Adnan Adams Mohammed
The Deputy Energy Minister, Dr Mohammed Amin Adams, has declared his unhappiness to comments ascribing that Africa should be allowed to produce oil to develop as the West did to develop their economies.
He indicates that, Africa can and should produce or extract its crude oil only because it can be done better and not because it also want to pollute the environment to develop it nations. He believes, African nations which have oil resource can decarbonise the production process.
As the global economies keep committing to the greener economy agenda by pledging an end to fossil fuels production and usage, Africa is yet to develop and produce its numerous potential oil blocks. This could delay the zero carbon emission target as subscribed to by almost all nations in the globe.
“I am not a believer in the promoting that the developed countries developed with oil, and so they polluted so we shouldn’t be also allowed to pollute to develop I don’t subscribe to that”, Dr Amin said in an interview at the sidelines of the Africa Oil Week event in Cape Town, South Africa, last week. “Because if we do that, we are going to be reduced to a market of last resort, wherever we stand with old technologies while the rest of the world moves on with new technologies and that will be more expensive for us.”
“This is why I’ve indicated there are various ways by which we can decarbonize oil and gas production, that is my view on the table.
“Others also say that, the funding for oil and gas is coming from the West, the developed countries, okay. And the developed countries usually will ensure that companies from including the upstream companies, in the financial competence, follow the policies, the policies of the government.
“So, if we do not act with urgency, to reform our own systems to follow our own energy environment, and to ensure that we harness this potential without violating the policies of the government, it will not be better for us, you know.”
In responding to a question that, whether the campaign to go renewables a conflicting to the numerous attempts countries are making to develop new oil and gas blocks, he responded in the negative.
“No, we don’t see them to be conflict, they can reinforce each other, because you cannot have reliable supply of renewable energy, if you don’t have a base load. And the base load, you can get it from nuclear, you can get it from gas and get it from petroleum. Because renewable is intermittent.
“So, to supply renewable energy, you will need the other source. This is why in Ghana, we are advocating for our energy mix, which taps into all available resources that we have.
“Of course, oil and gas is very important for us. But it says within the whole of Africa 50% of African countries are producing oil, and note, all the revenue that we get from export in particular 50% come from oil, so we can not just abandon it.
“However, it is an opportunity for us to develop our resources in an environmentally friendly manner. We can do, for example, carbon capture and historic and innovation technology in many countries and particularly studies towards adopting that technology, we can move from the electric base production systems to hydraulic base production system using solar or wind, we are also seeing countries interested in launching what we call a carbon neutrality auctions, we are also looking at that as possibility.
“So, we can do this in an environmentally friendly manner without compromising the effect that oil revenues have on our economy and transformation of our country.”
