For modern-day oil and gas ‘apartheid’. From Moneyweb.
It’s been threatened for years, but it looks like this time it’s happening: the African Energy Chamber says it plans a lawsuit against western financiers for discriminating against African oil and gas projects at a time when the continent, enriched by recent massive discoveries, is beginning to lift itself out of poverty.
Executive chair of the African Energy Chamber NJ Ayuk told Intellinews the planned lawsuit will happen within the next year and will be backed by some of the largest law firms in the world, as well as several African states.
Ayuk says western financiers are engaged in oil and gas apartheid against Africa, which is expected to follow carbon-reduction standards imposed on countries like Sweden and Denmark while 600 million people in Africa do not have access to electricity, and 900 million lack access to clean cooking fuels.
“This discrimination must end, and Africa has to stand up for itself and its politicians must stop bowing to their western masters,” he adds.
“The West enjoyed more than 100 years of colonial rule and resource exploitation in Africa, now it expects the continent to buckle to its energy transition demands. The throttling of finance for oil and gas in Africa is a clear case of hypocrisy and is impeding the development of the continent at the time it needs it most.”
No white knight
Ayuk told Energy Newsnow in a separate interview: “There’s no white knight from outside coming to save us. We will have to rally African capital and create our own private equity funds.
“We cannot look at Europe and the hypocrisy coming from there. Don’t do what they tell you to do. Do what they do. What they do is produce oil and gas to solve their problems.
“We must fall back on those three words of freedom: Drill, baby, drill. We don’t need to apologise to anybody for that,” he said.
“African politicians need to come on board. They need to cut taxes, provide the right kind of incentives, and approve deals, they need to make it faster for people to come in. Drill, baby, drill is the way to go, and you’re going to be hearing a lot about that,” Ayuk added.
Funding
While bigger banks have promised to cut fossil fuel funding, smaller and medium-sized lenders appear to be stepping into the breach, according to research by Rainforest Action Network, BankTrack and other non-profits.
Despite a commitment made by 196 countries in 2016 under the Paris Agreement to reduce global heating caused by carbon emissions, European, Japanese and US banks appear to have a formidable appetite for fossil fuel lending.
Some of the research coming out of climate NGOs has been criticised for failing to distinguish between funding for new fossil fuel projects and those transitioning to more sustainable technologies.
These commitments were toned down after the Covid energy crisis and the Russia-Ukraine war, when Europe cut off Russian gas supplies.
Energy security, rather than energy transition, reasserted its supremacy, ignoring the homage politicians paid to planetary greening.
Investigate Europe reports that the EU has no fewer than 34 liquefied natural gas (LNG) developments and seven gas pipeline projects in the brew.
“We want to end these very discriminatory lending practices towards Africa,” Ayuk told Intellinews.com.
“This is financial apartheid in the name of ESG and the name of climate change We’re going to look at it as a human rights matter. We believe in the system of justice, that it will give us a fair hearing,” he added.
Read: New environment minister ‘must focus on people, not profits from fossil fuels’
“There’s a whole new generation of Africans that are saying, we want to have the same standards of living that Europeans have. It’s important we create the opportunities and jobs right here at home, rather than Africans having to cross the Mediterranean to look for jobs in Europe,” said Ayuk.
Oil majors such as Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell have created jobs and given hope to the people of Africa. The revenues created by these companies helped support Africa. Without this revenue, there would be more civil wars and coup d’etats, claimed Ayuk.
‘Too politicised’
He also criticised the International Energy Agency for becoming too politicised and endorsing policies that are unrealistic.
Originally set in following the 1973/4 oil crisis to assist countries to overcome oil supply disruptions, it has morphed into an institute committed to helping the world reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
In July, TotalEnergies announced it would withdraw from further development of two gas fields off the south coast of SA, citing an inability to find a market for the gas.
The company continues to pursue a $20 billion LNG project off the coast of Mozambique, while Italian oil and gas company Eni shipped its first LNG in 2022 from the Rovuma Basin in Mozambique.
Listen/read: TotalEnergies gas exit is ‘enormous’ setback for SA energy sector
In 2022, BP and Kosmos Energy started production from a floating LNG plant between Mauritania and Senegal, while Nigeria is expanding its LNG facility at Bonny Island.
While several other projects are yet to be approved, Intellinews reports that LNG production among established players in Africa has either stagnated or fallen in recent years, indicating a lack of new projects to feed terminals with gas.