CARACAS, Venezuela, September 29, 2026/APO Group/ –bp will join Venezuela Energy Week (VEW) 2027 as a Gold Sponsor, highlighting the company’s renewed engagement in Venezuela as the country advances a series of international partnerships across its oil and gas sector.

Taking place in Caracas from 22–25 February 2027, VEW comes at a significant point for bp’s activities in the country. In April 2026, the company signed a memorandum of understanding with the Venezuelan Government covering the development of the Cocuina-Manakin gas field, which straddles the maritime border between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago, while also opening discussions around opportunities in the offshore Loran gas field and other exploration areas.

 




  

The agreement marked bp’s renewed entry into Venezuela and builds on the company’s long-standing presence in neighboring Trinidad and Tobago. bp operates the Manakin portion of the cross-border field, while the Venezuelan Cocuina section forms part of the country’s undeveloped Deltana Platform. The company has said it is pursuing development of the field with the potential to bring more than 1 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas into Trinidad for LNG production.

Momentum around the project continued through 2026. In August, Trinidad and Tobago’s National Gas Company (NGC) agreed to acquire a 20% participating interest in the Manakin portion of the field from bp, strengthening the cross-border commercial structure around the development. bp and NGC have also agreed to market 70% of the project’s gas to Atlantic LNG, where bp holds a 45% stake alongside Shell, with the remaining gas intended for petrochemical use. A final investment decision is expected by the end of 2026.

The developments place bp at the intersection of Venezuela’s emerging offshore gas opportunity and Trinidad and Tobago’s efforts to strengthen gas supply for its LNG and petrochemical industries. They also demonstrate how Venezuela’s offshore resources could increasingly connect into established regional energy infrastructure and markets.

bp’s interest extends beyond Cocuina-Manakin. Its April 2026 agreement also covered exploration opportunities in the Loran gas field, estimated at around 7 tcf, alongside potential collaboration on gas commercialization. In June, Venezuela signed agreements with Shell to advance Phase I of Loran, while bp was identified as a prospective participant in both Loran and the neighboring Cocuina-Manakin project.

For Venezuela, the activity comes amid a broader reopening of the sector to international energy companies and renewed efforts to develop offshore gas resources, attract capital and technical expertise, and establish new routes to market. VEW 2027 will bring together government representatives, PDVSA, international operators, investors, service companies and technology providers to examine these opportunities across the value chain.

As a Gold Sponsor, bp will have a platform at the event to engage with stakeholders shaping Venezuela’s next phase of energy development and share its perspective on offshore gas, cross-border projects, gas commercialization and regional energy security.

With Cocuina-Manakin progressing and Loran emerging as another major offshore opportunity, bp’s participation will bring its experience in developing cross-border gas resources and connecting them to regional markets into discussions at VEW 2027.

VEW is Organized by Energy Capital & Power and taking place under the patronage of Acting President Delcy Rodriguez, PDVSA and the Ministry of Hydrocarbons.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, September 29, 2026/APO Group/ –With a little over two months to go, anticipation is building for the 29^th edition of Africa Tech Festival (https://AfricaTechFestival.com), the continent’s longest running and most influential technology event. As the countdown continues, the programme is taking shape around some of the most pressing questions facing Africa’s digital economy, from AI and the infrastructure needed to support it, to cybersecurity, connectivity and the changing investment environment for African technology businesses.

 




  

Africa Tech Festival returns to the Cape Town International Convention Centre from 16 to 19 November 2026, bringing together government, technology companies, telecoms operators, infrastructure providers, enterprise leaders, startups and investors from across the continent and beyond.

“The questions facing Africa’s digital economy are becoming more interlinked, more complex and more urgent. It’s no longer simply about whether businesses will adopt AI, move to the cloud or invest in new infrastructure, but about how those decisions are made, who benefits from them and what needs to be in place for them to deliver sustainable growth,” said David Monaghan, VP, Africa Tech Festival. “This year’s programme is designed to provide a platform for those conversations and give stakeholders a clearer view of the decisions, partnerships and investment priorities that will shape the next phase of Africa’s digital development.”

Artificial intelligence runs through much of the 2026 programme. A panel titled Beyond Adoption: What Will Make Africa an AI Producer, Not Just a Consumer? will examine what is required to build globally competitive AI capabilities in Africa. Sessions will explore the emergence of agentic AI in enterprise decision-making and how companies should prioritise investment across AI, cloud, data platforms and core systems as they modernise for growth.

That focus on capability extends to the infrastructure underpinning it. AI growth is inseparable from questions about data centres, cloud infrastructure and local compute capacity. The Next Wave of AI Infrastructure Growth panel will consider where new capacity should be built, the role of hyperscaler partnerships and the need for localised compute to meet data sovereignty requirements. Dedicated discussions will examine which African markets are attracting investment interest, how power availability and hyperscaler presence are shaping that interest, and how sovereignty, performance and cost are reshaping cloud architecture decisions.

Africa’s next phase of digital growth also depends on extending reliable connectivity while keeping digital businesses and services secure. The Telecoms & Connectivity programme will examine fibre investment, 4G and 5G deployment and the growing role of satellite technology in reaching underserved communities.

All of these conversations point to a maturing digital economy, where competitiveness depends as much on enabling environments as on ambition, and where practical groundwork, compute, capital, skills and partnerships will determine who benefits from Africa’s growth. This is what makes Africa Tech Festival such a highly anticipated fixture on the calendar: it is where these decisions are debated, tested and made, bringing together the people setting policy, developing infrastructure and allocating capital across the sector.

With just months to go, the excitement is building for three days of conversation, connection and insight into where Africa’s digital future is heading. Registration for Africa Tech Festival 2026 is now open.

LAGOS, Nigeria, September 29, 2026/APO Group/ –With less than two months to go, preparations are in top gear for Lagos, Nigeria to host Africa’s largest gathering of creative and cultural industries — Creative Africa Nexus Weekend (CANEX WKND 2026), from 5 to 8 November 2026.

CANEX WKND 2026 is being hosted by African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), in partnership with the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, and will bring together creatives, investors, policymakers, financiers, buyers and industry leaders to connect talent with finance, markets, partnerships and commercial opportunities.

 




  

The four-day event will be held at the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and Creative Arts, National Theatre Complex, Iganmu, Lagos, and will attract participants from across Africa, the Caribbean and the wider diaspora.

Held under the theme “One People, United in Culture, Creating for the World: From FESTAC ’77 to CANEX’27,” CANEX WKND 2026 will provide a platform to support the development, commercialisation and expansion of Africa’s creative and cultural industries, with a focus on improving access to finance, markets, skills, partnerships and investment opportunities.

The programme will feature activities across film, music, fashion, literature, visual arts, gastronomy and sport, combining business and investment discussions with showcases, exhibitions, masterclasses and networking opportunities.

Key programme components will include the CANEX Finance Summit and Deal Room, CANEX Shorts Film Competition, Jollof Wars Competition, CANEX Music Factory Songwriting Camp, Junior Chefs Competition, Fashion Show and Awards Night, CANEX Mega Concert and Legends Football Match.

At the heart of the business programme, the CANEX Deal Room will provide creative entrepreneurs and businesses the opportunity to present projects to financiers and investors, helping strengthen commercially viable creative enterprises and developing sustainable value chains across Africa’s creative economy. Commenting on the preparations for CANEX WKND 2026, Mrs Kanayo Awani, Executive Vice President, Intra-African Trade and Export Development, Afreximbank, said:

“CANEX WKND provides an important platform for converting Africa’s creative talent into sustainable commercial opportunities. By bringing creators together with investors, financiers, buyers and policymakers, we are helping to strengthen the ecosystem required for African creative businesses to grow, access new markets and retain greater value from their work. Hosting CANEX WKND 2026 in Lagos is particularly significant given Nigeria’s influence across music, film, fashion, literature and other creative sectors. We look forward to bringing together participants from across Global Africa to deepen collaboration, mobilise investment and support the continued growth of the creative economy.”

Nigeria’s hosting of CANEX WKND 2026 reflects the country’s longstanding contribution to Africa’s cultural and creative industries and its growing role as a hub for creative enterprise.

Dr Jumoke Oduwole, Honourable Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Federal Republic of Nigeria, said:

“Hosting CANEX WKND 2026 in Lagos reinforces Nigeria’s position as one of Africa’s leading creative and commercial centres. Our creative industries are an important source of enterprise, employment and exports, and strengthening the connections between talent, investment and markets is critical to unlocking their full economic potential. CANEX provides an important platform to bring African and diaspora creatives, investors and businesses together in Nigeria, while creating opportunities for stronger partnerships, greater market access and increased investment across the creative value chain. We look forward to welcoming Global Africa to Lagos and showcasing the depth and diversity of Nigeria’s creative economy.”

The Lagos edition will also build on the legacy of FESTAC ’77, which brought together artists, writers, musicians and cultural leaders from across Africa and the diaspora. Nigeria is preparing to commemorate the 50th anniversary of FESTAC in 2027, providing an opportunity to connect this cultural legacy with the continued development of contemporary creative industries.

CANEX WKND 2026 will build on the momentum generated by previous editions. At CANEX WKND 2024 in Algiers, Algeria, more than US$540 million in deals were facilitated and agreed, with close to 4,000 participants from 81 countries attending the event.

Afreximbank has also committed US$2 billion to support Africa’s creative industries between 2024 and 2027, reflecting the Bank’s commitment to strengthening the sector’s contribution to trade, enterprise development and employment across the continent.

The Lagos edition will serve as a test run for the fifth edition of the biennial Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2027), which Nigeria will host in November 2027. IATF2027 is expected to provide a broader continental marketplace for African businesses, including creative enterprises, to expand commercial partnerships and access new markets.

Registrations are open – https://apo-opa.co/4xQ44Wm