REFORMING AFRICA’S‘OPEC’

Idang Alibi previews the African Petroleum Producers Organisation Council of Ministers’ meeting in Abuja

THE 30-YEAR-OLD ORGANISATION NEEDS TO BE RE-JIGGED AND RE-INVIGORATED FOR BETTER PERFORMANCE

Next Monday, July 24, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo is expected to formally declare open the extra-ordinary session of the Council of Ministers of the African Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO) which, until March this year, was known as African Petroleum Producers Association (APPA). The meeting will be hosted by Nigeria in Abuja, the Federal Capital territory. APPA, now APPO, is made up of 18 member countries namely Nigeria, Algeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Niger, Chad, Congo DR, Congo Brazzaville, Angola, Mozambique, Mauritania, Libya, Cote d’ Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Benin, Egypt, South Africa and Sudan. APPA was formed in January, 1987 in Lagos at the instance of Nigeria and seven other African petroleum producing countries: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Cameroun, Congo Brazzaville, Gabon and Libya.

From this humble beginning, the association now boasts of its current 18 members with three others namely Kenya, Senegal, Madagascar and two international economic organisations, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Association of African Refiners (ARA) seeking to assume observer status. Chances are that in the next five to 10 years all African countries will become APPO members as oil and gas would have been discovered in commercial quantity in all of them!

The organisation’s secretariat is located in Libreville, capital of Congo Brazzaville and its day-to day administrative head is an executive secretary who, at present, is a Nigerien called Mahama Laouan Gaya.

The forthcoming Abuja meeting is called at the instance of Nigeria. The curious might well ask: what is in it for Nigeria for her to display such amount of zeal and commitment by deciding to host the Abuja meeting barely a year after she played host to the larger one held in March last year? Well, as one of the foremost oil and gas producing countries in the continent, Nigeria, as well as the other members, is anxious that the 30-year- old organisation needs to be re-jigged and reinvigorated for it to perform better. The sense of urgency on the part of Nigeria to host this meeting in these lean times underscores her concerns for the survival of APPO. If Nigeria did not feel strongly enough about the need to straighten the affairs of APPO it will not have elected to host the body again barely a year after it did. It will be a one-day event but a very crucial meeting in the life of an organisation that has, in its 30-year history, been trying to redefine and to constantly evaluate and re-evaluate itself in order for it to do for Africa what OPEC has been trying to do for the larger developing nations of the world which produce crude oil and gas. Its name change in Abidjan, a few months ago, from APPA to APPO, gives inkling to the mindset of the body’s leaders who seem desirous that their union becomes more cohesive and formidable enough to be an influential and an effective regional block in the market of such an important commodity as oil and gas. Some may wonder what is in a name but the change from being called a mere ‘’association’’ after 30 odd years of existence to now an ‘’organisation’’ is surely a reflection of a deep desire to have a stronger bond.

The July 24 meeting will be an ‘’extra-ordinary’’ and not an ordinary, regular or normal session, because two issues which are purely administrative and urgent in nature but which are critical to the very survival of the organisation itself, will be tabled for discussion and for resolutions to be reached on them in order to place the organisation on a good footing to carry out its mandate. At the 34th ordinary session of the Council of Ministers held in Abidjan on March 31 one of the declarations made was: ‘’We affirm our determination to accelerate the work plan of the reform of the Association’’ and ‘’the holding of an Extra-Ordinary Session of the Council of Ministers of the APPA Member Countries in Nigeria, before the end of the month of July 2017 in order to give a ruling on the APPA reform project following the presentation of the final report’’. The final report is already being looked at by the committee of experts who have been in Abuja since Thursday, July 15, to do the leg work on the final report for the ministers to consider and approve when they meet on July 24.

The two crucial issues before the July 24 meeting are: one, consideration of the report of a consultant hired to study APPO and bring out ideas that will lead to the reformation of the organisation and its bodies and structures to enable it to better serve its members’ interests.

A decision was taken to commission a consultant to undertake a study on the evaluation and the reform of the organs, institutions and other structures of APPA. A German management consulting firm, Fichtner Management Consulting AG, was hired to do the job. The principal aim of the July 24 meeting is for the ministers to look at that report. The second issue is the adoption of guidelines and procedures towards the filling of vacancies in the organisation. Right now vacancies are filled without strict adherence to any guidelines in such a manner that candidates from member-countries that are not financially up to date get positions while those whose countries contribute to the sustenance of the organisation are denied such privileges.

It will be recalled that last year, Nigeria hosted another meeting of the same organisation— the ordinary session of its Council of Ministers with an equally important companion activity called Congress of African Petroleum Exhibition (CAPE) VI which, for the past -- usually holds alongside the ministerial meeting. Alibi is the Director, Press and PR, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Abuja