African Petroleum Producers Organisation Roundtable Conference

A two-day roundtable conference on gas flaring and fugitive methane emissions was held in Accra on Tuesday 21st and Wednesday 22nd May 2024 by the African Petroleum Producers’ Organisation (APPO) in collaboration with the Petroleum Commission. Speaking at the conference’s opening, the General Secretary of APPO, H.E. Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim stated that since African countries began oil and gas production, 75% of the oil produced and 45% of the produced gas are exported outside the shores of Africa even when the continent has the largest proportion of its people living without access to energy. “We have depended heavily on foreign financing for our oil and gas projects. We have put so much faith in foreign markets for our oil and gas. If Africa must get out of poverty, it must find a way to make energy accessible to a vast majority of its population”, he advised.

In his remarks, he stated that all these must change in light of the global energy shift from fossil fuels to renewable energies, euphemistically called the energy transition. Addressing the issue of minimizing out gas flaring and methane emissions, the Chief Executive Officer of the Commission, Mr. Egbert Faibille Jnr, stated that phasing out routine flaring is one of the essential steps toward combining resource efficiency with long-term economic success and reducing the carbon footprint of petroleum operations on the continent. “Reducing methane emissions from routine/non[1]routine venting of gas during oil and gas production and processing as well as from gas leaks also contribute to slowing down climate change and provide valuable mitigation option for climate risk management,” he added

In a brief speech, the Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Mr. Joseph Dadzie stated that GNPC and its E&P partners have been intentional about minimizing gas flaring in their producing fields and continue to adopt cutting-edge strategies to mitigate routine gas flaring. According to him, the government’s focus has been to capture all produced gas to meet the country’s energy demands and promote industrialisation, leading to the zero-gas flaring policy. “Such measures include closed flaring and hydration blanketing on the Offshore Cape Three Points, Sankofa/Gye-Nyame field as well as other flare recovery technologies on the Jubilee and Tweneboa Enyera Ntomme (TEN) fields,” he added.

The roundtable conference themed “Towards Zero Routine Gas Flaring and Lower Methane Emissions in APPO Oil and Gas Operations” was attended by 12 APPO member countries, International Oil Companies (IOCs) and other oil and gas industry players. Ahead of the opening ceremony, the Commission took the representatives of the APPO member countries attending the conference on-site visits to the Sunon Asogli Power Plant and the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR). There were a number of panel sessions on key topical issues where discussants deliberated and shared their experiences on various methodologies, technologies, and regulatory frameworks in dealing with the challenges of gas flaring and fugitive methane emissions. A communique was prepared and read to all participants as a charge for APPO member countries to keep.