Ghana has expressed its commitment to do everything possible to successfully host Africa’s premier and largest oil and gas event, Africa Oil Week, in Accra, capital of Ghana, in September 2025 and beyond following the decision by the organisers of the event to permanently relocate the hosting of the event from Cape Town, South Africa, to Accra, Ghana.
Africa Oil Week, formerly Africa Upstream, was founded by Duncan Clarke, a Zimbabwean, in 1994 in Cape Town.
Year after year, the premier event had been held in Cape Town until 2021 when the Hyve Group, former organisers of the event, moved it to Dubai as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a move that apparently marked the end of decades of ownership of Africa Oil Week, the Hyve Group, early this year, ceded the ownership of the premier event to a UK startup company, Sankofa Events Limited, owned by Paul Sinclair, former Vice-President of Energy for the Africa region at Hyve Group.
Sinclair was with AOW for seven years and stepped down in mid-June 2023.
With Africa Oil Week coming to Accra, Ghana, West Africa, this portal believes Accra will not offer anything short than what Cape Town had offered for the past 30 years.
Accra stretches along the Atlantic Ocean and boasts of glittering beaches, monumental buildings, museums, libraries, galleries, traditional markets and a lively nightlife.
On Thursday, October 10 as the 2024 Africa Oil Week was wrapping up, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Mr. Joseph Abuabu Dadzie; Lawyer Egbert Faibille Jnr., CEO of Petroleum Commission Ghana; Chief Director of Ministry of Energy, Mrs. Wilhelmina Asamoah; Board Chairman of Petroleum Commission, Mr Stephen Sekyere Abankwah, and Managing Director of Tema Oil Refinery, Mr Kofi Tagoe Mocumbi, joined Mr. Paul Sinclair, Director of Sankofa Events, to launch Africa Oil Week 2025, which will be held in Accra between 15th and 19th September 2025.
Commenting on the announcement that Accra would be hosting Africa Oil Week 2025 and beyond, the CEO of Petroleum Commission, Lawyer Egbert Faibille Jnr., told the gathering that “we are happy from Ghana to be taking over at this point. We in Ghana, in taking over the hosting of this event, Africa Oil Week, are very mindful of the huge task ahead of us. Ghana is a land of peace. Ghana is a land of happiness. Ghana is a land of stability, and we want to assure you, especially from the standpoint of the petroleum commission of the Republic of Ghana that it is not a bad decision and that at the end of it all, when the jury is out, they will perhaps be said that it was the best decision after Cape Town.
“Cape Town has hosted this, I believe, for 30 years if I’m not mistaken. So as we take over from Accra, Accra being a city of so many firms, I believe that in partnership with other stakeholders from Ghana like TOR, NPA, Ghana Gas and GNPC, we pledge to you that when you come to Accra next year in September, we’ll have an even more meaningful Africa Oil week.
“We’ll build on the successes of Cape Town. And I’m sure that when it is all over, you may, like Oliver Twist, ask for extension for another week. We are ready for you. It shows your faith in Ghana and we’re very grateful to the Africans. We’re very grateful that we remain the Commonwealth of Africa.”
Also commenting, the CEO of GNPC, Mr. Joseph Abuabu Dadzie, said, “Hosting the African Oil Week conference presents a very compelling case for investment within the various sectors in Ghana. And we do so with the spirit of collaboration because GNPC, and for that matter Ghana, has looked at the industry as collaborating efforts among NOCs in Africa.
One country cannot do it alone. If you look at the various drivers that move the industry, I don’t think any country in Africa has all it takes to be able to move the industry forward.
“So the spirit of collaboration is what we believe hosting the conference in Accra will offer all of us as a continent, not just Ghana. Obviously, hosting it in Ghana gives us some unique opportunities. It allows investors to come to Ghana and see what Ghana has to offer.
But I think on the larger scale, it offers a platform for Africa to showcase itself. It offers Africa, as an economic entity or economic body, the opportunity for the rest of the world to see what the continent offers and opportunities that investors who generally make things move to exploit that opportunities within the continent.
“On our part as GNPC, I think we will take the opportunity to promote this conference and say that we’ll work with the various stakeholders within Ghana and across the continent to ensure that, as my colleague said, this conference will be one of a sort.
“One that would usher Africa into a new era of doing business, an era where we find solutions to the challenges that we have, an era where among the various entities and among the various bodies within Africa, we have a very collaborative and very fruitful, productive collaborative approach to doing things.”
Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo has endorsed the hosting of Africa Oil Week in Accra.
“I am personally delighted to endorse the hosting of Africa Oil Week in Accra,’’ he said in a video played at the launch of the event in Cape Town.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com