ADDRESS DELIVERED BY DR. ESTEVAO PEDRO, CHAIRMAN OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD, ON THE OCCASION OF THE 10TH MEETING OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD, MONDAY 13TH DECEMBER 2021, VIA ZOOM.
My dear colleagues on the Executive Board of APPO, the Secretary General and staff of the Secretariat, ladies and gentlemen.
I am pleased to welcome you all to the 10th Meeting of the Executive Board which the Presidency of APPO had planned to hold face-to-face in Algiers last Saturday and Sunday, but had to be turned into a virtual meeting because of the resurgence of COVID-19. I would like to express our appreciation to the government and good people of the Democratic People’s Republic of Algeria for the arrangements they had made to give us what would have been a very memorable meeting in Algiers. I hope that this will be the last time that COVID-19 will prevent us from meeting face-to-face, and that my country, Angola, will be able to host our statutory meetings next year.
Let me use this opportunity to welcome to the Board three new Members, who are going to be confirmed by the Ministerial Council tomorrow. From Benin Republic is Mr. Celestin Gbetognon ENANTO, who replaces Mr. Tchananti Richard SAHGUI, who joined the Secretariat as Head of Capacity Development, Technical Cooperation and Project Management. And from the State of Libya is Mr. Abdulnasser Lamin GNEDI who replaces Mr. Salah Bin ALI. And from Nigeria is Dr. Nasiru SANI-GWARZO, who replaces Mr. Bitrus Bako NABASU. On behalf of the Board, I welcome you all and wish you a very fruitful tenure. I am confident that you will bring your wealth of experience to the Board as we deliberate on important issues about the Organization. Please convey to your predecessors on the Board our gratitude for the contributions they made towards the progress of our Organization, during their time on the Board.
Distinguished colleagues, you will all agree with me that our industry is facing the greatest challenge in its over 100 years’ history. Never, in the past 100 years has the oil and gas industry come under such vicious attack, especially by people who benefitted the most from it. The determination exhibited by the anti-fossil fuel lobby to bring to an end the use of oil and gas as energy source, since the Paris climate agreement and particularly at COP-26 poses a grave danger to the future of the industry. Sadly, Africa is the continent that is least prepared for the transition as currently espoused. Although ours are not the only governments that earn revenues from the production and export of oil and gas, indeed our total production in the continent is less than what some individual countries produce and export, yet we are the continent that will face the greatest danger if the energy transition agenda is aggressively pursued the way it has been framed. For, unlike other producers and exporters of oil and gas, Africa is the most dependent on oil and gas export revenue.
With nearly half of our population living without access to electricity and some 900 million or 75 percent living without access to any form of modern energy, Africa cannot afford to abandon any form of energy. We need all the energies we can get. This is especially true when we take into account that we are blessed with over 125 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, and over 500 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves. What Africa needs is the expertise and the technology to respectively.
Distinguished colleagues, as we begin this meeting, which will be my last meeting as chairman of this distinguished Board, I would like to once again express my appreciation to all of you for the support you have given me in the last one year. With your support we have been able to guide the Secretariat to on the path to professionalism.
I believe that 2021 I am speaking the minds of all of us, especially those who have been with us since our days in APPA, that APPO is fast becoming an internationally recognized inter-governmental energy organization. Our views are sought on hydrocarbon matters in every conversation on this important matter. I am confident that we are on the right track and it shall be on record that our generation at APPO laid the solid foundation for the success that APPO shall become.
On behalf of all of you, I commend the Secretary General and his staff for the efforts they are making to professionalize APPO.
As you are all aware, the earlier plan was to hold this meeting over two days. Day one was to be dedicated to the regular issues on the agenda of the regular Board meetings, items 1-6 on the agenda, while day two is to be devoted to the Study on the Future of the Oil and Gas Industry in Africa in the Light of Energy Transition. That was when the meetings were planned to be held face-to-face in Algiers. But with the change in plans, I had asked to Secretariat to make consultations with EB Members with a view to holding both meetings on the same day. And thankfully, a consensus emerged to that effect.
The implication of this is that the meetings will have to be very focused so that we can cover all that we need to cover in one day and still allow the Secretariat the time to prepare for the Ministerial Meeting tomorrow. To assist us ensure timeliness in our meeting today, I would like to propose that colleagues hold on to any questions or observations they may have until all the presentations in a particular section has been finished. And comments should be precise and concise.
I thank you for your kind attention.
