Eighth Edition of North Africa Oil and Gas Summit Concludes

Dubai – UAE: 13 November 2013: The eighth edition of the North Africa Oil and Gas Summit concluded attracting more than 350 senior level representatives from 27 countries across the North Africa region and the international oil and gas sector.

Organised by The Energy Exchange and supported by the Ministry of Industry, Tunisia; ETAP – Tunisia's National Oil Company; National Oil Company (NOC) Libya, ONHYM and Sonatrach; the eighth annual North Africa Oil and Gas Summit, co-located with the North Africa Unconventionals Seminar and the North Africa Downstream Summit, tackled various critical issues from the E&P challenges of mature fields, offshore and unconventional gas, to the non-technical challenges including resourcing strategies, environmental, social and security risk.

Day one of the Summit commenced with a keynote address delivered by Wim Thomas, Chief Energy Advisor of SHELL Group reviewing the macro-economic opportunities within the oil and gas industry, followed by a discussion on the energy strategy of Tunisia and Libya with Mohamed Akrout, President & CEO of ETAP and Mustafa Sanalla, Member of the Board of NOC Libya which was chaired by Michael Rees, President of BG Tunisia.

In addition, two panel discussions were also conducted.  The first panel discussion compared and contrasted the common objectives of each state to gain a better understanding of their market needs. The second panel discussion focused on the security risks faced within the region with regards to the personnel and energy infrastructure assets that need protecting.

The conference also saw discussions related to specific projects such as the Nawara-Gabes pipeline and how its construction can “stimulate” petroleum exploration in southern Tunisia.

Christopher Cox, OMV Director of Projects said: “The Nawara natural gas field in southern Tunisia would produce 2.4 million cubic meters/day starting 1H 2016.”

Day two of the Summit saw speakers addressing issues relating to successful cooperation between IOCs and NOCs, optimal conditions for business partnerships including cutting edge technology and experience, the European Investment Bank answers how to tackle the energy challenge in the Mediterranean countries, and global oil and gas market trends.

The second half of day two which was completely dedicated to Country Roundtables saw NOCs and government representatives from Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco  speak about the specific challenges faced by the country in a free and open forum.

During the Algeria roundtable, the Exploration and Planification Director from the Algerian state-oil company, Sonatrach, highlighted: “There are permits to explore and prospects in approximately 90 blocks across the country; those permits could be shared with foreign partners to speed up projects and to increase production. Additionally, Algeria could include offshore and onshore acreage in the next auction of oil exploration rights as well as onshore acreage with shale gas potential.”

Day three commenced with a session highlighting the findings from the North Africa Unconventional Seminar. Findings from the seminar concluded that unconventional oil and gas is a hot topic in North Africa but for the exploitation of shale resources to become a reality, the region needs legislation that caters for the requirements of unconventional production, political stability, and better remuneration.

Day three also allowed discussions about the Offshore HSSE success factors; review of the latest offshore farm-in opportunities in Mauritania; deep-water opportunities in the Moroccan Atlantic margin; and specific discussions relating to various mature fields the Satir field, the Intisar field and the Ennaga field.Of specific importance was the speech made by the Moroccan state-oil company ONHYM at the first edition of North Africa Unconventionals seminar, which highlighted that Morocco is assessing the environmental impact of unconventional reserves development whilst working on defining the fiscal regime to govern shale development.

ONHYM representatives stated: “We are in the beginning phase of shale gas exploration, we started the first geological assessment, the first screening is encouraging, and the next step in a few years is to start testing pilot wells.”

Overall, whilst the discussions inside the conference room generated value for the North Africa states and their partners; the networking opportunities after each session allowed attendees to meet new contacts, reinforce already established relations and at times even reunite with old connections.

Elodie Huiban, Vice President Africa, The Energy Exchange said: “We would like to once again thank the extensive support the Ministry of Industry Tunisia and ETAP have provided us in welcoming the summit in Tunisia this year. We are thankful of all the steering committee members, speakers and sponsors for their help in building the most topical and interesting agenda to shape the future of the oil and gas industry in the region. Their hard work meant our programme was cutting edge, and presentations dynamic and informative, analysing and assessing the main challenges and opportunities within the region.

“The future of the North Africa Oil and Gas industry lies in successful business partnerships between IOCs and NOCs and on the capitalisation of a wide range of opportunities from offshore to mature fields' enhancement and unconventional resources development. The Energy Exchange hopes to further the discussions on those key themes in its next edition.”

The 2014 edition of the North Africa Oil and Gas Summit, will be held in Madrid from 4 - 6 November 2014.