By Alhagie Babou Jallow
The Gambia’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy and National Petroleum Corporation have partnered with Energy Capital & Power to spotlight the country’s latest offshore license round in the upcoming MSGBC Oil and Gas Conference to be held in September 2022 in the Senegalese capital of Dakar.
This was revealed in a press release by APO Group, a leading Pan African communication consultancy, on behalf of Energy Capital & Power in Dakar.
Organisers described the ‘Gambian Spotlight Session’ as a key addition to the agenda for this September’s MSGBC Oil, Gas & Power Conference.
Confirming this development, Lamin Camara , the Permanent Secretary and Director of Energy at the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, told Gambia Daily that a delegations from APO Group was in the country recently to share the idea, and that they have accepted to participate and a play a role. This, he said is to let other partners know that The Gambia is going to showcase what it has, relating to its oil block.
Offering crucial insight into the country’s second bid licensing round, the session aims to promote The Gambia’s potential as a frontier upstream destination, triggering new foreign investment flows and kick-starting the development of a local oil and gas market.
Confirmed speakers include: Jerreh Barrow, Director-General of The Gambia’s Petroleum Commission; Yaya Barrow, Managing Director of the Gambia National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC); Cany Jobe, Director of Exploration and Production at the GNPC; Lamin Camara and Kemo Ceesay, Permanent Secretary and Director of Energy at the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, respectively; and Nani Juwara, Managing Director at the National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC). The speakers are expected to offer unparalleled strategic insights into The Gambia’s upstream sector across the board.
“While it is early days yet for Gambian exploration, regional mega finds including Mauritania’s 13 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas in BirAllah, 15 tcf in the transnational Mauritania-Senegal Greater TortueAhmeyim development, and 20 tcf in Senegal’s Yakaar-Teranga bode well for The Gambia, especially on the back of Australia-listed, FAR’s discovery of a potential 1.5 billion barrels of oil in blocks A2 and A5, confirmed this year. Already, with six blocks active, The Gambia is anticipating a 5.1% GDP growth this year, and with FAR’s oil find estimates, the five offshore blocks and two onshore blocks to be released in The Gambia’s second licensing round are looking increasingly attractive as prospects.
Presently active in the basin are a competitive slate of global oil majors including Norway’s PetroNor, Britain’s BP, Ireland’s Tullow Oil, Malaysia’s Petronas, America’s Kosmos Energy, Australia’s FAR and Woodside. Now, with seven fresh blocks soon to be up for bidding and FAR announcing a farm-down of its 1.5-billion-barrel potential oil discovery in the Panthera, Jatto and Malo prospects – three times the size of Senegal’s $4.8 billion Sangomar mega development – there is a unique opportunity for newer players to enter the nation’s resource-rich fields.
During the roundtable spotlight session, speakers will provide insights regarding the second licensing round while making a strong case for foreign direct investment (FDI) in The Gambia. Specifically, with FDI on the rise, Gambia’s citizens are set to benefit – the country has ensured an integrated system of corporate local content accountability via the Gambia’s Petroleum Exploration, Development and Production Licenses, refreshed with a model agreement released this year. The model offers mandatory instructions that multinationals operating in-country must submit an annual local content plan, make fiscal contributions to internal and government local content funds of at least 1% of operating expenses each, and make use of local goods and services where equivalent to within 10% of international competitors’ price-points, targeting a 10% spend of production costs locally. Further, under The Gambian Investment and Export Promotion Agency Act revised in 2015, international firms’ workforces may have foreign workers comprising just 20% of the total irrespective of position, allowing local talent to thrive.
Last year, ECP’s events saw $2.5 billion in deals signed. This year, with the GNPC and Ministry of Petroleum and Energy as partners for ECP’s premier West African congress – featuring in-panel discussions across the two-day conference together with leading The Gambia’s dedicated Roundtable Spotlight session - the country’s own industry prospects have never been brighter”.
About the MSGBC Oil, Gas & Power 2022 conference:
Under the patronage of H.E. Macky Sall, President of the Republic of Senegal, MSGBC Oil, Gas & Power will once again take place in Dakar, Senegal, with the event serving as a catalyst for investment and multi-sector development in 2022.