Oil and gas exploration in Africa has been on the increase throughout 2022.This is a welcome development considering that supply from legacy oil and gas fields across Africa has been diminishing – resulting in a decline in production by African hydrocarbon-producing countries, and creating a dire need for an increase in exploration activities. Enhancing exploration will be critical for Africa to address energy poverty and establish itself as a global energy hub. According to the African Energy Chamber (AEC), 2020 saw the second-lowest discovered volumes in the past decade, with 2021 revealing even lower volumes. In addition to underinvestment in exploration, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic further crippled the sector in 2020. The pandemic led to delays in the approval of exploration projects, to the extent that it led to the offshore rigs being left idle in Angola – something that even years of the civil war did not do.Discoveries made in Angola, South Africa, Ghana, Gabon and Egypt improved Africa’s oil and gas portfolio in 2019, while the Luiperd gas-condensate discovery offshore South Africa supported the 2020 portfolio of discoveries made. In 2021, Africa recorded a further 30% drop in discovered reserves volume, a state which could have been worsened without the massive Baleine discovery in Cote d’Ivoire. While exact figures are yet to be released, early estimates are that 2022 will have been a much more encouraging year, with nine high-impact wells in the drilling schedule and activities including a mixture of majors, independents and local firms.The energy crisis in Europe has also spurred a new appetite for exploration in the oil and gas fields.Notable activities this year have included Shell Plc’s high-profile well offshore in Namibia where drilling has already started; Italy’s Eni conducting exploration at its Mlima-1 wildcat block in Kenya; and TotalEnergies’ exploration activities on the Venus prospect, in which the company has already made a sizeable discovery of light oil with associated gas. In 2023, ten additional high-impact wells will be drilled, with the majority of them sited in unexplored basins in East and West Africa. “We anticipate an increase in exploration activities as producers realise the potential of the region’s oil and gas in meeting global energy demand. Current trends within the oil and gas industry could lead to the establishment of new centres of geopolitical inf luence, a development that could see massive amounts of investment for exploration heading towards Africa,” stated Leoncio Amada Nze, President of African Energy Chamber CEMAC.Another positive development this year has been that licensing rounds, previously delayed due to the pandemic, are being finalised and announced. These include licences in Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Gabon, and Congo.
