabane, sees opportunities for expansion of intra-African oil and gas trade.Speaking at the September 2023 Southern African Oil and Gas Conference in Cape Town, Nkabane said “African countries who are already exporting gas to Europe do not supply their domestic markets because they claim a lack of sufficient domestic consumption. “The argument often advanced is the lack of transmission infrastructure and unaffordability of gas products for local communities. “My counterargument is that we are not going to change this situation if we do not use the revenue earned from gas exports to develop the growth of our economies to create employment opportunities that will lead to consumption of goods and services.“I believe that if Africa is to extract more oil and gas, it could be used to expand energy access while replacing the so-called dirtier alternatives for heating and cooking.“We need to foster stronger ties on inter-African oil and gas trade. “Already, South Africa imports the bulk of its Crude requirements from African producers, including Nigeria and Angola.
