Billions at Play: The Future of African Energy and Doing Deals , Clink Street Publishing

-About this book

AMAZON #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER and #1 NEW RELEASE
‘Billions At Play’ is a Comprehensive but Entertaining Look at Africa’s Oil & Gas Present and Future
Two decades of negotiating African oil and gas deals have given NJ Ayuk a grasp of the continent’s energy landscape that few can match.
The American-educated, African energy lawyer serves up generous doses of that insight in his second book, « Billions at Play: The Future of Africa Energy and Doing Deals. »
He offers a road map for the continent doing a better job of using its vast energy resources to improve its peoples’ lives. He addresses how African countries can use their energy industries as spring boards for diversifying and growing their overall economies.
Another is how they can negotiate better deals with international energy companies and how the continent’s countries can use marginal oil and gas fields to develop domestic energy industries that, once strong, will compete globally.
In addition, Ayuk discusses why Africa’s fledgling natural gas industry can become an international powerhouse, how the continent can improve its notoriously unreliable, economy-sapping power industry, why American energy companies should stop curtailing their investments in Africa, and why the continent’s energy industry needs more women.
The book’s underlying theme is that – in Ayuk’s words – « too often, our natural resources create wealth for foreign investors and a select group of African elites while everyday people fail to benefit. »
As for Africans needing to step up their energy-negotiations game, Ayuk notes that when he became an oil and gas lawyer years ago, « Africans were not part of any kind of deal-making structure: When negotiations involving foreign investors’ oil and gas exploration, production, and revenue-sharing took place, Africans were not at the table–or even in the room. »
Although African negotiators are at the table now, some are being out maneuvered, he suggests. He goes on to list steps that African negotiators can take to achieve oil and gas deals that please their clients, such as remembering that the best agreements benefit both sides. A mutually rewarding deal will reduce the chance that one side will become resentful and demand a renegotiation.
Although Africa has been an oil-market force for decades, it has lagged on natural-gas development. This needs to change, he says. While more gas exports would boost the continent’s economy, the main reason he wants to see a gas-development boom is that gas would ease the continent’s power shortages until renewables inevitably take over.
Africa has so much gas potential that many energy experts see the continent as gas’s new frontier, he enthuses. The power shortages that gas could help fix have been battering Africa’s economy for decades, Ayuk laments. The main reason is that governments own most countries’ utility assets, he contends. Governments that have separated power creation and distribution, and privatized it, are reducing their electricity deficits, he says. If adopted continent-wide, unbundling could go a long way toward solving the power crunch, he asserts.
Ayuk also makes a case for Africa’s oil and gas industry hiring and promoting more women. His main argument is one that you hear reverberating across the business world: Why limit your company’s potential by failing to consider half of your country’s human capital?
He underscores his argument by pointing to African women who have achieved petroleum-industry success, including becoming CEOs.
Although « Billions » deals with one of world’s most complex industries, it is easy to digest because Ayuk writes in a straightforward, concise and zesty style. This makes the book a joy to read. I learned a lot about Africa’s oil and gas industry in « Billions » – and its prospects for the future – and had fun while I was doing it.

-Contents

Foreword

1 – It’s High Time for African Oil and Gas to Fuel a Better Future for Africans

Capitalizing on Copper in Chile

Bright Ideas in Botswana

Don’t Give up on Oil and Gas

2 – It’s Up to Africans to Fix Africa

Handouts Keep People Down

Collaboration Is Critical to Africa’s Future

The Role of African Governments

The Role of African Businesses and Investors

The Role of Pan-African Organizations

3 – A Place at the Table: Africa and OPEC

Growing Numbers, Adding Strength

Friends in the Right Places

If You Want to Go Far, Go Together

The Unknown Effect of NOPEC

Membership and Its Rewards

Funding Real Change

Who Will Be Next?Toward a Stronger, More Stable Industry

An African at the Helm

4 – Empowering Women for a Stronger, Healthier Oil and Gas Industry

Gender Inequality in Energy and Africa

Leading the Way

Taking Steps

Education: Long-Term Investments

Putting Policies in Place

Non-Government Organizations: Moving in the Right Direction

WEX Africa: Showing How It’s Done

Setting the Stage

5 – Abundant, Accessible, Affordable: The “Golden Age” of Natural

Gas Shines in Africa

Sparking Social Change in Africa

Growing Interest in Gas-Fired Power

Re-Evaluating Priorities

Ambitions Rise With More LNG

What’s Standing in Our Way?

Banding Together

6 – Monetizing Natural Resources: Successes, Lessons, and Risks

Flaring: A Lose-Lose for Africa

Equatorial Guinea Capitalizes on LNG

Qatar’s Quest for World Domination

Learn From the Master: Trinidad and Tobago

Where’s the Win-Win for Africa?

We Can’t Slow Down Now

Exploration Is a Must!

Fostering Foreign Investment

Pushing Production

Successful Mergers That Breed Cooperation

7 – Job Creation: Making Our Own Multiplier EffectStarting Small (and Medium-Sized)

More Rules, or Better Conditions?

Borrower Beware

Luck, Location, and Labor

8 – A “Recipe” for Economic Diversification

Oil and Gas as the First Step

Moving Down the Chain: Power Generation

Moving Down the Chain: Fertilizer and Other Possibilities

The Right Kind of Support

Onward and Upward

Chile: Not Just Copper Now

9 – Calling All Leaders! More on Good Governance

Sound Fiscal Policies for Revenue Management

Combatting Corruption by Just Saying “No”

The Push for Transparency

Transparency Initiatives: Seeing It All Clearly

Firm and Fair Local Content Policies Strike a Balance

Effective Enforcement

Continued Nurturing Needed

10 – Industrialization: Linking Promise to Prosperity

A Path for Overcoming Old Patterns

Adopting New Paradigms

For Nigeria, a Shift in the Right Direction

Creating Enabling Environments in Kenya

Setting the Future Course Today

Port of Point Lisas

11 – Technological Solutions for Oil and Gas

Overlooking Oil and Gas

The Benefits of Technology

Technology, Infrastructure, and Education

What Can the Government Do?African Technology Success Stories

12 – Oil and Gas Companies Can Help Reshape African Economies

Africans Helping Africans: Sharing Opportunities and Knowledge

Indigenous Businesses and the Battle Against Corruption

The Role of National Oil Companies: Do They Owe the Community?

13 – Following Nigeria’s Lead on Marginal Fields Stepping Stones

Imitation Is the Best Form of Flattery

A Hole Waiting to Be Filled

Government Must Set the Stage

14 – The Critical Art of Deal-Making : It’s Time to Negotiate for a Better Future

Negotiating Fundamentals

Governments: You Have to Demand More Promise for Africa

Life Happens

A Few Thoughts for This Generation

15 – The Connection Between Energy Security and Social Security

The War on Oil and Gas Assets— and on Quality of Life

Africa Needs Local Solutions

Don’t Forget Technology

Groups, Gangs, and Violence

Civil War and Instability

Looking Forward

16 – Managing Oil and Gas Revenue

Unfair and Unbalanced

Looking to Norway

Increasing Local Control

Lessons Learned: The Chad-Cameroon Pipeline Project17 – American Ingenuity and Africa Oil and Gas Potential

17 – American Ingenuity and Africa Oil and Gas Potential

The Shale Revolution and the New Normal

The Risks

Realities in the Field

SNE Deepwater Oilfield

Exploration Prospects in Africa

Fiscal Terms

A Look at Returns

What We Can Do

A Long-Term Relationship

More Powerful Together: African Energy and American Ingenuity

18 – How We’ll Recover From COVID-19

Africa’s Ailing Petroleum Industry

One Problem After Another

Businesses in Survival Mode

Time for Treatment

Infusion of Job Opportunities

Approaching Our Energy Transition Wisely

19 – Lights Out: Reforming African Power Generation Monopolies and Transitioning to the Future

Fixing SSA’s Power Utilities

The Ugandan and Kenyan Lesson

Transitioning Into the Future

Innovation is Key

What About Big Oil?

Energy—Not Oil and Gas—Companies

Where Do Africans Stand?

20 – Concluding Thoughts

Endnotes

-caractéristiques

Date de parution :22 octobre 2019

Éditeur ‏ : ‎ Clink Street Publishing  

Langue ‏ : ‎ Anglais

N.B de pages‏ : ‎ 296 pages

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1913136345

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1913136345

Poids de l’article ‏ : ‎ 590 g

Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.19 x 2.06 x 22.91 cm