The African Petroleum Producers’ Organisation (APPO) has said that what Africa needs from the developed nations of the world is not hand-outs but partnerships to develop oil and gas technology on the continent.

The Secretary General of APPO, Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim, stated this at the 24th edition of the World Petroleum Congress, which held in Calgary, Canada with the theme “Energy Transition: The Path to Net Zero“.

Speaking during a panel discussion on “Managing the Energy Transition Responsibly’’, Ibrahim regretted that reputable institutions of oil and gas that Africa has been sending its oil and gas students and operators for further studies are closing their faculties of petroleum.

The APPO Secretary General who was also on another panel on  “Translating Net Zero Ambitions into Oil and Gas Upstream,’’  posited that it is not only unfair but punitive for the developed countries who champion climate change to put pressure on Africa to abandon fossil fuels when over 2,500 giga tons of carbon dioxide was added to the atmosphere in the last 150 years mostly by the developed countries.

He argued that instead of promising $100 billion  for climate finance to developing countries for adaptation and mitigation, funds that are not completely free but loans, the developed countries should use that money to further develop and deploy carbon capture technologies so that they can remove 1 to 20 percent of the emission that they have released.

With 400 to 500 giga tons of CO2 removed from the atmosphere, developing countries can have the opportunity to also use fossil fuels to grow their economies and lift their people from abject poverty, he stated.

Ibrahim noted that lifting Africa from energy poverty shall not require the emission of a fraction of what he is calling on the developed countries to remove.

He pointed out that it is in the spirit of technical cooperation that the APPO team visited world-class oil and gas institutions in Calgary, including the University of Calgary, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, SAIT.

Ibrahim noted that APPO and its member countries are working on establishing Centers of Oil and Gas Excellence in various regions of the African continent.