As the war in Ukraine rages on, the European Union is desperately searching for alternative energy sources. Africa has abundant reserves, but experts say the continent’s energy sector needs urgent reforms and help.
EU nations have considered cutting off import of Russia’s oil and gas following President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022.
To avoid self-inflicting punishments to its economies, the EU is deliberating medium and long-term solutions to replace the average 380 million cubic meters per day of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from Russia. This amounts to 140 billion cubic meters or 45% of almost the EU’s total gas consumption a year.
The African continent has abundant oil and gas reserves. In 2017, Africa reportedly had 148.6 trillion cubic meters of proven gas reserves – more than 7% of the global reserves.
In 2019, the European Union imported about 108 billion cubic meters of LNG from Africa, over 12 billion of which came from Nigeria.
Recently, a German-African business advocacy group asked German Economic Affairs and Climate Action Minister, Robert Habeck, to reach out to his African counterparts for the continent to increase its supply. However, no African leader has expressed public interest in meeting the Europeans.
When the European Union presses its crisis-level panic button, member states could begin to hoard their remaining supply of refined fuel, which could deal a devastating blow to the African continent, which relies on EU refineries to move people, vehicles and machines, reports Abu-Bakarr Jalloh for Deutsche Welle.