Oil and gas service providers across Africa have formed a continental forum known as the African Local Content Organisation (ALCO) to deliver complex projects, create and retain value in the multibillion-dollar African energy sector.
The organisation was unveiled on Wednesday at the 2025 Namibia Oil and Gas Conference at Windhoek, Namibia.
Membership is open to national associations of service providers in the oil and gas and mining sectors across the continent.
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Chairman of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) and member of NCDMB Governing Council, Mr. Wole Ogunsanya, introduced the organisation and explained that the body would serve as the private sector arm of the African Petroleum Producers’ Organisation (APPO), which comprises African governments engaged in oil and gas operations.
He underscored the pivotal and complementary roles the private sector plays in building African local content, particularly in the development of competent human capacities, deployment of technologies and equipment, mobilization of private capital, and the execution of projects.
Ogunsanya said the organisation would be launched officially at the 2026 African Union (AU) conference, given its strategic importance to the continent’s economy.
Key to the group’s plan is to institute a close partnership with APPO and the African Energy Bank (AEB).
The bank was recently set up by APPO to fund big ticket energy projects across the continent and bridge the funding gap impeding the development of key energy projects.
Members of the group, Ogunsanya said, are well-positioned to execute key scopes of the projects that would be financed by the energy bank.
Other key objectives of the forum include facilitating the exchange of knowledge and capacities among African energy service companies, enabling collaboration on projects, and growing Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“Through the forum, we can carry out benchmark studies, join forces to solve industry problems. It is also a forum where African energy service companies can link up and find partners across the continent.
“It would enable the exchange of equipment and partnership on major industry projects. As Namibia or any other African country develops energy projects, you can count on your African brothers to share our over 70 years of knowledge and experience in the oil and gas industry,” the PETAN chairman added.
