Business
International oil companies look to East Africa for growth
As companies develop new oil and gas fields in East Africa – from Mozambique in the south up to Tanzania, Kenya and Somalia – governments will be working hard to get the most they can out of their resources. In fact, analysts suggest that the licensing environment is becoming more difficult in Africa, due to governments establishing ever more onerous requirements for international companies and discouraging independent operators.
Top 10 Oil Companies- The Africa Report
However, with the United States getting closer to energy independence, the global energy landscape appears to also be changing and new producers will be looking East to get the most out of their reserves. In The Africa Business Report’s Top 500 Ranking (Refer to Top 10 chart above), there are 65 oil and gas companies with a total turnover based on year-end 2012 results of $171bn which represents 23.2% of the total turnover, making it the largest sector by quite a margin.
Despite these high numbers, oil and gas revenue has stagnated, only increasing 1.2% on the previous year. There has been stability in the oil price, which averaged $110 per barrel during the past three years, but some analysts are predicting a gradual downward movement in prices for 2014.
Regardless, 2013 was a great year for Algeria’s Sonatrach (#1), Africa’s largest company, who announced, in late October, that it made its largest discovery in 20 years. The field is situated in Tamguid Messaoud, 112km from the Hassi Messaoud field, the largest in Algeria, holding an estimated 1.3bn barrels. But recovering them will apparently require unconventional methods that could prove costly.
On November 2013 at Cape Town’s Africa Oil Week, Lúmen Sebastião, from Angolan oil giant Sonangol’s (#2) exploration division, indicated to The Africa Report that the state-owned company was re-evaluating its ultra-deep regions and the Kwanza onshore and offshore fields using new 3-D technology. Furthermore, he also stated that this had already revealed “lots of new prospects”.
