As Africa’s legacy producers look to resume or expand their energy production, new entrants to the gas market are intensifying exploration and project development as they seek to advance natural gas hubs and compete with other regions for foreign investment.
The continent’s upstream oil and gas investment is projected to be US$41 billion this year, and production is expected to reach 11.4 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, with growth driven by sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria and Mozambique.
In a major step towards the revival of its oil industry, Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) awarded new oil and gas exploration rights to five foreign firms, including Chevron, in mid-February. This move aims to rejuvenate the energy sector of the war-torn country.
Along with Chevron, the winners of the first licensing round were Spain’s Repsol with British Petroleum, Repsol with Hungary’s MOLGroup, Eni North Africa with QatarEnergy and Turkiye Petrolleri, and Africa’s largest privately-owned energy company, Nigeria’s Aiteo.
NOC Chairman Engineer Masoud Suleman said the success of this round of bidding marked a turning point in the development of the Libyan oil sector.
He noted that attracting international companies to the sector would double Libya’s crude oil production, leading to an economic revival while also safeguarding the country’s crude oil reserves.
Apart from a bidding round last year that invited several major countries to present investment opportunities in nine offshore and 11 onshore blocks, oil exploration in Libya has been stalled for over 17 years.
Currently, the North African country produces approximately 1.5 million barrels per day, yet it holds the continent’s largest oil reserves, estimated at 48.4 billion barrels.
Kevin McLachlan, Vice President of Exploration at Chevron, said the US major was excited to enter Libya with the award of an onshore block.
He said: “Contract area 106 underscores our focus on North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean region, and is a good fit in our exploration strategy to grow our portfolio with high-quality acreage and high-impact prospects.
“Libya has significant proven oil reserves and a long history of producing its resources.
“Chevron is confident that its proven track record in developing oil and gas projects and its technical expertise give it the ability to support Libya to further develop its resources.”
The most recent discovery, made by a NOC subsidiary near the Libyan-Algerian border, highlights Libya’s potential to reclaim its position as a major producer, following the collapse of the country’s energy sector due to years of conflict.
Not far from that discovery, Austrian company OMV also struck oil, confirming production tests for the exploratory well reached a depth of 3,000 metres and was producing more than 4,200 barrels a day, with gas output exceeding 2.6 million cubic feet daily.
Along with OMV, other international oil companies are returning to Libya, with Algerian state energy firm Sonatrach resuming drilling while the NOC has signed agreements with BP and Shell.
LNG exports have become a priority for several sub-Saharan African countries, as demonstrated by Nigeria’s ‘Decade of Gas’ initiative, the cross-border hubs in Senegal and Mauritania, Mozambique’s FLNG development, and Tanzania’s LNG framework.
Notably, LNG exports from the region are forecast to skyrocket by nearly 175 per cent, reaching approximately 100 billion cubic metres a year by 2034, up from 35.7 billion cubic metres in 2024.
The vast majority (84 per cent) of new reserves in pre-production are located in recent entrants to Africa’s gas market – Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania, Mauritania, South Africa, and Ethiopia – according to the Global Energy Monitor’s Global Oil and Gas Extraction Tracker.
Nigeria, Egypt, Libya and Algeria have historically had most of Africa’s proven gas reserves and production.
NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber, said the continent offered compelling opportunities for investors who were prepared to engage in a transparent, regulated, and increasingly competitive exploration and production landscape.
He added: “Governments and operators must continue to balance national priorities with investor confidence to unlock Africa’s vast hydrocarbon potential.”
Nigeria’s Decade of Gas is a national initiative that aims to leverage the country’s 200 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves to transform the economy, boost industrialisation, reduce energy poverty, and increase exports by 2030.
It was instrumental in triggering reforms of Nigeria’s petroleum act, seeking to modernise the sector, attract investment, and provide a clear regulatory framework.
According to Nigeria’s government, more than US$8 billion in final investment decisions for gas projects were made within the last 18 months, which it said indicated growing investor confidence.
The initiative also gave momentum to the development of critical infrastructure, including the 614-kilometre Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline, the Nigeria LNG Train 7 project, and the OML 53 Kwale gas gathering facility.
Nigeria’s West African neighbours, Senegal and Mauritania, are jointly developing the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) gas field on the maritime border of the two countries, which has an estimated reserve of more than 15 trillion cubic feet of potentially recoverable gas.
First gas was announced in January 2025, followed by first LNG production and first export cargo in April, formally turning Mauritania and Senegal into LNG exporters.
The first phase of the development is anticipated to achieve full production capacity of approximately 2.3 million tonnes of LNG per year once fully commissioned. Meanwhile, phase two aims to add another 2.5 to 3 million tonnes per year, although its final investment decision is still pending.
Given a positive decision, construction for phase two is expected to start in January 2028.
In Mozambique, Total is planning to resume work on its US$20 billion LNG project, which has a liquefaction capacity of 13.1 million tonnes per year. The project was put on hold four years ago due to security concerns.
Total is the main operator with a 26.5 per cent stake, while India’s Bharat Petroleum holds 10 per cent (and has secured rights to market LNG from the project), and three Indian public sector undertakings have a combined stake of 30 per cent.
Also in Mozambique, operators Eni and ExxonMobil are developing the onshore Rovuma LNG project, aiming for an annual capacity of 18 million tonnes. This will be achieved using 12 modular trains, each producing 1.5 million tonnes of LNG per year.
Meanwhile, Eni’s Coral South LNG – the first development in Mozambique’s Rovuma Basin – is a floating LNG facility that is the first of its kind in Africa, producing 3.4 million tonnes a year of LNG for global markets.
Moving to Africa’s east coast, Shell and Equinor are pursuing a US$42-billion LNG deal in Tanzania, potentially the country’s largest-ever foreign investment.
Finalisation of the host government agreement is expected soon, which will enable construction to begin.
There is substantial natural gas potential offshore Tanzania, with estimated total reserves of 57 trillion cubic feet, of which about 50 trillion cubic feet are in deepwater fields.
The Republic of Congo recently commenced exports from the new Nguya FLNG facility, which is part of the second phase of its Congo LNG project. Operator Eni has raised liquefaction capacity to three million tonnes per annum and delivered its first cargo early this year, following an early commissioning.
The second phase milestone comes about 35 months after construction began and expands the capacity provided by the earlier Tango FLNG unit, drawing on gas from the Nene and Litchendjili fields.
There is increasing interest in Congo’s potential to become a competitive African LNG exporter, representing an intriguing transition from a mature oil producer to an LNG exporter. This shift reflects a broader movement towards integrated, export- oriented gas strategies.
Other recent developments in Congo include Total securing the Nzombo exploration permit with a one-well drilling program, and Perenco redeveloping a mature offshore field with a new platform to extend production and gas recovery.
Another country with remarkable recent success is Namibia, which has an estimated offshore reserve of 20 billion barrels of oil concentrated in just three major finds: Galp Energia’s Mopane field with 10 billion barrels, TotalEnergies’ Venus-1X discovery with 5.1 billion barrels, and Shell’s Graff-1X and Jonker-1X with five billion combined.
The country’s energy sector had long been dormant but was revitalised by the Graff and Venus-1 discoveries in 2022 – the latter being Africa’s largest sub-Saharan oil find and Total’s most significant discovery in nearly 20 years.
This was followed by Galp’s Mopane field in 2024, where the company is currently drilling its sixth well after achieving five consecutive discoveries.
However, as deepwater projects go, Namibia’s new oil discoveries pose significant challenges, including drilling at depths exceeding 2,000 metres, accessing reservoirs located at 6,000 metres, and operating hundreds of kilometres offshore.
These operations are technically complex and require significant logistics and infrastructure.
In early February, French major TotalEnergies expanded its Namibian acreage by acquiring 42.5 per cent ownership of offshore exploration licence PEL104 for an undisclosed sum from Maravilla Oil and Gas and Eight Offshore Investments Holdings.
Its longtime partner Brazil’s Petrobras, with which it has had oil asset partnerships in Brazil for more than a decade, acquired a further 42.5 per cent.
Total is hoping to be the first to produce oil in Namibia by the end of the decade, with its 150,000-barrel-per-day Venus development south of PEL104 and a 40 per cent operating stake in Galp’s 10-billion-barrel Mopane discovery, which it won last December in a competitive bid against a dozen firms including Petrobras, Exxon, and Shell.