Vienna, Austria — The inaugural High-Level Meeting of the OPEC-Africa Energy Dialogue commenced today via videoconference.
The new dialogue series is set to serve as a platform to strengthen cooperation between OPEC and Africa’s energy industry stakeholders through fruitful discussions and help in exchanging knowledge and information.
The high-level meeting will be attended by Dr Omar Farouk Ibrahim, Executive Director of the African Petroleum Producers’ Organization (APPO); Anibor Kragha, Executive Secretary of the African Refiners and Distributors Association (ARDA); and Rashid Abdallah, Executive Director of the African Energy Commission (AFREC), in addition to Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, OPEC Secretary General.
Secretary General Barkindo welcomed the new initiative – the OPEC-Africa Energy Dialogue –, noting that such meetings provide the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the energy sector in Africa and associated issues.
“The newly-established dialogue represents OPEC’s latest initiative on the energy dialogue front and a new addition to the ongoing producer-consumer dialogue programme. OPEC has always prioritised cooperation and dialogue as an integral part of its approach to achieve a sustainable oil market stability for the benefit of producers, consumers, investors and the world economy at large.”
In its first instalment, the high-level meeting will address several issues of great relevance to Africa’s energy industry, including clean and affordable energy, investment, sustainable development, the energy transition, climate change, as well as the future of oil and gas post COVID-19.
The meeting will be followed on the same day by the First Technical Meeting of the OPEC-Africa Energy Dialogue, which will focus on analysing the short-, medium-, and long-term energy and oil outlook, sustainable finance, petroleum and oil products market, and promotion of investment.
Seven African oil producing countries are OPEC Members, namely Algeria, Angola, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Libya and Nigeria. They are also participants in the historic Declaration of Cooperation.
Nigeria will mark its 50-year anniversary as a Member of OPEC in July, having joined the Organization in July 1971.