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Atty. Gray Panel Discussion at Africa Oil Week

Tuesday, March 24th, 2020, 11:59 AM

Atty. Gray Panel Discussion at Africa Oil Week

At the 2022 event of Africa Oil Week (AOW) hosted in Cape Town, South Africa, Atty. Saifuah-Mai Gray participated in a high-level panel discussion that aimed at gauging the ideas of top officials of oil companies across Africa. The goal of the panel discussion for national oil companies was to examine how to maximize Africa's potential. The panel discussion was led by Paul Hickin, Director, EMEA Oil, S&P Global Platts, and comprised the following panellists: 1. Amadou Doumbouya, General Director, SONAP 2. Estevão Tomás Rafael Pale, Chairman and CEO, ENH 3. JJ. Koum, CEO, SNH found in programme 4. Saifuah- Mai Gray, CEO, NOCAL 5. Vamissa Bamba, CEO, Petroci 6. Emmanuel Katongole, Chairman of the Board, UNOC  In a panel discussion on the subject "National Oil Companies: The Key to Unlocking Africa's Full Potential?" with other National Oil Company leaders, Atty. Gray outlined the cardinal function of NOCAL as the commercial arm of the oil and gas industry in Liberia, which means NOCAL oversees the sales of seismic data, provides technical support to the Liberia Petroleum Regulatory Authority (LPRA) and carries out other commercial functions in the sector. She continued the conversation by bringing up the revised petroleum law, which now permits investors to engage in direct discussions after identifying an oil block and submitting an expression of interest. She then mentioned that to encourage investment into the Liberia oil and gas sector, Liberia has made most of the terms and conditions in the PSC flexible enough for potential investors to have manageable fiscal obligations and flexible payment schedules. Atty. Gray said, "Liberia is an investor-friendly nation, even though it has been challenging given the Covid-19 outbreak, which cost us our bid rounds, and the low demand from businesses looking to invest in frontier countries." She firmly focused on NOC cooperation, notably collaboration with neighbouring nations. She indicated that there is no competition among African countries. As such, information sharing relating to our exploration activities could be the key to commercial discovery for nations exploring along similar margins. "Where are we transitioning from?" was a question she kept asking. How will most African countries switch to an energy system that they aren't ready for, especially since they don't have the infrastructure to meet the needs of their people? Like President Weah, she pledged the nation's support for the cause of climate change and made mention of the President's pledge made at the 2022 UNGA. As a frontier nation eager to explore its resources and consider global issues such as the entire issue of climate change and how it is affecting the world, she reasoned that this was a troublesome situation that put us between a rock and a hard place. Atty. Saifuah-Mai Gray ended her panel discussion section with a call for African countries to collaborate and share the risks so that we all can eventually maximize our chances of unlocking Africa’s full potential.

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