OilPrice.com: Africa Could Use Fossil Fuel Wealth For Renewable Future

When oil prices plunged in the 90s, Africa was a major beneficiary. Yes, exporters like Nigeria and Angola suffered as their revenues dropped, but overall the continent benefited.

Back then, oil majors, challenged by declining oil prices, the rise of the national oil companies (NOCs), and hemmed in by investor demand and high costs/risks of exploration, consolidated through mergers and acquisitions and focused on proven basins.

Independents, shut out of established basins, recruited good talent from the majors, formed alliances with other juniors as necessary, and pivoted to new formations and new countries. Some landed in Africa’s frontier, where barriers to entry were low and competition not too intense. Governments eager to attract oil companies didn’t demand too much. Ghana could only attract small independents during its license auctioning rounds between 2000 and 2006, for example.

The majors paid little attention until three independents – Tullow Oil, Anadarko and Kosmos – in 2006 and 2007 respectively, announced massive oil finds offshore Ghana in West Africa. The rush was on.

Read the full article HERE.