Sahara Group Co-founder and Executive Director, Temitope Shonubi is one of the speakers at this year's Africa Oil and Power conference scheduled to hold in Cape Town from September 5 - 7, 2018.
The theme for this year's conference is "Energy Coalitions," focusing on the importance of greater collaboration and partnerships within and across oil and power sub-sectors.
High level stakeholders including oil ministers, regulators and CEOs from international and indigenous oil and gas companies would deliberate on the best way to drive Africa's energy sector forward 'through energy coalitions, from regional cooperation at government level and private companies coordinating on development and financing deals to how the private and public sectors can collaborate to transform the sector.
Temitope will speak on oil trading trends within West Africa on a panel which also features Torbjorn Tornqvist, CEO, Gunvor and Russel Hardy, Group CEO, Vitol.
The panel is expected to address topics such as price volatility in oil trading and the peculiarities of market forces from one trading hub to another.
They will also discuss how financial models are being re-examined to suit the new business paradigm.
Describing stakeholder collaboration as the "lifeline of oil and power in Africa," Temitope said this would boost capacity and intra-African trade in light of untapped opportunities on the continent.
"This is a great opportunity to discuss new frontiers for the future of oil and gas trading in Africa. Among others, we need harmonisation of petroleum product specifications amongst countries to drive growth in intra-African trade.
"The domestic policies for oil and gas infrastructure as well as trade should be aligned with a more regional and global objective."
Temitope explained that oil and gas traders in Africa would also need to address the dearth of experienced traders to boost the continent's human capital profile ahead of the projected future growth in the sector. "Africa needs to invest more in capacity building in line with global standards. We are spearheading this narrative on the continent through various mentorship and specialised training programmes for our people at Sahara and other beneficiaries at our trading hubs in Geneva and Singapore."
