Page 5 - AfrOil Week 46

AfrOil COMMENTARY AfrOil

Shulginov said more efficient and “active Algerian Energy Minister Abdelmadjid Attar
actions” would be needed to overcome chal- noted on November 11 that there was currently
lenges in the current market. He called for no means for sovereign countries to co-operate
members to make proposals on “new mecha- and bring about greater stability in the gas mar-
nisms of co-operation” before the next heads of ket, unlike their oil-producing counterparts.
state summit of GECF members, which will take “This is maybe an opportunity to explore
place in Qatar in November 2021. through innovative thinking, possibilities for
such [co-operation] to be put in place for the
Gas OPEC? benefit of exporters, consumers and the indus-
GECF was only founded in 2001, some five try,” Attar said.
decades after OPEC’s launch in 1960. Its full “
members are Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial “Balancing factor” Four African
Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trin- Nigerian Energy Minister Timipre Sylva mean-
idad and Tobago and Venezuela, while Angola, while suggested that GECF could become a “bal- countries are full
Azerbaijan, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nor- ancing factor” in the market.
way, Oman, Perua and the UAE have observer “With 71% of the global gas reserves in the GECF members:
status. hands of GECF members we believe that acting Algeria, Egypt,
The group has traditionally lacked its oil together, the GECF can become a force for good
counterpart’s ability to assert pressure on prices, and a balancing factor in the gas business,” he Equatorial Guinea
even though it controls over half of global gas said. “Nigeria would want to see more dialogue
exports. This is primarily because of the nature and more collaboration among member coun- and Nigeria
of the gas market. Gas is mostly sold via pipeline tries, gas consumers and regional and interna-
directly from a supplier to a consumer, making tional organisations.”
the market fairly regionalised and pricing inflex- His Venezuelan counterpart, Tareck El
ible. The market for oil is far more international. Aissami, was more overt, calling for the GECF
As a result of a surge in LNG trade over to develop “the political will to take far more
recent years, however, the gas market has decisive actions to control the gas market and
grown more global in nature. Suppliers have obtain fair benefits for gas producing countries.”
access to many more buyers and vice versa, and The group must establish “mechanisms of
the duration of supply contracts has also been effective interaction to maximise revenues of
steadily shortening. There has also been a move member countries by balancing and stabilising
away from oil-indexed prices to hub rates, and markets,” he said.
restrictive destination clauses are being phased GECF Secretary General Yury Sentyurin
out. All these trends have made the market more has also spoken in favour of closer co-opera-
competitive. tion, saying in June that he considered OPEC a
It is unclear whether the mechanisms Shulg- “model” for GECF’s activities.
inov was referring to could involve co-ordinat- “Maybe not, it’s high time that the gas and oil
ing supply in the manner of OPEC. But officials industry implements the knowledge and solu-
from a number of other GECF have also called tions of the oil industry. To use the best practices
for the group to do more to manage the market. demonstrated by your community,” he said. ™

CCS technology gains momentum

Carbon capture and storage plans are gaining momentum as countries commit to tougher targets

CARBON, capture and storage (CCS) has been reducing GHG emissions without deploying
touted as the best means of decarbonising large CCS on a significant scale. Certain industries,
WHAT: swathes of heavy industry that cannot easily be such as steelmakers and cement factories, have
The technology appears made clean using renewable energy alone. few other feasible options for decarbonising
to be finally taking flight. The technology’s potential has been dis- their operations, the Paris-based agency argues.
cussed for years but now appears to be finally But CCS still has a long way to go before it
WHY: gaining momentum, in large part thanks to can make a meaningful dent in emissions. The
CCS can help decarbon- countries committing to tougher targets for IEA estimates that for the world to reach net
ise industries that cannot reducing their greenhouse gas (GHG) emis- zero by 2070, then the volume of CO2 captured
easily be made clean. sions. The International Energy Agency (IEA) would have to grow 20-fold in just a decade.
estimated in September that CCS projects worth The technology is also of growing interest
WHAT NEXT: $27bn are close to reaching a final investment to oil and gas companies, eager to decarbon-
Broader incentives will be decision (FID). ise as much of their activities as they can to
needed for the sector to The IEA concludes that it will be “virtually demonstrate their commitment to the energy
realise its potential. impossible” for the world to meet targets for transition.

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