Mwinyi calls for establishment of Petroleum Fund
ZANZIBAR: ZANZIBAR President Dr Hussein Mwinyi has called on East African member states to ensure that they establish a regional Petroleum Fund to address the challenge of inadequate financing for oil and gas extraction, especially in light of the escalating global energy transition.
Speaking during the closing ceremony of the East African Petroleum Conference and Exhibition 2025 (EAPCE’25) in Dar es Salaam yesterday, Dr Mwinyi said the formation of the Fund will enable countries to withstand inadequate funding caused by the global energy transition. As a result, he said traditional financiers of whom Africa has been relying for decades are withdrawing their supports citing climate change concerns.
“Inadequate funding is the primary bottleneck for developing our region’s petroleum. At time when global activists intensify their opposition to financing fossil fuel projects and export credit agencies, we must ask ourselves how do we, as partner states, overcome this challenge to advance our petroleum resources and implement our energy transition plans effectively,” Dr Mwinyi said.
Adding “as stated in the EAC Vision 2050 there is no time than the present to advocate for the establishment of the Petroleum Fund.”
He said if the Funds are in place they will support projects, research, innovation, training across the petroleum sector. Dr Mwinyi said the EAC countries should draw a lesson from the African Petroleum Producers Organisation in partnership with the Africa Export-Import Bank which agreed to establish the Africa Energy Bank to address impending funding crisis in the Africa’s oil and gas industry caused by global energy transition.
He said extraction of the petroleum resources including natural gas and oil is key to enable the East African Community’s member states realise the regional bloc’s 2050 Vision target of 100 per cent energy access to all people by 2050.
Furthermore, he encouraged the countries to align technological advancements in the region with global aspirations of decarbonisation and energy transition, insisting on the need for striking a balance between fossil fuels and the just energy transition.
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“We have to leverage technology to accelerate exploration and production of our petroleum resources,” he said.
In another development, Dr Mwinyi encouraged the countries to continue constructing cross border oil and gas pipelines like the East African Crude Oil Pipeline to facilitate energy integration in the region.
He commended President Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan for her unwavering commitment to investing in the energy sector including oil and natural gases and the East African countries at large for promoting investments for extracting the petroleum resources.
Additionally, he urged the member states to do more in licensing of the off-shore blocks in the region to expand production of oil and natural gases by considering the fact that currently the resources are not fully tapped.
Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Energy, Dr Doto Biteko said the conference enabled experts and leaders in the energy industry to exchange ideas with a goal of unlocking the regional energy full potentials.
He thanked all participants for attending the conference while appreciating sponsors for making the event a reality.
During the three-day conference, government leaders, investors, head of financial institutions and top academics in the region unveiled the petroleum resources’ potentials which, if well harnessed, can contribute to attaining a just energy transition and sustainable improvement of people’s living standards.
Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority’s (EWURA) Senior Petroleum Engineer, Ibrahim Kajugusi hinted on the importance of integration of natural gas to existing fuels especially petroleum and diesel in efforts to diversifying the energy mix so as to make people have access to power to enhance economic development.
“All the energy sources should be integrated to diversify the energy basket,” he said.
He said the integration of the all-energy sources supports the energy transition including conversion of fossil powered vehicles to gas. He therefore, called on governments in the East African region to establish regulatory frameworks including supportive policies, forge collaborations among themselves, set infrastructure expansion incentives to unlock full potential of the gas economy.
