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From Discovery to First Production: What Africa’s Hottest Frontier Oil Play-Namibia Can Learn from Guyana (By NJ Ayuk)

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3 years ago

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Guyana

Not only have oil and gas companies been drawn to Guyana’s vast hydrocarbon resources, but they’ve also taken note of the country’s attractive regulatory and fiscal regimes

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, July 10, 2023/APO Group/ — 

By NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman, African Energy Chamber (www.EnergyChamber.org)

Recently, a number of headlines recently have referred to the world’s “hottest frontier oil play,” a site of massive oil and gas finds with great promise for investors.

Not long ago, the media would have been talking about Namibia. When France’s TotalEnergies and the United Kingdom’s Shell announced large discoveries in Namibia’s offshore Orange Basin last year, there was nearly wall-to-wall press coverage.

But the headlines I’m referring to now aren’t about Namibia, or even Africa.

Instead, they’re about Guyana, on the northern coast of South America next to Venezuela.

More than 30 significant offshore oil discoveries have been made in Guyana’s Stabroek Block alone since 2015. U.S. energy major ExxonMobil, the first to announce a discovery there, estimates that the block holds at least 11 billion barrels of recoverable resources. And as recently as late June, Canadian companies CGX Energy and Frontera Energy announced that their joint venture discovered oil in Guyana’s Corentyne block, which also was the site of a light oil and gas condensate discovery in May 2022.

Not only have oil and gas companies been drawn to Guyana’s vast hydrocarbon resources, but they’ve also taken note of the country’s attractive regulatory and fiscal regimes. As a result, we’re seeing extensive activity there, prompting energy industry media outlets like Oil and Gas 360 to describe Guyana as “Latin America and the Caribbean’s latest drilling hotspot” while Bloomberg declares “Guyana Is the Most Exciting Story in the World Oil Market,” and Reuters calls Guyana an “oil powerhouse.”

I’m not saying Namibia is yesterday’s news, far from it. The Orange Basin is believed to hold up to 3 billion barrels of oil and 5.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. But Guyana’s positive press is an important reminder: As far as oil and gas companies are concerned, Namibia is not the only game in town. There is no guarantee that the excitement generated by Namibia’s petroleum resources will result in the country fully realizing all of the socioeconomic opportunities they represent, from eradicating energy poverty to growing the economy. Having significant hydrocarbon reserves certainly will get energy companies’ attention, but holding the companies’ interest — and convincing them to continue investing billions of dollars in exploration and production activities — requires deliberate, strategic measures on the part of a host country’s leadership.

The African Energy Chamber is pleased to see Namibia’s government working to provide an enabling environment for upstream activity and updating its tax laws. But Namibia must not stop there. To ensure ongoing exploration and production, Namibia’s leaders will need to do everything possible, as quickly as possible, to demonstrate that Namibia is investor friendly. That’s what Guyana has been achieving quite successfully. I encourage Namibia to follow its lead.

During African Energy Week in Cape Town from  October 16-20, 2023 Namibia will take center stage and there will be many discussions about moving from discoveries to production but also the legal, commercial and geopolitical aspects of oil and natural gas development.

Guyana Offers Investors Fiscal Guarantees

For one thing, Guyana includes wording in its petroleum contracts to help oil and gas companies protect their investments; Namibia does not. I’m referring to a fiscal stability clause, which states that if the host country makes legislative or regulatory changes, such as new tax codes, the contracting energy company will be protected from negative economic impacts.

This isn’t the first time I’ve urged Namibia to begin including fiscal stability clauses in its petroleum agreements, but the point is so important that it bears repeating. Energy exploration is risk-intensive. Failing to provide a fiscal stability clause only adds to investing companies’ exposure and makes them more likely to consider channeling their efforts — and investment dollars — elsewhere. Failing to offer a fiscal stability clause also opens the door to prolonged contract negotiations and costly project delays. That would create a lose-lose for Namibia and the energy companies there.

The African Energy Chamber is pleased to see Namibia’s government working to provide an enabling environment for upstream activity and updating its tax laws

Guyana Fast-Tracks Development

I have written extensively this year about how delayed African oil and gas projects in Africa can rob countries of opportunities. Guyana has made a point of avoiding such pitfalls. Less than five years after ExxonMobil’s initial Stabroek Block discovery with partners Hess (U.S.) and China National Offshore Oil Corporate (CNOOC) in 2015, their Liza Phase I project began producing oil. That’s considered downright speedy in the oil and gas industry.

Since then, a second project, Liza Phase 2, went online, and production at their third project, Payara, is expected to get started this year. What’s more, ExxonMobil has made a final investment decision on two additional projects: Production at Yellowtail is scheduled to begin in 2025, to followed by the Uaru development coming online in 2026.

The president and CEO of the Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago, Dax Driver, recently praised Guyana for developing its oil and gas resources at a record pace.

“For countries like Guyana and Suriname, with these massive oil resources in place, and some of them transitioning into reserves and some being produced, priority has to be to fast-track development of those resources,” Driver said. “This is something which Guyana has done extremely well since its first discovery. It is a world leader in fast-tracking its discoveries.”

And Driver understands what capitalizing on oil and gas can do: His country has become another valuable example for nations with petroleum resources like Namibia. As I wrote in my 2019 book, “Billions at Play: The Future of African Energy and Doing Deals,” Trinidad and Tobago, a twin-island nation off the coast of Venezuela, has made natural gas monetization an art form since the 1970s. With less than 1% of known global gas reserves, Trinidad and Tobago became the world’s leading exporter of two gas-based products, ammonia and methanol, and went on to become one of the world’s top five liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporters. Today, Trinidad and Tobago has one of the highest gross national incomes (GNI) per capita in Latin America and the Caribbean (USD17,640 in 2015). Guyana is well on its way to following Trinidad and Tobago’s example, and I hope African nations like Namibia will do the same.

Guyana Continues to Drive its Energy Industry Forward

I agree with Driver’s assessment: Guyana is serious about moving its energy industry forward, and it wisely recognizes the value of monetizing its natural gas resources. Guyana’s Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has spoken of the importance of monetizing the country’s natural gas resources and creating new revenue streams sources before the global energy transition reduces demand for fossil fuels. Guyana’s leadership is working with technicians and consultants on a national strategy for using natural gas as a feedstock for petrochemicals and liquefied natural gas (LNG).

At the same time, Guyana’s government has been updating the country’s oil and gas regulations to help ensure ongoing investment and benefits for the Guyanese people. The proposed Petroleum Activities Bill includes safety and emergency response measures, along with supervision and monitoring requirements, capacity-building requirements for energy companies, and a framework for permitting petroleum product transportation and treatment. It also includes cross-border unitization, a legal framework for developing and allocating petroleum reserves that span across Guyana’s maritime boundaries with other countries.

In addition, the government passed strong local content legislation in 2021 and is fine-tuning it with input from the Ministry of Natural Resources. The resulting policy will include an effective framework for international oil companies to communicate their needs to local businesses, making it easier for Namibian businesses to grow and create jobs. This is another lesson that Namibia, and African countries in general, can learn from.

Perhaps one of the best examples that Guyana is setting is that it approaches its oil and gas industry with a sense of urgency. Urgency to get as much value as possible from its petroleum resources. Urgency to get policies right, so the country can continue attracting investments and reaping the benefits they offer. And urgency to prevent project delays that could prevent Guyana from achieving its energy industry goals.

This sense of urgency, as much as the oil and gas resources beneath the ground, is why Guyana

is making headlines for being an oil and gas hotspot.

I’m looking forward to watching Namibia achieving similar results and, like Guyana, becoming a role model for other nations with petroleum resources.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Energy Chamber.

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Africa gains governance momentum in the 2026 Chandler Good Government Index, but sustaining progress is the real test

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6 hours ago

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October 29, 2026

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Africa

Across Africa, average scores improved in six of the seven CGGI pillars over the past year, with the strongest gains in Helping People Rise and Financial Stewardship

This signals that stronger government capabilities are beginning to translate into tangible improvements in people’s lives

KIGALI, Rwanda, October 29, 2026/APO Group/ –Africa was the second best-performing region for governance progress in the 2026 Chandler Good Government Index (CGGI), with 71% of the African countries assessed in both 2025 and 2026 achieving higher overall scores. However, the continent remains the lowest-scoring region overall, highlighting the challenge of translating improvement in government capabilities into better outcomes for citizens.

 




 
 

These findings were highlighted by the Chandler Governance Group (CGG) at a joint session with the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) to launch the 13th edition of the Rwanda Governance Scorecard at the Kigali Serena Hotel on Thursday, 22 October 2026.

“This year, Africa’s strongest gains came in Financial Stewardship, followed by Helping People Rise, the CGGI’s outcomes pillar. This signals that stronger government capabilities are beginning to translate into tangible improvements in people’s lives, from access to quality education and healthcare to the public finances that fund them. The task now is to sustain that progress over the coming years,” says Dinesh Naidu, Director (Knowledge) at CGG.

Now in its sixth edition, the CGGI assesses government capabilities and effectiveness across 133 countries representing 94% of the world’s population, up from 120 countries in 2025. It measures 35 equally weighted indicators across seven pillars, providing governments with a framework to benchmark performance, identify gaps and learn from the experience of other countries.

Globally, the findings point to improving governance performance. Of the 120 countries assessed in both 2025 and 2026, 61% recorded higher scores, representing the highest annual share of countries improving since the Index launched in 2021. However, longer-term progress has been less consistent, with only 43% of the 104 countries tracked since 2021 recording an overall improvement.

Africa’s leading governments

Mauritius remains Africa’s highest-ranked country, placing 55th globally, followed by Rwanda (62nd), Botswana (70th), Morocco (79th) and Tanzania (80th). South Africa ranks sixth on the continent, in 85th place globally.

Rwanda features prominently in the discussion, ranking 11th globally for Leadership & Foresight and emerging as the highest-ranked low-income country in the Index. It ranks 61 places above where its income alone would predict. Across the Index, government capabilities track citizen outcomes more closely than national wealth does, suggesting that strengthening government capabilities matter in delivering better outcomes for citizens.

The joint session brings together the CGGI’s international benchmarks and the Rwanda Governance Scorecard’s assessment of governance in the Rwandan context, creating an opportunity to consider both global perspectives and country-specific priorities.

Progress across key governance pillars

Across Africa, average scores improved in six of the seven CGGI pillars over the past year, with the strongest gains in Helping People Rise and Financial Stewardship. These improvements point to progress in areas associated with public services, including healthcare and education, as well as the management of public finances.

Longer-term trends also highlight areas of progress. Between 2021 and 2026, nearly every African country assessed across the period improved its Data Capability score, with Morocco recording the largest gains. Ghana’s overall score improved in 2026, supported by stronger Financial Stewardship, while South Africa continues to show relative strength in Robust Laws & Policies, ranking 44th globally, and Attractive Marketplace, ranking 48th.

Despite these gains, the scale of the challenge remains clear. Africa’s regional average is still below its 2021 level, 23 of the 35 African countries in the 2026 Index rank outside the global top 100, and none is in the top 50. Seven African countries joined the Index this year: Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Guinea, Lesotho, Liberia and Togo.

“Rankings provide a useful starting point, but the broader value of the CGGI lies in helping governments understand where they are making progress and where further work is needed. Sustained improvements depend on the ability to strengthen institutions, manage resources responsibly and turn policy into meaningful outcomes for citizens,” says Naidu.

A tool for learning and improvement

The CGGI is designed as a practical diagnostic tool, helping governments identify gaps, track progress over time, and learn from peers facing similar constraints. The collaboration with the RGB brings international benchmarking together with locally grounded assessment.

“Every country faces its own governance challenges and is driven by varying priorities. Governments that are willing to take stock of the evidence and learn from peers to strengthen their institutions are well placed to achieve real improvements,” concludes Naidu.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Chandler Governance Group.

 

 




 

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Spiro brings electric motorcycles and battery-swapping technology to Ghana, expanding its pan-African footprint

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6 hours ago

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October 29, 2026

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Spiro

The integrated offering aims to reduce daily operating costs and minimise downtime, with battery swaps completed in just two minutes and potential savings of up to USD 2 per day compared with petrol-powered motorcycles

ACCRA, Ghana, October 29, 2026/APO Group/ —

  • Spiro’s entry into Ghana introduces the Ekon 450 M1 V3 electric motorcycle and its battery-swapping solution, bringing a new mobility option to commercial riders and delivery fleets.
  • The integrated offering aims to reduce daily operating costs and minimise downtime, with battery swaps completed in just two minutes and potential savings of up to USD 2 per day compared with petrol-powered motorcycles.
  • Test rides and product demonstrations across Greater Accra will support the rollout and help riders experience the benefits of electric mobility.

 




 
 

Spiro (www.Spironet.com), Africa’s largest electric mobility company, is expanding its footprint in Ghana with the introduction of the Ekon 450 M1 V3 electric motorcycle and its battery-swapping solution. Combining electric two-wheelers with access to charged batteries, Spiro aims to make everyday transport more affordable and practical for riders while supporting Ghana’s transition towards sustainable mobility.

For commercial riders and delivery fleets, fuel expenses and time spent off the road directly affect daily earnings. Spiro’s integrated offering addresses both challenges: riders can exchange a depleted battery for a charged one at a Spiro battery-swapping station in just two minutes, while potentially saving up to USD 2 per day in operating costs compared with conventional petrol-powered motorcycles.

Ghana represents a major opportunity for electric mobility, with a rapidly growing two-wheeler market and increasing demand from commercial riders and delivery fleets

Designed to meet the everyday mobility needs of African riders, the Ekon 450 M1 V3 offers an alternative to petrol-powered motorcycles. Supported by Spiro’s battery-swapping technology, it allows riders to get back on the road without waiting for their motorcycle to recharge.

Auroasish Choudhuri Managing Director Central and West Africa, commented: “Our entry into Ghana is an important step in strengthening Spiro’s presence in West Africa. Our focus is on building a local ecosystem that riders can rely on, combining electric motorcycles with convenient access to battery swapping. By working closely with local partners and listening to riders’ needs, we aim to support the long-term adoption of electric mobility in Ghana.”

Kaushik Burman, CEO Mobility of Spiro said: “Ghana represents a major opportunity for electric mobility, with a rapidly growing two-wheeler market and increasing demand from commercial riders and delivery fleets. By bringing the Ekon 450 M1 V3 together with our battery-swapping solution, we are addressing two key barriers to adoption: operating costs and access to charging infrastructure. Our ambition is to build a strong foundation for electric mobility to scale across Ghana.”

To support its rollout, Spiro is engaging with prospective customers through test rides, product demonstrations and live demonstrations of its battery-swapping technology across Greater Accra. These activities give riders the opportunity to experience the Ekon 450 M1 V3 and understand how battery swapping can fit into their daily routines.

Mr Maxwell Dodd, Managing Director of Spiro Ghana, said: “For riders in Ghana, the value of electric mobility lies in what it can deliver every day: lower operating costs, less downtime and more time on the road. Through the Ekon 450 M1 V3 and our battery-swapping solution, we want to make those benefits accessible and support riders as they make the transition to electric motorcycles.”

Ghana forms part of Spiro’s wider expansion across Africa. Building on its recent USD 270 million equity funding round and an additional USD 18 million in debt financing from the Africa Go Green Fund, the company is scaling its electric mobility ecosystem with the ambition of establishing a presence in 20 African markets. Spiro is also preparing to enter new countries, including Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Spiro.

 

 




 

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Huawei Wireless Unveils Innovation Breakthroughs to Pioneer New Communications Networks

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6 hours ago

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October 29, 2026

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Huawei

The innovation breakthroughs for pioneering new communications networks include RetinaMIMO, new materials, and OSCAR solution among other root technologies. By tackling coverage, energy consumption, and capacity challenges, the breakthroughs drive ubiquitous experience, simplified and green networks, and superior spectral efficiency. The breakthroughs have unlocked a wealth of new capabilities, including the world’s first commercial U6 GHz device VitaAAU, GigaGreen Plus series, and UBBPi series.
Huawei promotes A2A-T standards and drives commercial open-source OpenAN through extensive partnerships to build an open telecom agent ecosystem.

 




 
 

SHANGHAI, CHINA – Media OutReach Newswire – 29 October 2026 – At Huawei Decoding China 2026, Fang Xiang, Corporate Vice President and President of Wireless Network Solution of Huawei, unveiled a series of innovation breakthroughs to pioneer new communications networks. The innovation breakthroughs mark major leaps in root technologies focused on ubiquitous experience, simplified and green networks, and superior spectral efficiency. With the breakthroughs, Huawei has launched the world’s first commercial U6 GHz device VitaAAU, GigaGreen Plus series, and UBBPi series. Additionally featuring the new progress in open ecosystem for telecom agents, the breakthroughs will lay a solid foundation for new communications networks.

With booming intelligent devices and services, new devices, traffic, and applications are taking shape in the mobile industry. The new devices are expanding network connectivity from people to things and agents, increasing the number of connections by 100 times. Device-cloud synergy for intelligent services calls for stronger uplink capabilities to support training and inference, shifting network focus from downlink dominance to both uplink and downlink. With new applications, come a diversity of new interaction modes, calling for higher standards in experience and driving networks to support ubiquitous steady ultra-low latency with a high reliability.

As the world steps into an intelligent era, the value of connectivity is not only about quantity—it’s more about quality. This has been inspiring Huawei to convert cutting-edge breakthroughs into the commercial practices of new communications networks by focusing on root technologies for ubiquitous experience, simplified and green networks, and superior spectral efficiency.

Pioneering ubiquitous experience

RetinaMIMO is a new pioneering technology designed to solve the challenge of concurrent ultra-high bandwidth and ubiquitous coverage. It features the industry’s first Retina scanning system that allows RF link topologies to be reconstructed to eliminate coverage collapse in the vertical direction. It also adopts a reconstructed antenna array architecture to address the diminishing marginal gains as array elements (AEs) increase.

Based on RetinaMIMO, Huawei has launched the world’s first commercial U6 GHz device VitaAAU. Compared with similar products with 1024 AEs, VitaAAU widens coverage by about 30%, enabling U6 GHz to match C-band in both horizontal and vertical directions. This enables operators to deliver U6 GHz coverage for new communications networks on their C-band sites, minimizing overall TCO. To date, VitaAAU has seen commercial adoption in the UAE and other markets, with peak downlink speeds exceeding 10 Gbps, making ubiquitous premium experience a reality.

Pioneering simplified, green networks

Huawei’s pioneering EP power amplifier (PA) architecture capitalizes on new materials and technologies to solve the problem of energy efficiency decline on higher frequency bands, maximizing energy conversion efficiency. The industry’s first-ever multimode dielectric filters allow antennas to have small dimensions and low power consumption on multi-channel networks with high frequency bands. Powered by new materials, technologies, and architectures, VitaAAU antenna is reduced to 1.5 m in diameter while supporting “0 Bit 0 Watt 0 Loss”, delivering superior energy saving efficiency. These innovations enable Huawei’s GigaGreen Plus series products to achieve significant reductions in dimensions, weight, and power consumption, better positioned to power simplified and green networks.

Pioneering superior spectral efficiency

Multi-band, multi-cell, and multi-user interference is a major restrictive factor of capacity. The time scaling of the Tau (τ) law is introduced to base stations for the first time to realize optimal dynamic resource scheduling across all domains based on the OSCAR solution. With low-latency bus and high-speed interconnect technology, a high-speed architecture is built to enable the real-time exchange of massive data. Thanks to software and hardware synergy, new UBBPi series products improve average user experience by 1.3 times while reducing power consumption by approximately 40%, further improving spectral and energy efficiency.

Pioneering open-source autonomous networks

Autonomous networks have emerged as an inevitable choice to deal with the growing AI services and increasing network complexity. RANSpirit is another industry first from Huawei, implementing single-domain network autonomy based on the telecom foundation model and digital twins. To date, RANSpirit is serving more than 1.2 million cells across 25 networks around the world, providing assistance to more than 2,000 engineers.

Extensive agent collaboration relies on an open, win-win ecosystem. This galvanizes Huawei to join industry partners to develop ecosystem standards, communities, and industry alliances. In terms of standards, Huawei adapts to the TM Forum, building a cross-agent foundation on the A2A-T standard and framework agreed upon by the industry. In terms of communities, Huawei jointly promotes neutral open-source communities and donates open-source agent components to the Linux Foundation, driving global collaboration and innovation. With regard to industry alliances, Huawei has taken the initiative to pool ecosystem strengths to accelerate business implementation based on the GSMA industry platform.

Fang concluded with the reiteration of Huawei’s unswerving pursuit of dual-drive innovation to promote new breakthroughs in mobile networks and work with partners from around the world to deepen the OpenAN ecosystem, advancing new communications networks through technological innovation and open collaboration.

FAQs

Q1: Why is it challenging to balance ultra-high bandwidth and ubiquitous coverage?

Ultra-high bandwidth depends on higher frequency bands. As we know, a higher frequency leads to a greater propagation loss of electromagnetic waves and a weaker ability for them to penetrate obstacles, because high-frequency signals attenuate fast and have short coverage distances, while ubiquitous coverage requires signals to travel a long distance in complex environments. Inherently, the two priorities pull in sharply opposite directions.

  




 

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