In the shape of a Gambian Spotlight session, Energy Capital & Power (ECP) is pleased to announce a significant addition to the schedule for this September’s MSGBC Oil, Gas & Power Conference.
The session seeks to highlight The Gambia’s potential as a frontier upstream destination, attracting new foreign investment flows and launching the growth of a local oil and gas market by providing essential insight into the nation’s second bid licensing round.
Jerreh Barrow, Director-General of The Gambia’s Petroleum Commission, Yaya Barrow, Managing Director of the Gambia National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Cany Jobe, Director of Exploration and Production at the GNPC, Lamin Camara, Permanent Secretary, and Kemo Ceesay, Director of Energy at the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, respectively, are among the confirmed speakers.
Juwara, Managing Director at the National Water and Electricity Company (NAW) Despite the fact that Gambian exploration is still in its early stages, regional mega discoveries like Mauritania’s 13 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas in BirAllah, 15 tcf in the transnational Mauritania-Senegal Greater Tortue Ahmeyim development, and 20 tcf in Senegal’s Yakaar-Teranga bode well for The Gambia, especially in light of Australia-listed FAR’s discovery of The Gambia already expects a 5.1 percent GDP growth this year with six active blocks, and the five offshore blocks and two onshore blocks that will be released in the second licensing round of The Gambia are beginning to look more and more promising as investment opportunities given the oil find estimates from FAR.
A diverse group of international oil firms, including Norway’s PetroNor, Britain’s bp, Ireland’s Tullow Oil, Malaysia’s Petronas, America’s Kosmos Energy, Australia’s FAR, and Woodside, are now operating in the region.
Currently, there is a rare opportunity for newer players to enter the country’s resource-rich fields with seven new blocks soon to be put up for bidding and FAR announcing a farm-down of its 1.5 billion barrel potential oil discovery in the Panthera, Jatto, and Malo prospects – three times the size of Senegal’s $4.8 billion Sangomar megadevelopment.
Speakers will discuss the second licensing cycle at the roundtable focus session while arguing persuasively for foreign direct investment (FDI) in The Gambia. Because the country has ensured an integrated system of corporate local content accountability through the Gambia’s Petroleum Exploration, Development and Production Licenses, updated with a model agreement released this year, citizens of the country are specifically poised to benefit from the country’s rising FDI.
The model provides mandatory instructions that require multinational corporations operating in-country to submit an annual local content plan, make financial contributions to internal and government local content funds of at least 1% of operating expenses each, and use local goods and services when equivalent to within 10% of international competitors’ price-points, targeting a 10% local expenditure of production costs.
Additionally, under the 2015 revisions to the Gambian Investment and Export Promotion Agency Act, foreign workers may only make up 20% of the whole staff of multinational enterprises, regardless of position, fostering the growth of local talent.
$2.5 billion in transactions were signed at ECP events the previous year. With the GNPC and Ministry of Petroleum and Energy serving as partners for this year’s premier west African congress, which includes in-panel discussions throughout the two-day event and The Gambia serving as the host of a special Roundtable Spotlight session, the prospects for the nation’s own industry have never been better.