Africa: a development hotspot in 2015

Posted on : Monday , 9th February 2015

Content analyst at Infield Systems Limited, Catarina Podevyn, says Africa is expected to hold a 15% share of offshore capital expenditure over 2015, up 10%, led by developments offshore Angola. In West Africa, offshore Ghana and Congo will also see increasing expenditure, she adds.

"Total's giant, the Egina development offshore Nigeria, is anticipated to be the single most capital intensive project offshore West Africa over 2015, acting to drive down Angola's leading, albeit still dominant, share in the region," Podevyn says.

According to an International Energy Agency (IEA) special report published in October 2014, almost 30% of global oil and gas discoveries made over the last five years were in Sub-Saharan Africa, which reflects a growing global appetite for African resources.

Recent gas discoveries in Africa include the large Mamba and Prosperidade field offshore Mozambique. Meanwhile, oil has been found offshore Kenya by Pancontinental Oil and Gas NL. The find is reported to be the first oil discovery off the East African coast.

Senior writer at Platts, Robert Perkins agrees that Africa is set to be a "huge hotspot for exploration offshore, especially deepwater blocks". However, he cautions that although there are a lot of wells planned there, they are extremely costly.

"You could argue it is fairly costly, so [the region] is vulnerable to CAPEX constraints if oil companies begin to reel back on exploration due to a lower oil price," Perkins adds. "There is a lot of difficult geology and it can be a tough environment in terms of government dealings, which complicates things further."

Source : OFFSHORE TECHNOLOGY

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