As many African countries progress with monetising oil and gas resources, cross border infrastructure is expected to play a catalysing role in strengthening regional connectivity while advancing energy development and economic growth.

A panel discussion held during the African Energy Chamber’s (AEC) African Energy Week (AEW) 2023 in Cape Town, South Africa, from October 18, explored the evolving energy map in Africa and how pipeline projects and cross border infrastructure will shape the continent’s economic landscape.

Kicking off the panel discussion, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, Uganda, Irene Batebe, said regional integration will play a critical role in advancing pipeline projects.

“The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) will be a perfect example of integration. Working together with the government of the Republic of Tanzania, we had to ensure we put in place a robust legal and regulatory framework, because that way you give certainty to the development of the project, not just to the developers but also the financials, because the project must be bankable. We worked closely with the government of the Republic of Tanzania to put in place and it’s a governmental framework, but also domesticated locally in formal post government agreements to provide for certain aspects, there has to be a regional position.”

For emerging producers, cross-border pipeline infrastructure is integral.

“In terms of strategy one of the key areas that we focused on in designing the framework for the development of the pipeline was to ensure that we provide for third party access and that is very critical because our neighbours like the DRC and South Sudan,” Batebe explained.

The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) has seen an increase in oil and gas potential, with new discoveries in Namibia and first liquefied natural gas exports in Mozambique.

“The is an opportunity for the west in terms of integration of SADC and presents the opportunity for gas and power. In fact, Namibia made the first Kudu Gas discovery in 1994 and in South Africa a discovery was made in the early 2000s. Those gas resources have remained unexploited due to the lack of a market for gas resources and also there have been a lack of infrastructure to harness these resources,” observed Bongani Sayidini, the COO of Petroleum Agency of South Africa.

Regarding environmental and human concerns of the EACOP, Batebe said, “There have been claims that we have evicted projected affected persons without consent but this is false. The government nor the project developers force the project affected persons. We pay attention to the vulnerable groups and the elderly during the settlement process. We do have a government valuer that comes to assess what those people who have settled deserve.”

AEW 2023 takes place this week in Cape Town with the mandate to make energy poverty a things of the past by 2030.

• A Tell report