Again, Ayuk blasts Africa west suppression
Ayuk |
He has spoken out against aid from the west to Africa which he says
doesn’t really achieve anything and has also cried out against the west
ordering Africa to abandon its natural oil and gas resources.
Now he continues that latter tirade in the article below.
Pressure is building to phase out
fossil fuels in Africa to fight climate change.
Organizations ranging from the
World Bank to the European Investment Bank (EIB) have dropped support for
African fossil fuel production in hopes of encouraging a transition from oil,
gas and coal to sustainable energy sources like wind and solar power.
Now there are legitimate concerns
that investor support for oil and gas production will dwindle as well.
Blackrock, which controls $7trn in investments, and the Royal Bank of Scotland
have said they’ll be moving away from investments that support fossil fuel
production.
The anti-fossil fuel fervor is
being demonstrated in what may seem like surprising ways: the Bank of England
was criticized for having an oil company executive on its board of directors.
Pressure is coming from within
the African continent as well. Lobbies from Kenya and the surrounding region,
for example, recently petitioned the African Union to put a stop to coal usage
and look into phasing out oil and gas usage over the next three decades in
hopes of eliminating emissions that contribute to global warming.
I agree that climate change
should be taken seriously, but we cannot accept knee-jerk responses. We must
not rob our continent of the significant benefits it can realize from oil and
gas operations, from the economic opportunities of monetized natural resources
to critically important gas-to-power initiatives.
I am not, by any means, calling
for a stop to sustainable energy programs. They are being implemented, and I
hope to see more. I’m simply saying it’s too soon for an either-or approach to
green energy sources and fossil fuels.
What’s more, it should be
Africans, not well-meaning outsiders, who determine when the timing is right to
phase out fossil fuels in Africa, if ever. Pressuring Africa to do otherwise is
insulting, no better than throwing foreign aid at us with the assumption that
Africans are incapable of building a better future for ourselves. It’s also
hypocritical for countries and people who enjoy the security, greater life
expectancy, comforts and economic opportunities associated with plentiful,
reliable energy to say, “Time’s up, Africa. No more fossil fuels for you.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.”
What about the desperation that
the 600,000-plus Africans without power live with every day?
Is it reasonable to expect them
to wait for green energy to evolve while domestic natural gas and crude oil
reserves can be exploited to create electricity and heating fuel far more
quickly?
We cannot move forward with
phasing out fossil fuels in Africa before we address the huge swaths of our
continent existing in energy poverty. I strongly agree with OPEC Secretary
General Mohammed Barkindo who said in a recent speech that “the almost one
billion people worldwide who currently lack access to electricity and the three
billion without modern fuels for cooking are not just statistics on a page.
They are real people … Nobody should be left behind.”
Closer to home, more than
two-thirds of the population of sub-Saharan Africa, more than 620 million
people, lack access to electricity. Even more infuriating, that number is
likely to increase. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has predicted that by
2040, approximately 75 percent of sub-Saharan Africa will lack access to
electricity. Why? Surging populations are far outpacing the spread of
infrastructure.
As I wrote in my 2019 book, Billions at Play: The Future of African
Energy and Doing Deals, living without electricity is much more than an
inconvenience. It keeps people from modern health care, and it exposes them to
toxic air pollution caused by burning unsafe fuels indoors. It also reinforces
poverty and contributes to economic stagnation: Businesses, factories and
schools need electricity to function and grow.
I’m convinced that one of our
continent’s best chances of eliminating energy poverty is to strategically
exploit our abundant natural gas resources instead of exporting and flaring it.
Africa had 503.3 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves available
to us as of 2017. Natural gas can be used to fuel electricity generation. It’s
available, produces less carbon dioxide emissions than diesel, gasoline or
coal, and it’s affordable. In fact its price recently fell to its lowest
February level in 20 years. What’s more, natural gas can be integrated with
wind and solar power to produce energy that’s both sustainable and reliable.
While gas-to-power will require
effort, from the creation of intra-African trade agreements that make natural
gas available to countries without it to cooperation from power producers, it
represents a very doable way for Africans to resolve one of the continent’s
greatest challenges.
With that in mind, this is a
horrible time to stop producing and using natural gas in Africa.
Phasing out fossil fuels in
Africa also would be harmful to the many international and indigenous oil and
gas companies that contribute to the continent’s revenues and make a positive
social impact here. I’ve written
extensively about companies that do real good for African communities, such as
Atlas Oranto Petroleum, Sahara Energy Group, Aiteo, Seplat, Sonangol, Shoreline Power Company
Limited and many, many more. These indigenous companies create jobs for
Africans, buy from African suppliers, and do business with other African
companies, in addition to their extensive community outreach efforts. We have,
and need, foreign companies that do the same—and share their technologies.
And that’s only part of the
picture. Africa has not fully capitalized on a game-changing opportunity:
monetizing our oil and gas resources. This starts with using oil and gas as a
feedstock to create other value-added products. Natural gas, for example, can
be used to make liquid transport fuels, base oils, paraffin, and naphtha. The
resulting revenues can be used to build infrastructure and diversify economies.
This is not an abstract, pie in the sky idea. In Equatorial Guinea, for
example, initiatives aimed at monetizing the country’s massive natural gas
reserves has led to the creation of new infrastructure. It is helping the
government build a natural gas mega hub that could make Equatorial Guinea a
major player in the global liquified natural gas market and bring in $2 billion
in revenues. There’s no reason that other African countries can’t do the same.
I realize that fully
capitalizing on Africa’s oil and gas resources poses significant challenges,
but it’s doable. Both of my books, Billions
at Play and Big Barrels: African Oil
and Gas and the Quest for Prosperity, provide practical steps for realizing
the African Oil dream. They show there are ways to strategically harness our
oil and gas resources, create economic growth and promote stability, the kinds
of changes that impact everyday people throughout the continent.
Our view on oil and gas is not
about greed or lining the pockets of a select few. If we work to use these
resources wisely, they really can power a better future for Africa. And we’re
not ready to toss them aside.
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