The oil firms reaffirmed their belief in the development of the continent’s endowed resources to the benefit of its economy.
The chief executives of the top oil companies gave the assurances in their separate addresses at the 8th Sub-Saharan International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, SAIPEC 2024 on Tuesday in Lagos.
Managing Director and Chief Executive, TotalEnergies Upstream Companies in Nigeria, Mathieu Bouyer said the oil giant will remain a key player in the continent for a long time to come as he enumerated the company’s strategies to develop the available resources in the African continent, Nigeria inclusive.
“All our businesses are deployed to Africa as a continent; we are in Upstream, Downstream, Midstream, Solar Energy, and renewable energies in some of the countries.
“Historically, the presence of the company was more upstream in the Gulf of Guinea, Nigeria, of course, Angola, and Congo.
“However, we now see more and more new projects developed in the East African side, these include places such as Mozambique and South Africa as well, and we keep exploring the resources with large discovery in Namibia,” he said.
Furthermore, he stated that TotalEnergies strategy was to remain integrated with the optimism that having a large and strong network of service stations and giving access to people and resources that have been mentioned before is important to get connected to the people.
“There is volatility in the oil and gas business, this has never stopped TotalEnergies deploying, and developing resources and technology to enhance optimal utilization of the resources for the benefit of the countries, the people, and the company itself.
“We are active in the field of renewable in South Africa and building some hydro in some countries; this is a new business for TotalEnergies that it has launched in some African countries,” Bouyer, the News Agency of Nigeria quoted Bouyer as saying.
Speaking in the same vein, Michelle Pflueger, Director at Chevron Nigeria Ltd., said Africa is a continent with vast huge resources both in terms of human and mineral reserves, which has enabled Chevron to have potential for future growth and innovation.
Pflueger said that Chevron, as an international oil company, was poised to go into mutual partnership with African countries to develop those resources for the benefit of all.
“If you look at Chevron’s portfolio, we are one of the top producers in Nigeria and Angola, we have some investments which include the West African Gas Pipeline, through which Nigeria’s gas goes to Ghana, Togo, and Benin.
“We also have investments in Cameroun Equatorial Guinea and Egypt.
“We believe that energy is a fundamental building block of the economies and this is important to the economic life of a country”, she said.
She further added: “As we continue to develop our partnership within Africa, we can support the people and the governments to improve their GDPs.
“If you look through our investments in the region, I think one of the notable things about Chevron is that it has continued to invest in the continent.
“We are continuing with our large investment in Africa, we are continuing large investment here in Nigeria; we have recently financed a very large drilling programme.
“In the last few years, we have introduced renewable energy into our portfolio, we had our first LNG cargo out of Equatorial Guinea, and the West Africa Gas Pipeline has continued to deliver large volumes of gas to a vast region in the African continent.
“I am very proud of Chevron and the investment it has made in Nigeria and Africa.”
In her contributions at the panel, Managing Director, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO) Ltd, Elohor Aiboni also pledged that Shell businesses across Africa, will continue to explore new territories.
“You may have heard that we are also in Namibia, exploring; we have other countries where we are working. We have got downstream businesses in some countries across Africa.
“If we bring you back home to Nigeria, Shell in Nigeria, is all about growing our gas and deepwater businesses.
“These are our focus in the near term, short term, medium term, and long term,” she said.
However, she said for the company to be able to achieve these, it had to explore technologies to stay competitive and empower the local contractors to help cut costs.
“We have got to look around the supply chain from end-to-end, to see how it helps to drive the business, most especially in the world we live-in today, it is a challenging world.
“If you look at the supply chain in the last couple of years, it has been from Covid to the war in Ukraine, and several other things happening in the world today.
“It has continued to be a challenge doing business, but, we will continue to look for innovative ways that could help to reduce cost, and also drive efficiency in our business, so it is highly competitive and we stay very relevant in the oil and gas business today to help us survive and still stand tall inspite all the challenges,” she added.