Serving as the Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons, H.E. Ondo brings with him a wealth of experience to the position, having previously served as the Managing Director of national oil company GEPetrol where he was instrumental in positioning the company as a major player in the regional energy industry. Despite having only been appointed Minister this year, H.E. Ondo has already made significant progress to expand Equatorial Guinea’s energy industry. He signed three producing sharing contracts (PSC) in February 2023 - one with independent E&P company Panoro Energy and two with Africa Oil Corporation - whereby Panoro Energy was awarded a 56% sharing interest operatorship in Block EG-01 while the signing of duo-PSCs with Africa Oil Corporation enabled the company to enter the Equatorial Guinean market. With the PSCs, Africa Oil Corporation will own an 80% interest in Block EG-18 and EG-31, respectively.
“H.E. Antonio Oburu Ondo has a long history of someone who understands the industry, and as such, he will help keep the market stable and continue working on attracting the necessary hydrocarbon-focused investments into the country, building on the progress that has already been achieved in Equatorial Guinea,” states NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the AEC.
Equatorial Guinea has already positioned itself as an active player in the global oil and gas industry, exporting oil and gas to international markets. However, the country’s objectives to become a regional hydrocarbon processing hub has not only seen an expansion of its crude oil reserves to over 1.1 billion barrels of oil and 1.5 trillion cubic feet of gas owing largely to exploration efforts underway, but the strengthening of cross-border collaboration in West Africa. Currently, the country has strong ties with countries to the likes of Cameroon, Nigeria and Congo, and more recently efforts to cement its regional stronghold have seen partnerships signed with emerging producers such as Namibia. On the back of regional cooperation, the country has accelerated the development of its Punta Europa facility – processing both domestic and regional gas resources -; put in place a regional pipeline connectivity project (the Central African Pipelines System); while attracted new investment into its growing market.
AEW 2023 will therefore serve as a platform for H.E. Ondo to strengthen relations between Equatorial Guinea and neighbouring countries while incentivizing new investment across the domestic energy value chain.
“Equatorial Guinea continues to make promising strides of becoming an oil and gas mega hub, and the chamber will continue to work closely with the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons to realize their national objectives. Equatoguinean resources, expertise and partnerships will be key for Africa’s energy future and we look forward to seeing developments across all of these arenas during this year’s AEW conference,” continued Ayuk.
African Energy Week (AEW) is the African Energy Chamber’s (AEC) interactive exhibition and networking event, established in 2021, that seeks to unite African energy stakeholders, drive industry growth and development, and promote Africa as the destination for African-focused events.
For further information on the African Energy Week 2023 conference, click the link below:
https://apo-opa.info/3NBqdUA
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Energy Chamber.
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