By Ayomide Otitoju
Africa’s oil and gas sector is on the verge of a fresh exploration renaissance, fueled by advances in seismic imaging, enhanced frontier data, and faster permitting processes, according to industry leaders at the Africa Energy Week (AEW): Invest in African Energies 2025 conference in Cape Town on Wednesday.
Emmanuelle Garinet, Vice President of Exploration Africa at TotalEnergies, said Africa’s frontier basins still hold substantial untapped reserves. Citing Namibia as a success story, she explained that improved seismic and subsurface data significantly reduced exploration risks. “When we decided to drill the Venus well, it was frontier, but our probability of success exceeded 50% due to seismic data and direct hydrocarbon indicators,” she noted.
She added that TotalEnergies’ exploration operations in the Republic of Congo are benefiting from faster approvals. “We secured our permit in under six months and plan to begin drilling before year-end,” she said, contrasting this with South Africa’s permitting delays, which she described as “unacceptable” for global explorers working with tight budgets.
Chevron’s CEO, Gavin Lewis, emphasized the importance of comprehensive subsurface datasets for enabling advanced exploration techniques. “Before AI-driven workflows can be effective, you need datasets that illuminate the subsurface,” he said. “Africa has lost its capacity to support multi-client subsurface datasets. The Gulf of Mexico stands as a model, having reinvented itself multiple times through such data.”
Bryan Ritchie, bp’s Vice President of Exploration, highlighted ongoing seismic survey efforts in Egypt’s Nile Delta, where bp recently completed the first deepwater ocean-bottom node survey over the Atoll field. The Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company, he said, plans to expand multi-client seismic coverage across a broader area of the delta.
Woodside Energy’s VP of Exploration, Terry Gebhardt, added that advanced geoscience and data analytics are equally vital for carbon capture and storage initiatives, as well as optimizing recovery in mature fields.
The panel, sponsored by EnerGeo Alliance, also spotlighted rising investment in Africa’s hydrocarbons. EnerGeo Alliance President and CEO, Nikki Martin, said capital expenditure in the continent’s oil and gas sector is projected to reach $54 billion by 2030, following a $6 billion surge in exploration spending in 2024.
