The Africa Energy Investment Forum in Paris featured a standout session this year with Premier Investment Dealroom, a platform highlighting more than $10 billion worth of oil, gas and renewable energy projects seeking investment across Africa and the broader energy frontier.
“This is a platform to showcase the interesting opportunities we are advising across Africa,” said Marcel Awassoum, Head of Business Development at Premier Investments. “Every transaction we advise on, from family offices to oil and gas private equity, mobilizes capital, mostly from the Middle East and some from Europe.”
The session featured 17 active deals across the upstream, midstream, trade and renewable energy sectors, highlighting the wide range of investment opportunities on the African continent and beyond. One of the key opportunities was the development of a 200,000 barrel per day crude oil refinery seeking $4.8 billion in combined equity and debt to meet the region’s growing demand for refined products. Another deal sought $50 million through a 360-day revolving letter of credit facility to support imports of refined petroleum products.
Exploration and production prospects were also mooted, with development projects offering up to 40% participation to qualified investors, and African oil and gas companies seeking $30 million in capital injections, strategic partnerships and mining contracts to strengthen trading capabilities and expand upstream.
Refining featured prominently in the deals, with one project calling for between €2 billion and €5 billion to expand national capacity, open to debt, equity and strategic partnerships. Another opportunity included a $25 million equity investment in a highly prospective Guyana offshore field, providing a first-mover advantage with an estimated 400 million barrels of recoverable reserves.
Other activities include the sale of a decommissioned Caribbean gas-to-liquids plant with proven EBITDA of $50 million in operation. $18 million debt facility to drill additional wells at active production sites. And a fast-paced $360 million field development project is already attracting soft commitments. The session also highlighted investment opportunities in the Republic of Congo. In the Republic of Congo, a special purpose vehicle is seeking co-investors for an asset-producing M&A transaction. $70 million fuel import contract in Burundi. A $200 million financing package to support the purchase of both crude oil and refined products in Ivory Coast.
The session ended with five renewable energy projects seeking investment of more than $725 million. This includes $362 million for a 70 MW geothermal project in Kenya, $92 million for a 71 MW solar and wind hybrid project in Zambia, $87 million for a 100 MW solar PV project in South Africa, and two clean gas projects, one in Benin (43 MW) and another in South Africa (100 MW), seeking $84 million and $100 million respectively.
