Gas is better than oil for Africa, conference delegates hear
Gas projects were, for Africa, better than oil projects. So highlighted energy consultant and former Trinidad & Tobago Energy Minister Eric Williams, in a panel discussion, on Thursday, at the Africa Energy Week 2025 conference, being held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
“Gas is both a fuel and a feedstock,” he stressed. This dual nature meant that gas projects gave a country a better chance of achieving development than petroleum projects would. He was really glad at how gas projects were developing across the continent, as the benefits of gas could be transferred to wider society.
As for the question of whether or not African countries could afford gas projects, he pointed out that that was reliant on a range of factors.
“It depends on the source of gas,” he explained. “Is it associated [with crude oil] or non-associated? Is it onshore or offshore? If offshore, is it in shallow water or deep water? What many African countries are lacking is a transmission grid, to move the electrons. What you need is the right price for the right mix across the value chain.”
What was right for one country would not be right for another country.
“In order to create an electricity supply to the people of the continent, we also have to use gas in domestic contexts,” he pointed out. It was necessary to create local markets, to generate local economic returns and benefit the local people. The gas should not be just liquefied and exported.
Because gas could be used for industrial activities, the profits from such sales should be used to cross-subsidise the cost of gas-generated electricity, he affirmed, while noting that economists did not like cross-subsidisation.
He highlighted that his country, Trinidad & Tobago had developed a local gas market long ago, when natural gas was seen to have no intrinsic value. In fact, at the time, it had been seen, by oil men, as a curse.
Comments
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation