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AOP 2017

Recap

Africa Oil & Power 2017, held in Cape Town on June 5-7, 2017, delved into the most pressing issues affecting African energy markets with a strong lineup of 70 speakers and 400 delegates.

Speakers at AOP 2017 examined the sparks that are igniting a recovery in Africa’s energy sector and the strategies that oil and gas companies and governments are employing to succeed at a sustained low price point. Learn more about our theme for 2017, Catalysts for Change.

Panelists, made up of government officials, executives and industry experts, analyzed the outlook for frontier exploration; the changing environment of finance and private equity for energy projects; how public and private entities work together to press forward with energy infrastructure; and the importance of gas in building Africa’s power capacity.

This year also featured the official closing of the EG Ronda 2016, with Equatorial Guinea’s Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons H.E. Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima announcing the results of the licensing round and Dr. Oliver Quinn, Director of Africa and Global New Ventures for Ophir Energy, updating delegates on the progress of the game-changing Fortuna FLNG project.

Minister of Petroleum H.E. Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth from South Sudan presented the case for investment in Africa’s youngest country; H.E. Fafa Sanyang, Minister of Petroleum and Energy of the Gambia talked about the importance of African cooperation and the new discoveries offshore Senegal; Cameroon’s Minister of Mines, Industry and Technological Development H.E. Ernest Gbwaboubou spoke on the importance creating strong and attractive regulations. Hon. Baleka Mbete, Speaker of the National Assembly of South Africa, opened the final day of the conference, urging African nations to come together on issues like infrastructure and local content.

Africa Oil & Power 2017 Gallery

Click to see more AOP 2017 photos for Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3.

Speakers

Keynote Speakers

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H.E. Gabriel M. Obiang Lima Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons, Equatorial Guinea

H.E. Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima is the Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons of Equatorial Guinea. Presiding over one of the largest oil and gas markets in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Minister is widely regarded for his incisive leadership and guiding Equatorial Guinea’s energy industry through a resurgence in exploration and production activity. Working in the oil and gas industry since 1997, his past positions include Minister Delegate, Vice Minister, Secretary of State for Mines and Hydrocarbons, Government Rep. in the Equity of the State in PSCs, and Presidential Adviser on Hydrocarbons. He has served as a member of the board of three public energy companies: SONAGAS, SEGESA and GEPetrol.

H.E. Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth Minister of Petroleum, South Sudan

Honorable Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth has been the Minister of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan since August 2016. He was previously South Sudan’s Ambassador to the United States and the United Nations. Minister Gatkuoth received a bachelor’s degree in criminology and criminal justice from the University of Maryland, in College Park, United States.

Baleka Mbete Speaker of the National Assembly, South Africa

H.E. Fafa Sanyang Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Gambia

Highlight Panelists

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NJ Ayuk CEO, Centurion Law Group

CEO and Managing Partner of Centurion Law Group, a pan-African corporate law conglomerate. From its headquarters in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, and from affiliate and partner offices throughout Africa, Centurion assists clients that are starting or growing a business on the continent. Mr. Ayuk has been advising major companies on investment strategies, the establishment of joint ventures and cooperation structures, privatization, licensing and related tax, OHADA, Equatorial Guinea law, oil and gas, local content, litigation, negotiations, governance and other matters. He also frequently advises international oil companies, governments, oil service companies, financial institutions, development banks and construction firms across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Akin Odumakinde Managing Director, DeltaTek

Akinwumi Odumakinde is the Managing Director and founder of Deltatek Engineering, a leading provider of engineering, procurement, construction management (EPCM), operations & maintenance and specialized manpower support services in Sub-Saharan Africa. He has more than 20 years of experience in the oil and gas Industry, five of which were acquired in the exploration and production sector in the US.

Mr. Odumakinde began his career with Chevron Refinery, Richmond, CA, USA where he was engaged as Summer Chemical Engineer between July and September 1987 before proceeding to Dow Chemical, Pittsburgh, CA, USA as Research/Process Engineer between July and December 1988 and Arco Oil & Gas, Bakersfield, CA, USA as Operation/Analytical Engineer between June 1990 and May 1994.

Paul Eardley-Taylor Head of Oil & Gas, Southern Africa, Standard Bank

Paul Eardley-Taylor is responsible for Standard Bank’s Oil & Gas coverage activities for Southern Africa. He has more than 15 years of energy investment banking experience spanning the oil, gas, power and utilities and renewables and carbon sub-sectors. Mr. Eardley-Taylor has extensive experience of the South African energy environment, as adviser and financier.

His product experience encompasses project financing, development and advisory; privatisation; corporate banking; trade finance; leveraged finance; M&A; strategic advice; carbon; as well as associated derivative products. Prior to joining Standard Bank in 2009, he worked for HSBC and gained extensive experience of transactions across EMEA and select global markets in Asia/Australasia. He holds degrees from Birmingham University and London University and an MBA from Henley Management College.

Sebastian Wagner Executive Director, DMWA Resources

Sebastian Wagner is in charge of Business Development and Corporate Affairs at DMWA Resources. In the past, he has worked with multinational commodity trading companies in oil trading, responsible for managing the oil trading operations across the barrel of African crude and refined products, as well as pursuing pre-financing opportunities in West and Central Africa. His regional focus has been on Congo Brazzaville, Côte d’Ivoire, Chad and Nigeria. Prior to this, Sebastian was an Investment Manager at a leading merchant banking group in sub-Saharan Africa with assets in Southern Africa, Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea, where he helped streamlining the banking portfolio through the restructuring and exit of non-core investments.

Niall Kramer CEO, South African Oil & Gas Alliance

Niall Kramer became the CEO of the South Africa Oil & Gas Alliance in March 2016. He is an experienced corporate marketing leader with strong global, Asian, African and South Africa experience in oil & gas, marketing and corporate areas. He was educated at UCT and he joined Caltex in SA in 1990 where he moved from across many functions, in both Corporate and Marketing, and was posted to Singapore, Thailand and New Zealand. 20 years later in 2010, after leading the marketing integration for what became Chevron (with the merger of Caltex, Texaco and Chevron) for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, he became Director Business Development for both Strika Entertainment and Market Pulse Int. In 2013 he joined Shell Upstream BV to manage stakeholder relationships on the key Karoo Shale gas project.

Lloyd Manokore Partner, Manokore Attorneys

Lloyd Manokore is a Partner and Founder of Manokore Attorneys, a specialised pan-African business law firm based in Zimbabwe which relies on additional active legal and transactional support from top tier international firms. Lloyd has a comprehensive and practical legal understanding of general business and mergers and acquisitions. He has since added to this knowledge set by advising on the minerals and extractives sector both downstream, involving fuel logistics and retail, as well as in renewable energies and coal mining. On the back of a recent announcement by the government of Zimbabwe on its intention to pursue upstream oil and gas prospects, Lloyd has been retained to work with a lead consultant in work which entails lobbying on policy formulation and the regulatory framework to be implemented. Lloyd consults regularly with diplomats and government officials on commercial matters, and has obtained high-value corporate transactions with clients originating out of Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States, India and China.

Nyonga Fofang Managing Director, Bambili Group

Nyonga Fofang’s career spans 20 years in international capital markets, during which he has been involved in all aspects of private equity investing including mergers and acquisitions, leveraged finance and general management.

Prior to his managing directorship of Bambili Group, Nyonga was an Executive Director of the Dema Group, a mining-focused private investment company in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was also an Executive Director of Metallon Corporation, a private investment company in Johannesburg with interests in mining and financial services, and a strategist for E. Oppenheimer and Son, a one time major shareholder of the DeBeers Mining Group. Nyonga worked as a close-ended fund equity analyst at PaineWebber Inc., a Wall Street financial services firm, and started his career at Dillon Read & Co., a New York City-based private investment group, as a risk arbitrager. He graduated from Harvard University.

Frank Ene President & COO, RoyalGate Energy

Frank Ene is the President and COO of RoyalGate Energy, an Africa oil and gas independent dedicated to developing untapped prospects. RoyalGate holds offshore exploration acreage in Equatorial Guinea and Ghana.

Eric Williams President, Royal Triangle Energy

Eric Williams is the President and Principal Consultant of Royal Triangle Energy Solutions, a consultancy firm that offers strategies for nations and companies seeking to monetize their natural resources. A geoscientist and former Minister for Energy in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (2002–2005), he has more than 30 years experience in the petroleum and minerals exploration industries.

During his tenure as Energy Minister of Trinidad & Tobago, Mr. Williams successfully led the restart of the negotiations of the Treaty Agreement for the exploration of cross-border maritime petroleum reserves with Venezuela. He also championed a Local Content Committee to develop the country’s first Local Content Policy. This policy guided strategies to encourage the adoption of local content initiatives by international oil companies operating in Trinidad & Tobago. He also oversaw the power generation activities in the country.

From 2009–2011, Williams served as Country Manager at a publicly listed (FTSE) independent exploration and production oil company, African Energy Resources Company Limited (AFREN) in Nigeria.

Jude Kearney Chair, Africa Practice, GreenbergTraurig

Jude Kearney is the Chair of the Firm’s Africa Practice. He devotes the majority of his professional time to providing legal services and corporate legal advice across the African continent. He specializes in complex international transactions, particularly in the sub-disciplines of project finance, mergers and acquisitions and privatization of state owned commercial enterprises. His work has included a substantial number of projects in the energy, environmental, telecommunications, transportation and infrastructure sectors. He is a committed internationalist in his practice and, in addition to his work in Africa, has been involved in matters in China and other Asian countries and in the Gulf States, Eastern Europe and Latin America. Jude works with major U.S. and foreign clients, providing counsel on the structure and terms of his clients’ contractual relationships as they relate to commercial developments and commercial projects. Additionally, during his time as a Senior Trade Official at the US Department of Commerce, he participated in various trade and bilateral negotiations including in regards to GATT, NAFTA, and market access negotiations with Japan and China.

Dr. Oliver Quinn Director, Africa and Global New Ventures, Ophir Energy

Dr. Oliver Quinn joined Ophir in August 2013. He has 15 years’ upstream Oil and Gas experience. He began his career as a geologist with Shell before moving to Fairfield Energy and more recently Hess Corporation where he held a variety of business development, technical and leadership roles. Oliver has been involved in E&P projects and business development across Africa, Asia, Europe, Russia and the Americas. Oliver has a BSc in Geology, a PhD in Petroleum Geoscience and is an alumni of London Business School.

Kishan Pillay Director: Up- and Midstream Oil & Gas, dti, South Africa

Mr. Kishan Pillay is currently the Director of Oil & Gas: Industrial Development Division at the Department of Trade and Industry of South Africa. He has a Masters of Commerce Degree in Economics, from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He serves on the Boards of the South African Oil & Gas Alliance (SAOGA) - which is a public private partnership that aims to promote the interests of firms operating within the Oil & Gas sector in South Africa-and IGAS-an affiliate of the Central Energy Fund Group of Companies. He chairs the Operation Phakisa Local Content work-stream and the dti led Gas Industrialisation Unit (GIU).

Kwame Jantuah CEO, African Energy Consortium

Kwame Jantuah is the CEO of African Energy Consortium, an indigenous Ghanaian company operating in the oil and gas sector. He is also an Executive Director of Peace Petroleum, a bulk oil distribution company licensed by the National Petroleum Authority to import and distribute refined petroleum products and LPG to oil marketing companies. In addition, Mr. Jantuah is a Commissioner at the National Development Planning Commission, which has the responsibility for drafting Ghana's 40-year national development plan. Mr. Jantuah is a Technical Advisor to the Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas and also a Senior Technical Advisor to the program on building capacity in the governing institutions of the upstream oil and gas industry in Ghana.

Mr. Jantuah's rich knowledge of the oil and gas industry in Africa has led him to undertake a number of consultancy services on the continent, including the drafting of the Implementation Strategy for Ghana's Local Content Policy as the Ghanaian local consultancy partnering with The Association of Caribbean Energy Specialists (ACES International). He also played a key role in contributing to the content of Ghana's Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA) between 2010 and 2011 and also reviewed Ghana's Volta River Authority Local Content Policy.

Dr. Mabouba Diagne Group Head of Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB), BancABC

Dr. Mabouba Diagne is the Group Head of Corporate and Investment Banking for BancABC and is currently responsible for all five countries in which the bank operates. BancABC is 100% owned by Atlas Mara.

Dr. Mabouba is a seasoned international corporate banking executive with a cumulative experience of over 20 years of international banking, having worked with Commerzbank, Dresdner Bank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Standard Bank in London and Frankfurt, with particular focus on investments, valuations, and risk. His most recent role before joining BancABC was at Barclays Bank as the Regional Managing Director and Head of Corporate Coverage for Southern Africa. Dr. Mabouba spent over five years with Barclays Bank, running six out of the bank's 12 countries in Africa.

Dr. Mabouba speaks English, German, Italian, French and his native Senegalese language, Wolof.

Shawn Duthie Analyst, Africa Risk Consulting

Shawn Robert Duthie is an analyst at Africa Risk Consulting (ARC). At ARC, Shawn has produced political risk assessments on countries such as Nigeria, Botswana and Gabon and conducted due diligence investigations for private equity and financial clients in Angola and Kenya, among other countries.

Shawn was previously a lecturer in the Political Studies department at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and was editorial assistant for the South African Journal of International Affairs. Shawn holds a Masters in International Relations from UCT as well as a Bachelor of Science in Politics and International Relations from the University of London and an Honors Bachelor of Arts in Criminology and Sociology from the University of Toronto. He has travelled extensively in Africa and Asia and resides in Cape Town, South Africa.

Igor Hulák Partner, Europe, Middle East, and Africa, A.T. Kearney

Igor Hulák is a partner with A.T. Kearney, where he leads the Utilities and Oil & Gas Practices in West Africa. He has extensive industry and consulting experience, predominantly in energy and process industries. Igor is based in A.T. Kearney’s Johannesburg office.

Before joining A.T. Kearney, Igor was CEO of the Czech aircraft company Aero Vodochody. He was also the chief financial officer for Intracom Telecom and a vice president at Sitronics, a microelectronics company. Igor earned his master’s degree from the University of Economics in Prague and his MBA from Sheffield Hallam University in England. He has also studied at London Business School and the Henley Business School at the University of Reading in England.

Ian Cogswell Managing Director, Global Infrastructure & Projects, Natixis

Ian joined the Natixis Project Finance Group in 2006 and is currently Global Head of the Natural Resources & Offshore Infrastructure sector. He has over 22 years banking experience gained at Lloyds Bank, IBJ/Mizuho, and NATIXIS.

Ian has been dedicated to Project Finance for over 18 years and has specialised in the oil and gas sector since 2002. At Natixis, he is responsible for establishing the global strategy for the sector; coordinating the origination and execution of transactions; maintaining relationships with clients; and supervising the execution of transactions on which the bank is mandated.

Ian holds a BA (Hons) in Economics and an MSc in Civil Engineering, both from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. He has qualified as a Member of both the Chartered Institute of Bankers and the Association of Corporate Treasurers.

Herman Neethling General Manager, Shell Integrated Gas Ventures, South Africa

Herman Neethling is the General Manager for Shell’s Integrated Gas business in South Africa, responsible for exploration and gas market development opportunities. He has been with Shell for more than 18 years and has worked in various finance, commercial and deal management roles in the business development arena covering Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and India.

Prior to his current role in South Africa he was based at Shell global headquarters in The Hague as a Business Development Manager for Shell’s Upstream business. He has a strong track record of successful oil and gas acquisition and divestment deals, which include Shell’s recently completed ~US$63 billion acquisition of the BG Group.

Herman is a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Financial Analyst and before joining Shell in 1998, he worked for Deloitte in South Africa and the USA.