Attracting institutional investors and pension funds to Africa's energy transition remains a challenge in a changing world. But the problem may be a lack of bankable projects rather than financing.
L’annonce d’une nouvelle Banque africaine de la transition énergétique à la mi-mai a mis en évidence les problèmes de financement de l’énergie sur le continent.
The bank's two backers, the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the African Petroleum Producers Organization (APPO), said they had been forced to set up the new institution because of the "coordinated withdrawal from international trade and project finance" for Africa. Oil and gas industry.
Afreximbank's Director of Customer Relations, Rene Awambeng, said at the signing ceremony in Luanda that "this will be an African-led solution to the threat posed to the African oil and gas industry by lack of financing".
Ownership of the new bank will belong to the 15 APPO member countries, while management will be the responsibility of Afreximbank.
HAVE TRADITIONAL INVESTORS ABANDONED AFRICA?
The importance of the announcement lies less in the arrival of a new lender, which may take some time to set up, than in the fact that financing hydrocarbon development in African countries is becoming increasingly difficult.
As APPO Secretary General Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim commented, "How else do Africans expect to reap the 125 billion barrels of crude and over 500 trillion SCUF of gas when traditional financiers have decided to abandon the continent?
Mais est-il vrai que les financiers traditionnels ont abandonné le continent ? Alors que l’Europe tente de se sevrer du gaz russe , suite à l’invasion de l’Ukraine, les perspectives d’exportation de gaz des producteurs africains semblent plus prometteuses qu’elles ne l’ont été depuis un certain temps.
Recent research by Rystad Energy suggests that African production is set to rise from around 260 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2022 to 335 bcm by the end of this decade, and then to 470 bcm by the end of the 2030s, "equivalent to around 75% of Russia's projected gas production in 2022".
According to Siva Prasad, Senior Analyst at Rystad Energy, "the existing pipeline infrastructure from North Africa to Europe and historical LNG supply relationships make Africa a solid alternative for European markets, following the Russian import ban".