Leading energy partners from the African continent gathered in Cairo on February 12, 2023, for the second annual High-Level Meeting of the OPEC-Africa Energy Dialogue. OPEC hosted the second meeting with the African Union, the African Petroleum Producers Organization (APPO), and the African Refiners and Distributors Association (ARDA) to conduct open and transparent discussions on important energy-related topics pertinent to Africa and its energy industries as a follow-up to the successful inaugural Dialogue held on June 2, 2021.

Haitham Al Ghais, the secretary general of OPEC, welcomed HE Dr Amani Abou-Zeid, the African Union’s commissioner for infrastructure and energy, HE Dr Omar Farouk Ibrahim, the secretary general of APPO, and HE Anibor Kragha, Executive Secretary of ARDA.

The African Union’s Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, Dr Amani Abou-Zeid, spoke during her remarks and emphasised the significance of the OPEC-Africa Energy Dialogue, stating that the continent would require all forms of energy in the short, medium, and long-term. She pushed for cooperation in the expansion of the domestic African oil and gas market, the improvement of trustworthy data on the energy sector for sound decision-making processes, and the mobilisation of the continent’s energy potentials.

In his remarks, Dr Omar Farouk Ibrahim, Secretary-General of the African Petroleum Producers Organization, commended OPEC for its leadership in the Dialogue and underlined that the issue of the energy transition is even more difficult for Africa. He cited a study by APPO on the oil and gas industry’s future in Africa in light of the energy transition that identified three pressing issues that the continent’s oil and gas-producing nations must deal with if they don’t want to lose their 125 billion barrels of crude oil and more than 550 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves. These are the financial, technological, and market difficulties.

Anibor Kragha, Executive Secretary of ARDA, wooed everyone present to the ARDA Week, which will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, next month (13-17 March 2023) under the theme “Balancing Energy Transition and Security for the African Downstream.”

In his closing remarks, the OPEC Secretary General emphasised that Africa will continue to play a significant role in the world market despite the inescapable difficulties that lie ahead. To effectively handle shared concerns, he emphasised that future global energy cooperation must be strengthened.