Sixty-five years of oil history has been good for Angola despite economic challenges
Angolan lawmakers last week approved the revision of current legislation, allowing for oil and gas pre-exploration studies to be carried out in some areas previously designated as natural reserves. The government, however, stressed that this law was by no means a relaxation of the stringent environmental provisions required for oil...
Lessons from Mexico: How Africa can push for better oil, gas project execution
Mexico’s constitutional reform that injected impetus in the oil and gas industry was swift and it benefited from the support of the major political parties in the country following the Pacto por Mexico (Pact for Mexico) agreed right after the election and signed the day after by President Peña Nieto...
Oil: Mexicans donated money, including livestock, to pay off foreign debt
Once one of the world’s biggest producers, Mexico has had a sweet and sour relationship with the upstream industry. In my experience working in the Mexican oil and gas industry, I witnessed the transition of a nationalised industry, once described by Juan Pardinas, former director of the Mexican Institute on...
Decarbonisation: Why Africa is investing more and faster in gas, renewable energy
The power sector accounts for up to 41 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions today, with Africa contributing about 2-3 per cent. In parallel, there are still over 580 million people on the continent who do not have access to reliable energy and the demand for electricity is expected...
Why Mozambique is well-placed to take advantage of minerals market boom
In addition to sizable gas reserves found offshore, Mozambique is home to commercially significant deposits of coal, gold, graphite, ilmenite, iron ore, titanium, copper, tantalum and bauxite, to name a few. While Covid-19 may have disrupted mining operations in terms of site closures and reduced export earnings, demand for precious...
Angola’s oil and gas industry can thrive alongside its rich biodiversity
Angola was last month said to be drafting legislation to permit prospection of oil, gas and mining activities in 14 national conservation areas. These are the Luengue-Luiana National Park, which represents part of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area that stretches from Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia to Zimbabwe. The announcement led...
It’s time Trump learnt what happens when the law stops being polite and gets real
This week, we start the second impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump. For those of you who have been sent here by a family member trying to save you from Newsmax, here’s a quick recap of how we got here: After losing his bid for re-election, Trump spent two-and-a-half months...
Spike in the number of scientists studying Covid awes researchers
For many researchers, the choice to spend decades working in a lab or in the field comes from a desire to help – to expand understanding of how life works or to improve human health. So, when Covid-19 emerged, many scientists dropped what they were doing and switched their focus...
In digital age, there is real need to protect the rights of Black and brown people
As an early member of the Black Lives Matter Global Network in the Bay Area, I was among the leaders responsible for managing several BLM Facebook pages and I witnessed the inequity first hand. I spent hours each day from 2014 until 2017 removing violent racial and gendered harassment, explicitly...
Banning White supremacism is not censorship, it is accountability
Early last month, in the wake of the fatal incursion of an angry, mostly white and male mob into the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, Facebook and Twitter blocked Donald Trump’s accounts. YouTube followed with a temporary ban, which it has continued to extend in the weeks since. According to...
