{{East Africa has emerged as the new frontier for natural gas production, boosted by offshore discoveries in Mozambique, Tanzania and Madagascar, a report by Ernst & Young shows.}}
The report released this week says “the most dynamic recent developments in the African natural gas sector have been in East Africa,” despite most of the major players coming from further north.
In the last five years, energy firms including Italy’s ENI and US group Anadarko Petroleum have reported several large-scale offshore gas finds in northern Mozambique’s Rovuma basin and Mamba fields.
Recoverable gas reserves in Rovuma is estimated at three trillion cubic meters, the report said.
Leading global oil groups are getting in on the act as discoveries in Madagascar and Kenya have upped the ante. In Tanzania, BG Group, Ophir Energy, Statoil and ExxonMobil have all found “major gas deposits.”
The report described east Africa as the “next epicentre” for global natural gas, something which was “non-story” ten years ago.
“With the huge recent discoveries in offshore East Africa (in particular, Mozambique and Tanzania), the future of African gas is, however, expected to shift eastward,” said the report.
Gas production in Africa since 2000 has been growing by about four per cent per year, with exports destined for the Asian market.
“African gas production reached about 203 bcm (billion cubic metres) in 2011, with production led by Algeria, Egypt and Nigeria, collectively accounting for more than 88 per cent of the continent’s total,” it said.
The report also noted untapped shale gas resources in South Africa which have been the subject of a controversial debate.
Environmentalists opposed exploration in the vast semi-arid region of Karoo, in the northern Cape, prompting the government to impose a moratorium on the technique known as fracking. The freeze was lifted last month however.
According to consultants Wood Mackenzie, the ease of access to Asian markets and a break-even point that is substantially lower than rival Australia could help natural gas exports.
Meanwhile, senior economists attending the seventh edition of the African Economic Conference in Kigali have called for strong institutions that will sustain Africa’s development.
The high level meet that ended on Friday, was held under the theme; “Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development in Africa in an Age of Global Uncertainty”.
According to the economic experts, Africa lacks strong political will to implement the policy frameworks that have already been developed.
“Our leaders should see that development to accelerate our institutions must be strong enough to back it up,” said Mr Sylvain Dessy, a professor of Economics at Canada’s Laval University.
“I hope a number of issues affecting the development in Africa will be raised in this forum. If people are motivated enough, they can tackle all these issues affecting development in Africa,” said Prof Dessy, a Cameroonian national.
He stated that strong institutions that encourage innovation and protect and respect property rights will take Africa to another level in terms of growth.
Hundreds of participants, including eminent academics, political leaders, representatives of international organisations, chief executives, civil society organisations and the media attended the meeting. (Agencies)
President Paul Kagame while opening the conference on Monday urged African leaders to work towards doing away with counterproductive political influence and concentrate on meeting the development aspirations of their people.
“For Africa to attain economic growth there is need to harness our natural resources and changing demographics –a young, healthy, and skilled population, increase urbanisation as well as availability of modern technology,” he said.
President Kagame pointed out that Rwanda’s economic growth is a result of ownership of programmes, citizen participation, a high degree of accountability, effective cooperation with development partners and the building of strong institutions.
The continental meeting, organised by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), sought to explore the continent’s prospects for sustainable and inclusive growth in the wake of the global economic crisis.
According to Prof Mthuli Ncube, the chief economist and vice president of AfDB, what will drive the growth in Africa, is dealing with the development gaps that already exists. (Agencies)
