Equatorial Guinea 2015 Strategic Roundtable

The Oil & Gas Year, in partnership with the Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy (MMIE) and Centurion Law Firm, conducted its third strategic roundtable for Equatorial Guinea in Malabo on May 8, 2015. The event was held in the Zafiro Room at the MMIE’s headquarters.

The roundtable brought together H.E. Mercedes Eworo Milam, general director of hydrocarbons of the MMIE; Martín Crisanto Ebe Mba, senator and chairman of the board of the National Bank of Equatorial Guinea; Olivier Sabrié, general director of Total Equatorial Guinea; Serapio Sima Ntutumu, deputy general director of Sonagas; Subramanya Ananthnarayan, manager of Schlumberger for Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea; Rosendo Machimbo Pérez, country director at Weatherford Equatorial Guinea; José Rebollar, director general of Société Générale de Banques de Guinée Équatorial; Nicolas Franceschi, manager of PwC; David Shaw, resident technical advisor at the MMIE and Fernando Biahute, deputy general manager of Luba Freeport. The participants engaged in an open and constructive dialogue on economic reactivation strategies, the future of the Equatorial Guinea’s offshore sector, the paramount role of national content, strengthening of national companies and the country’s great potential to become a regional centre for energy and logistics.

The discussion was divided into two sessions: “Impacts of Low Oil Prices and the Revival of the Offshore Industry” and “Oil and Gas Diversification Strategy: Gas Monetisation, Petrochemicals and Regional Hub Positioning.”

When discussing the offshore future of the country, David Shaw said, “The MMIE is actively promoting new fields through data availability, acquiring new information and having a reputation for being professional and honouring contracts.” The panel of speakers also addressed Equatorial Guinea’s potential to become a regional energy and logistic centre. “In order to be a regional centre, it is not enough to have the right geographic position, we also need to have the lowest costs to compete with the other countries in the region,” said Sabrié. A key sector for enhancing the regional role of Equatorial Guinea is petrochemicals. “Petrochemical developments are one of the engines of development for the country, as they are viable projects economically and socially and will provide a lot of employment,” said Sima Ntutumu.

The strategic roundtable will be published in The Oil & Gas Year Equatorial Guinea 2015, which is due to be launched in the second half of 2015.

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