The president of the Association of Angolan Oil Industry Service Providers (AECIPA) has said that he believes that “the growth of the oil industry is transferred to the Angolan economy” y bringing improvements to people’s lives and contributing to the diversification of the economy.
“The growth of the oil industry is transferred to the Angolan economy and encourages diversification, especially of industries and agriculture, and we need to take into account the aspects of energy transformation,” Bráulio de Brito said in an interview with Lusa on Tuesday, in the week of the Angola Oil & Gas conference.
Asked about the desire to diversify the economy away from dependence on oil and gas and growing environmental concerns, on the one hand, and the need to maintain oil exploration to finance the energy transition, on the other, de Brito said that the two things are not incompatible.
“The big question is not just to look at international metrics, but to look at how we produce more, and efficiently, taking into account the impact our industry can have on the environment, and promoting more environmentally friendly production techniques,” he said.
The AECIPA president, who is the founding CEO of Tradinter, an Angolan services company, also argued that “the diversification and economic growth of countries based on the production and export of oil can only happen if we continue to produce cleanly.
“The Angolan economy will continue to be supported, to a large extent, by the oil industry, and this great financial strength that this industry brings to the country can and should, and has been, transformed into the various projects that the Angolan government is establishing” to guarantee economic diversification, he said.
The conference, he stressed, will be “a platform for reflection on the Angolan and African oil industry.
“It should debate the strategy for development and implementation of local content in the areas of human resources, employment and professional development of Angolan technicians, technology and greater appetite for investment in Angola, since foreign multinationals continue to be interested in coming to Angola to carry out exploration,” he said.
The Angola Oil & Gas conference will be held at the Talatona Convention Centre on Wednesday and Thursday.
It is Angola’s main event for the oil and gas sector, with the support of the Angolan Ministry of Natural Resources, Oil and Gas, Sonangol, the African Energy Chamber and the Oil Derivatives Regulatory Institute.
With the theme ‘Boosting Exploration and Development Towards Increased Production in Angola’ this year, the conference brings together the sector’s entire value chain to debate the way forward for the industry, according to its website, which recalls that last year more than 2,200 delegates from 41 countries attended and seven agreements were signed.
