Only months ago, world leaders pledged to stop financing new fossil fuel projects around the globe in a \u201chistoric\u201d move against climate change. Now some of those leaders, desperate for energy as Russian flows dwindle, are turning to African nations with burgeoning reserves of oil and natural gas.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see the hypocrisy,\u201d said Mamadou Fall Kane, deputy secretary of Senegal\u2019s natural resource management agency. \u201cRight now, Europe is really knocking on our door.\u201d<\/p>\n
The European Union\u2019s energy czar visited his office in February. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected later this month. Senegal is billing itself as a replacement for Russia, which covered 39 percent of Europe\u2019s natural gas needs before the invasion of Ukraine upended the global power map and triggered an energy crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe war has changed everything,\u201d Kane said.<\/p>\n
European officials are pushing to sever ties with Moscow and shift to 100 percent clean power in the coming decades. But for now, supplies are strained. Prices are spiking. Leaders fear blackouts darkening homes, hospitals, factories and power plants.<\/p>\n
The war has brought into stark relief how much Europe depends on natural gas as it transitions to green energy. Gas provides backup power when the sun isn\u2019t shining or the wind isn\u2019t blowing. It\u2019s an essential ingredient in fertilizer. Phasing it out won\u2019t happen overnight.<\/p>\n
Countries are now scrambling to cut fresh deals across the Middle East and Africa that could lock them into fossil fuel contracts for years more than they had planned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Europeans are now looking at Africa in an entirely different way,\u201d said Vijaya Ramachandran, an Africa energy analyst at the Breakthrough Institute in California. \u201cEurope is finding it can\u2019t just rely on the handful of countries it has been relying on forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Italy has already struck deals with Algeria, Egypt, Angola and the Republic of Congo to make up for almost two-thirds of the gas it was importing from Russia, according to research firm Capital Economics. Germany, the bloc\u2019s economic powerhouse, is rushing to build import terminals for gas shipments from the United States and West Africa. A draft European Union plan for replacing Russian gas, reviewed by Bloomberg News, highlighted Senegal, Nigeria and Angola as potential partners to fill the widening gaps.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an abrupt departure from November, when 20 countries \u2014 including Italy and Germany \u2014 agreed at the COP26 climate conference in Scotland to halt public financing for overseas fossil fuel projects this year and invest in green power instead.<\/p>\n
The European Investment Bank had planned to cut off funding for gas projects in Africa by the end of 2021, outraging nations with nascent industries. Fewer than half of people in the sub-Saharan region have access to electricity, and power costs across the continent are among the highest in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cPutting an end to the financing of gas will deeply affect and thwart our efforts for social development,\u201d Senegal\u2019s president and the African Union chairman, Macky Sall, said of the Glasgow pact.<\/p>\n
Europe\u2019s pivot to African energy is complicated by more than climate goals. Political instability and conflict have raised concerns among investors. So has the enormous expense of developing infrastructure for extraction and shipping in untested areas.<\/p>\n
West Africa has endured five coups d\u2019etat since 2020 and is grappling with rapidly spreading Islamist insurgencies. One proposed pipeline would run from Nigeria through Niger, which are both locked in battle with extremists.<\/p>\n
\u201cInvestors are confused,\u201d said Ken Medlock, senior director of the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University\u2019s Baker Institute for Public Policy. \u201cThis interest just formed. For the last couple of years, it has been about no more fossil fuels.\u201d<\/p>\n
The continent could reach peak gas production at 470 billion cubic meters before 2040, roughly three-fourths of the expected amount produced this year by Russia, according to Rystad Energy research.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s natural gas came far more cheaply and easily for Europe, running through a pipeline under the Baltic Sea into Germany. Less than a fifth of the bloc\u2019s gas imports over the past decade arrived from African countries, and analysts say much of the region\u2019s supply will take years to come online.<\/p>\n
Kane, the oil and gas official, is steering investors toward Senegal to manage the longer-term risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cSenegal never went to war with anybody,\u201d he said. \u201cSenegal never had a coup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senegal, too, is investing in solar energy and wind farms: Nearly a third of its power mix is renewable.<\/p>\n
As resource-detecting technology evolved, the country of 18 million made a series of major discoveries from 2015 to 2017. Boats that work like floating ultrasounds found gas fields north of the seaside capital, Dakar, and near the border with Mauritania. Officials named them after French and Wolof words for \u201chope,\u201d \u201chospitality\u201d and \u201cturtle\u201d (because of its shape on seismic imaging).<\/p>\n
The Senegalese government teamed up with BP and an American firm, Kosmos Energy, to develop fields that the companies said could be harnessed for the next three decades. Production is set to begin next year.<\/p>\n
Not everyone is excited: Environmental activists warn of damage to Senegal\u2019s glittering shorelines, a magnet for tourists and a haven for wildlife.<\/p>\n
The first round of gas for overseas clients will go mostly to nations in Southeast Asia, officials said \u2014 those deals were set in 2018 \u2014 but the next batches are up for grabs. Demand is skyrocketing, Kane said. Senegal aims to wield that leverage to ink larger contracts with European nations.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers passed a measure this year to protect against what economists call the \u201cresource curse\u201d \u2014 the squandering of natural wealth by the political elite. Loans backed by future gas earnings are banned. Revenue cannot be spent on government salaries and must support investments for the \u201cfuture generation,\u201d such as in education and health care.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s part of the pitch, Kane said. Choosing Senegal over, say, more advanced economies like Qatar could spark more social good.<\/p>\n
\u201cImagine how many hospitals we could build,\u201d he said. \u201cHow many schools. How many roads.\u201d<\/p>\n
At an oil and gas conference this week in Dakar, hundreds of industry insiders gathered for networking dinners and drinks, lobbing observations about the Ukraine war\u2019s ripple effects.<\/p>\n
One speaker at a beachfront hotel queued up a PowerPoint titled Russia-Ukraine Conflict: Risks and Opportunities for Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cEurope did everything to stop fossil fuels here,\u201d said a Texas businessman in the crowd, \u201cand now that a dictator is threatening to cut them off \u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe critical part of this,\u201d a Mauritanian gas executive interjected, \u201cis how much of this gas will benefit the people here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the EU ditches Russian energy, West African nations hope to fill the void<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":8053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,15],"tags":[7,26,25],"class_list":{"0":"post-8056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-politics","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-politics"},"yoast_head":"\n