Speaking at the U.S.-Africa Leaders' Summit, Equatorial Guinea's Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons and OPEC President for 2023, H.E. Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima, spoke about the importance of oil and gas development in Africa. He explained how the exploitation of the continent's natural resources will serve to reduce energy poverty while establishing an independent path to a just and inclusive energy transition.
While Western forces are calling on Africa to immediately abandon the use of fossil fuels, Minister Lima explained how the growing pressure to abandon the continent's natural resources has had an impact on Africa's socio-economic development.
With the decline in oil and gas projects and major divestments occurring across the industry, Africa's vast and recently discovered oil and gas assets are at risk.
The minister argued that fossil fuels have an important role to play in the global energy transition and should bring reliable energy to the hundreds of millions - 600 million in sub-Saharan Africa - of Africans who lack access to energy. As a catalyst for industrialization, economic growth and greater stability for Africa, fossil fuel development will be used to increase the continent's wealth and energy security.
Minister Obiang Lima said, "Anyone who asks African countries not to develop fossil fuels is a criminal.
He added: "It's criminal because they tell us that we don't have the right to develop. The largest number of OPEC members this year are African countries. Mozambique is going to be the biggest gas supplier, Senegal is going to be a big gas supplier, Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea are going to be big gas suppliers. So what you're going to have in 2035, you're going to have the African continent as the largest supplier of oil and gas."
"We are not responsible for the climate crisis; the climate crisis has two actors: producers and consumers," the minister stressed. "What drives it is demand. You need resources to be able to grow and we will continue to do that.
As one of the continent's greatest obstacles to socio-economic development, eradicating energy poverty will require a huge concerted effort. It requires the use of all available energy resources in Africa.
Thus, natural gas, which is found in abundance throughout Africa, will be a crucial tool to decarbonize
African countries have adopted a message of "drill, baby, drill" and "gas, baby, gas" as a pathway to eradicating energy poverty and overcoming climate change given Africa's low greenhouse gas emissions and the need to industrialize as promoted by Africa. Energy Chamber.