The African Energy Chamber (AEC) has slammed Friends of the Earth for purportedly disrupting a forum recently held in Paris to promote energy investment in Africa, saying the protest stood against energy security and economic development in the continent.
The second Invest in Africa Energy Forum gathered oil ministers, officials from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, energy companies, bankers and analysts, according to information from the online portal of the event.
“Despite the rallying support by Europe and the U.S. to make energy poverty history in Africa, environmental organization Friends of the Earth chose to disrupt proceedings at the end of the two-day event, causing panic by deploying fake grenades and driving delegates and officials out of the venue”, the AEC said in a statement.
“This blatant attack on the companies and authorities that are making great strides towards developing Africa is a blatant attack on the continent itself, and shows the biased and anti-African agenda of the organization”.
The AEC said the protest was one of several actions by the Washington-based group “towards keeping Africa undeveloped and in the dark”. Johannesburg, South Africa-based AEC cited Friends of the Earth’s campaigns against natural gas projects in Mozambique, legal cases against oil and gas in South Africa and its court battle against a Tanzania-Uganda oil pipeline.
Friends of the Earth has not responded to a request for comment emailed by Rigzone.
“The AEC advocates for a pragmatic approach that embraces all forms of energy, including coal, natural gas, renewables and oil”, AEC executive chair NJ Ayuk said in the statement.
Ayuk added that “demonizing” multinationals that create jobs in Africa “does not address the climate crisis”.
The AEC statement said, “Friends of the Earth Africa – its African-based group – calls on world governments to adopt their plan to achieve 100 percent renewable energy in Africa by 2050”.
“Yet, this group’s parent organization attacked an energy event that sought to promote investments in African energy – specifically, clean energy”, said the statement, which called natural gas clean energy.
“Friends of the Earth has proven time and time again that they are not friends of Africa”, the AEC claimed. “They would rather see the continent remain in the dark than developed through sustainable energy”.
The forum saw the African Refiners and Distributors Association and the Global LPG Partnership announce a $1 billion fund to expand access to “clean cooking” using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). “The goal is to catalyze large-scale, private sector investment in both traditional LPG sector growth, and to realize the enormous potential of renewable LPG”, said a joint statement by the two groups.
The spotlight, however, was for the greater part on oil and gas, based on news happenings on the forum’s online portal.
Republic of Congo Hydrocarbons Minister Bruno Jean-Richard Itoua announced a national gas company will launch in the third quarter.
“Our starting point is to solve energy poverty – not only for ourselves, but for the world”, Itoua told the forum, as quoted by its online portal. “Is energy security in opposition to the energy transition? No – we can do both at the same time”.
London-based Panoro Energy ASA meanwhile announced a discovery in Gabon’s Hibiscus South field that is estimated to hold five to six million barrels of recoverable oil.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission relaunched the West African nation’s 2024 oil and gas bidding round, which offers 12 offshore blocks.
Senegal’s national oil company Petrosen SA announced that the Sangomar field, operated by Australia’s Woodside Energy Group Ltd., was on track to start production in the coming days. “This will be a big milestone for Senegal and will change the industry in Senegal”, Petrosen director-general Thierno Seydou Ly was quoted as saying. “Our objective is to produce 100,000 bpd [barrels per day] from this project, and maybe in a few years, we will start to monetize the associated gas for the local market, producing LPG and gas-to-power”.
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