My recent conversation on a social media platform with a close friend in Lagos came to an abrupt, silent end. Hours later, he messaged me back with an apology: The phone battery had died, and his neighborhood had been waiting for restoration of electricity service for the better part of the day.
Power interruptions are common for Nigeria’s largest city of more than 13 million people. It took me back to the 1990s in India, where energy production was a chaotic work in progress. Blackouts were a regular feature of our lives. Today, thanks to India’s enthusiastic use of coal, my children do not need candlelight to do homework. Coal-powered plants keep the lights on for 1.4 billion people. Blackouts still occur, but they are an exception.
I want that same simple certainty for African families. For decades, international aid organizations and financial institutions, held hostage by the red tape of the Paris Agreement and net zero fantasies, strangled funding of projects involving fossil fuels. Instead, modest incentives were offered to implement unreliable and expensive wind and solar power.
But the narrative is shifting. A flickering hope of industrial-grade light is appearing across the continent. From West Africa’s natural gas deposits to East Africa’s new pipelines and Southern Africa’s offshore basins, a story of promise is emerging. Africans are refusing to accept permanent impoverishment in the name of climate orthodoxy. They are breaking the shackles of alarmism and choosing abundant hydrocarbons as the only proven path to prosperity.
West Africa’s Energy Renaissance
In West Africa, Ghana secured a fresh $3.5 billion investment to boost oil and gas output. Under the agreements, Jubilee/TEN partners plan to invest $2 billion, while OCTP partners contribute about $1.5 billion. Development will include increased gas supply for power generation.
Senegal has entered a definitive new chapter with Phase 1 of the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) project now producing gas. GTA’s resource base supports expansion that can both feed domestic power demand and supply global markets.
Equatorial Guinea Goes Big
In Equatorial Guinea, Malabo and Yaoundé have signed a long-anticipated deal to develop the Yoyo-Yolanda gas fields, which have an estimated 2.5 trillion cubic feet of gas.
Equatorial Guinea also signed an agreement with Italian energy major Eni that will focus on geological analysis and evaluation, setting the stage for a revival in exploration.
The country is preparing for its “EG Ronda” licensing round in April 2026, offering 24 oil and gas blocks to the market and has amended its Hydrocarbon Law to improve fiscal terms, making it clear to the world that Equatorial Guinea is open for extraction of resources.
In Mozambique, the French energy giant TotalEnergies has restarted construction on a massive $20 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project. Intended to produce over 13 million metric tons of LNG per year, the project could generate up to $35 billion in revenues for the Mozambican state over its lifetime.
In the East, Uganda and Tanzania are advancing negotiations to construct a pipeline for refined petroleum products. This will ensure these two landlocked nations are not held hostage by supply chain disruptions or global price spikes.
Offshore exploration in Namibia’s Orange Basin has identified an estimated 21 billion barrels of light crude, alongside high‑quality gas that could revive long‑stalled plans key to industrial strategies.
North Africa Wakes Up
Perhaps the most striking turnaround is in North Africa. Libya, a country plagued by instability for years, is making a thunderous return to the energy stage. For the first time since 2007, Tripoli has successfully awarded oil and gas exploration blocks to foreign majors like Chevron, Eni, QatarEnergy and Repsol.
Libya aims to boost oil production by 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) to reach 1.6 million by the end of this year, with a target of 2 million bpd by 2030. For Libya, more production means more jobs and foreign exchange to rebuild infrastructure destroyed by conflict. Crude will flow from the Sirte and Murzuq basins, and the benefits will show up as salaries, roads and power lines.
African policymakers now demand domestic processing, negotiate terms that increase local participation and invest in training and supply chains. Climate cultists may label this as heresy. Rational people recognize it as a response to persistent energy poverty.
By embracing their oil and gas reserves, African leaders are not destroying the planet; they are saving their people.
This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.
Ah! The light of common sense in a dark, crackpot world!
The Greenies have done such damage to the less-developed parts of our planet.
The domestic greenies chased the oil majors away from South African South Coast oil/gas fields because climate change so the oil boys went around the coast to Southern Namibia just north of Alexander Bay, another large deposit shared by South Africa but the oil boys were denied access by the South African greenies. It seems South Africa chooses poverty every time.
Additional; They also have managed to stop the exploitation of huge gas plays on the Karoo while denying Starlink an operating license for reasons of racial laws thus preventing rural folk the opportunity to find out about these self destructive energy policies. All because of apartheid apparently.
Not generally known outside of China, but power outages, planned and unplanned are common occurrences in 2nd and lower tier cities there. These are often due to interruptions in the coal supply chain.
If countries (including the US) drill/mine for their own fossil fuels, who needs the Straights of Hurmuz?
Information like this is very encouraging. Why should a continent that for long has been plagued by various levels of poverty, underdevelopment and instability be further shackled by the asinine demands of the eco-alarmists who would never agree to such restrictions themselves? Now the Africans are taking matters into their own hands by witnessing how other developing world countries have exploited domestic and imported fossil fuel supplies to boost their economies and living standards. If the eco-kooks want to depend on sporadic wind and solar let them enjoy them
African countries are often the way they are due to corrupt leadership, cultural norms, and superstition. I’m not confident that using their natural resources to the fullest will change that. Kleptocrats still rule.
This is just nonsense. Vijay states that
“For decades, international aid organizations and financial institutions, held hostage by the red tape of the Paris Agreement and net zero fantasies, strangled funding of projects involving fossil fuels.” Given that the Paris agreement was signed in 2015 it is barely one decade old. Hence there must be some other reason why there is so little fossil fuel use in Africa. Perhaps corruption and centuries of exploitation by European nations might be the place to start.
WEF , World Bank, IMF etc etc and all the so-called “Green” lobbyists have been pushing the anti-CO2 nonsense for far longer than that.
Paris agreement was a sort of culmination of this nonsense, not the start… a vain and petty attempt at totalitarianism.
Third world countries have been held back for decades by this “carbon-is-bad” idiocy.
Ah yes it’s everyone else’s fault … centuries ago no world economy used Fossil fuel. The main reason there was so little fossil fuel use is African economies never developed to a point to make it economic. Energy use is driven by economics and is not some human right like lefties like to believe. Someone has to pay for it and subsistence economies struggle to meet the transition point.
The Paris agreement got hijacked by a whole lot of lefty crap and now it has these ridiculous human right garbage woven into it and that has been part of it’s death.
Please refer to my later post below for my opinion of your opinion.
Given the infrastructure they do have is the result of European colonisation, that seems improbable, but yes corruption remains a real issue.
So the dark continent continues to live to its name, but this time not due to blackouts, but because ‘black gold’ (fossil fuel) will allow the lights to be turned on?
What then of Europe etc that’s opting for sunshine, windmills, unicorn farts, and blackouts?
Africa is ruled by selfish tyrants who will suck up all the money and let their people starve. Whar deep water port do they plan to use?
Like most countries, the african ones will move towards renewables, especially solar. Everything else in the fossil sector is a little sideshow you can cheer on.
The first country to BAN the sale of new gas cars is doing just fine, actually
https://electrek.co/2026/02/20/the-first-country-to-ban-the-sale-of-new-gas-cars-is-doing-just-fine-actually/
The sun never goes down in Africa or something. Please refer to my post below.
Get lost, stinking troll. Nobody is buying your lies.
HYDRO.. not wind or solar. …. Would not be possible otherwise.
and a large slice of the population doesn’t even have electricity yet.
“”Despite the abundant [hydro] resources, Ethiopia faces challenges in electrification. As of 2023, national electrification stood at 55%, with urban access nearing 84% and rural coverage lagging at 44%.
Reminds me of an old video posted by a UN group. Keep in mind they posted it with pride. It showed them helping a group of African men drill a well for water. But they wouldn’t let them use a gas auger because of climate change. They made them use an auger with multiple spokes and forced the 6 or eight men to walk around in a circle until the auger was deep enough to hit water. The only thing missing were the chains to hold these poor men to the auger. Nothing on this planet is more racist then white, left wing globalists and greenies.
The last time I looked, Tanzania wasn’t landlocked…
Yes!
There’s much oil in Africa but fluctuating politics are a problem.