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The Minister of Energy, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has advised African countries making discoveries of oil and gas not to raise the hope of their citizenry that their fortunes will change overnight.

Rather, they should focus on harnessing the resources by establishing the needed infrastructure.

Dr Prempeh said it was natural that oil discovery and activities in the other extractive sectors came with high expectations; however, it was important that managers of oil resources made the people know that such discoveries would not automatically lead to the transformation of their lives overnight.

The minister gave the advice at the plenary session of the ongoing 14th German-African Energy Forum in Germany, where he shared Ghana’s experience with Senegal, which has recently discovered oil, thereby joining the league of oil-producing nations in Africa.

Event

The 14th German-African Energy Forum, which began in Hamburg, Germany yesterday, will end on June 10, 2021. 

The event, which is taking place both in person and through a virtual platform, is on the theme: “Regaining momentum: Africa’s energy leading to a smart, green and inclusive economic transformation”.

It is focusing on innovative solutions for a carbon-neutral economic transformation of the African continent, renewable energies such as hydropower, power-to-x, green energy solutions for local value addition and the scaling up of off-grid energy solutions.

Managing expectations

Sharing Ghana’s experience, a country which discovered oil over a decade ago, Dr Prempeh said as a new member of oil-producing nations, the important thing to do was for Senegal to manage the expectations of the people.

He said striking oil and gas increased the expectations of the people of seeing a rapid transformation in their lives, given the value placed on the natural resource.

“Once there is talk of oil being found in one’s territory, there will be expectations and you have to start moderating to get the people to understand what is at stake,” the minister added.

“The industry requires skills and, therefore, as the country prepares for the development and production processes, skills acquisition should not be ignored, as that will guarantee local content and local participation,” he added.

He said one other important area of the industry was gas production, explaining that gas was more important than crude oil, since “it (gas) could lead to the speedy industrialisation of the nation”.

“As Senegal prepares to produce oil, it must have a facility in place to monetise the gas due to the enormous benefits that come with it,” he said.

Oil was discovered in Senegal in the early 1960s; however, large reserves for commercial exploitation were only found in recent years.

Now, offshore oil and gas fields are being managed by companies such as BP and Kosmos Energy.