Page 5 - AfrOil Week 47 2021

AfrOil COMMENTARY AfrOil

In the interview, she reported that her firm had still relatively undeveloped despite the wide-
signed several letters of intent (LoIs) with Afri- spread availability and use of mobile telephones
can governments during the African Energy – and despite African consumers’ growing inter-
Week (AEW) conference, which took place est in smart phones capable of connecting to the
in Cape Town earlier this month. She did not internet.
divulge the details of these letters, but DCD In a report published earlier this year, the
noted that EW&P had already agreed to carry African Data Centres Association (ADCA) and
out a feasibility study for UK-based Rapid Oil US-based Xalam Analytics noted that more than
Production on the construction of a modular 30 new multi-tenant data centres classified as
data centre at Ryne, a field in the North Sea. Pre- Tier III or higher had been launched in Africa
sumably, the Norwegian company is prepared to since 2016. These facilities have doubled the
do something similar in Africa. continent’s hosting capacity, the report stated,
One country that might benefit from such a but they are likely to prove inadequate in the
project would be Nigeria, DCD noted. It drew face of expectations that Africa’s broadband user
attention to the West African state’s extensive base will double by 2030.
offshore exploration and production opera- Moreover, the report said, existing data cen-
tions and noted that Nigeria had a track record tres don’t provide even coverage. Among the
of flaring off associated gas rather than going to 80 or more cities in Africa with populations in
the trouble of separating it from crude oil and excess of 1mn, only about a third are home to
reserving it for other uses. at least one data centre that meets the Tier III IOCs that use
standard, it noted. Around two thirds of the con-
Link to renewables tinent’s hosting capacity is concentrated in just their African
Smines Tybring-Gjedde didn’t say which Afri- a handful of countries, including South Africa, platforms and
can oil platforms might be able to accommo- Kenya, Nigeria and Morocco, it added.
date data centres. However, she did point out The report concluded that Africa would need associated gas to
that EW&P’s business model could serve as a to build 700 new data centres in order to bring
template for the construction of such facilities continent-wide levels of internet usage up to the host and power
in connection with renewable energy projects. same level as South Africa. It also said that the
Just as data centres on oil platforms could continent would have to add 1,000 MW of new data centres
make use of electricity generated from associ- generating capacity in order to keep all these stand to earn
ated gas that might otherwise be wasted, she data centres running.
explained, data centres linked to renewable gen- greater profits
eration units could use excess power produced Knock-on effects
from wind or sunlight. Moreover, she said, they These figures indicate that data centre con-
could do so without diverting electricity from struction has the potential to be a good business
local communities. proposition in Africa. If so, IOCs that use their
“Data centres could pay for energy on sunny platforms and their associated gas to host and
days when the town doesn’t need all the elec- power data centres stand to earn greater profits.
tricity the solar farm is making,” she told DCD. At the same time, though, they’ll also be
“With wind production, we can buy energy making important contributions to African
at night when it is windy and people need less economies beyond the scope of their core oper-
energy. We don’t want to cannibalise the energy ations. That is, they’ll be helping their host coun-
[supplied] to the people around [the area]. We tries gain the capability needed to handle heavier
take the excess.” internet traffic – and to support all the oppor-
Small-scale projects of this type can lay a tunities that can flow from increased internet
foundation for the building of larger renewable access.
generating facilities, she added. Wind and solar Furthermore, they’ll be doing these things
plants can use the payments they receive from with the help of a company that wants to extend
the data centres for electricity supplies to invest its pattern into the realm of renewable energy.
in expansion, she said. And as such, they’ll be in a position to claim that
they helped lay the foundation for the eventual
Expanding digital infrastructure transition away from fossil fuels, even as they
These projects wouldn’t just make more power continue to extract the oil and gas that Africa
available, though. They would also serve to requires to meet its own needs and earn export
expand Africa’s digital infrastructure, which is revenues. ™

(Image: IREI)

Week 47 24•November•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P5