The 24th Edition of the World Petroleum Congress ended on September 21, 2023, in Calgary, Canada with the selection of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as the host of the next edition of the triennial event, scheduled for 2026.
The 24th edition that just ended was held under the theme Energy Transition: The Path to Net Zero and attracted several participants from the oil and gas industry. The APPO Secretariat participated actively in this edition of the World Energy Event. In his contribution during a panel discussion on “Managing the Energy Transition Responsibly’’, Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim, the Secretary General of APPO posited that what Africa needs from the developed nations of the world is not hand-outs but partnerships to develop oil and gas technology on the continent, as the reputable institutions of oil and gas that Africa has been sending its oil and gas students and operators for further studies are closing their faculties of petroleum.
In another panel on “Translating Net Zero Ambitions into Oil and Gas Upstream,’’ the APPO Secretary General said that it is not only unfair but punitive for the developed countries who champion climate change to put pressure on Africa to abandon fossil fuels when over 2,500 Giga tons of carbon dioxide was added to the atmosphere in the last 150 years mostly by the developed countries. He argued that instead of promising 100 billion dollars for climate finance to developing countries for adaptation and mitigation, funds that are not completely free but loans, the developed countries should use that money to further develop and deploy carbon capture technologies so that they can remove 1 to 20 percent of the emission that they have released. With 400 to 500 Giga tons of CO2 removed from the atmosphere, developing countries can have the opportunity to also use fossil fuels to grow their economies and lift their people from abject poverty. Dr. Ibrahim noted that lifting Africa from energy poverty shall not require the emission of a fraction of what he is calling on the developed countries to remove.
Dr Ibrahim pointed out that it is in the spirit of technical cooperation that the APPO team visited world-class oil and gas institutions in Calgary, including the University of Calgary, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, SAIT. He noted that APPO and its Member Countries are working on establishing Centers of Oil and Gas Excellence in various regions of the African continent.
APPO leverages its presence at the 24th WPC to engage with the Canadian Energy Industry in Calgary which is the hub of the Canadian Energy Industry Especially Oil and Gas as it has the largest concentration of energy companies, industry, and professional associations in Canada. Canada has the third largest oil reserve in the world and is the world’s fourth largest oil producer and fourth largest oil exporter and world’s largest producer of oil sands bitumen in the world. It is also noteworthy that Alberta is the largest producer of conventional crude oil, synthetic crude, natural gas, and natural gas liquids products in Canada.
Strategic Meeting between APPO Secretary General and the President of the World Petroleum Council
On the sidelines of the 24th Edition of the World Petroleum Congress, the SG of APPO met with several players in the global oil industry, including the President of the WPC, Mr. Pedro Miras with whom he discussed the need for cooperation and partnership between the two organizations in especially in the light of the light of the challenges posed to the industry by the energy transition.
Mr. Pedro Miras gave the background on the change in name from WPC to WPC Energy to align with the Global and inclusive trend where all sources of energies play roles in the Energy Transition. However, he stressed the fact that oil and gas will continue to play an important role in the global energy mix for decades to come with over a hundred million barrels of crude oil produced daily.
