African Countries Move To Upturn Global Oil Price

PriceWaterCoopers (PWC), a
global financial consultant, on Wednesday said that activities in the African oil and gas industry slowed down in the wake of declining oil prices in late 2014.
PwC said in statement issued on Wednesday said their conclusion was the fruit of the 2014 Survey on the activities of oil and gas industry in the major and emerging African economies.
“While the oil price has caused activity to drop, it has also served as a wake-up call to many African governments, which are working hard to pass favourable oil and legislation.
“The Legislation is aimed at attracting investment into the sector,’’ it said.
According to it, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania were currently overhauling oil and gas legislation with a view to making it more investor-friendly.
The statement said that the oil price reduction had resulted in significant reduction in headcount and other cost cutting measures in the industry.
It said that major operators in the industry have been forced to cut down on capital budgets, leading to a decrease in frontier exploration.
“While response to such a drastic decline is necessary, we have seen that most successful organisations are taking time to re-set, re-strategise and plan for the upturn in prices, which will inevitably come.
“ Africa should be no exception as many of the frontier exploration players lie on the continent,’’ it said.
It noted that 2014 ended with Africa having a proven natural gas reserves of just under 500 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) .
It also said that 90 per cent of the continent’s annual natural gas productions were coming from Nigeria, Libya, Algeria and Egypt.
The statement said that issues of uncertain regulatory framework, corruption and poor physical infrastructure were the major challenges of operators in 2014.
It identified the price of oil and gas, skill retention, and asset management and optimisation as the major focus of stakeholders in the industry for the next three years.