By Amadou Manjang
The Gambia’s Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Mr. Fafa Sanyang, has acknowledged the impact of the global outbreak of Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) pandemic on the country’s petroleum sector.
Addressing the Virtual Roundtable meeting of African Energy Ministers, which also included leaders from the African Union, the United Nations, the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, OPEC, the European Union, Power Africa, and the International Renewable Energy Agency, Minister Sanyang said that the directive of reducing the number of passengers of vehicles to 50% has reduced the demand for fuel in the Gambia.
He informed his colleagues that, to dampen the economic loss to the transporters, the Gambia government had to reduce the pump price of petrol by 25 per cent; diesel by 23 per cent and kerosene by 44 per cent. He added that petroleum consumption in the country has significant increased in the revenue of the government.
The Virtual meeting heard that the slump in the demand and the reduction of pump prices had directly affected the revenue base of the government of The Gambia, as Minister Sanyang stressed that the pandemic has created uncertainty, and delays in petroleum exploration activities in the country.
“Even though The Gambia is not a petroleum production, we are very much advanced and optimistic in the exploration projects,” the Petroleum Ministry boss informed his numbers from the continent. He said that the upstream petroleum business has been delayed by COVID-19.
“The FAR- Petronas Joint venture which is conducting offshore exploration in two of our offshore Blocks A2 and A5, has postponed the drilling component in their Work Programme till 2021,” Minister Sanyang (a geologist) disclosed.
However, he opined that the COVID-19 impact on energy sectors in Africa could be an opportunity for countries to think how to diversify their economic by reducing their dependence on oil. He added that they could look at the upscaling investment in renewable energy resources.
The country Energy and Petroleum chief believes low oil and gas price could be used to promote use of cooking gas to reduce fuel wood in ECOWAS.
He stated, “In the Gambia about 80% of domestic energy demand is met by fuel wood and charcoal, which severely affect our merger forest cover.”
Sanyang noted that low oil price could also lead to falling upstream service fees due to low demand for these services.
