{"id":199383,"date":"2021-08-23T21:53:56","date_gmt":"2021-08-23T19:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/energycapitalandpower.africa-newsroom.com\/press\/opec-secretary-general-commences-historic-visit-to-congobrazzaville?lang=en"},"modified":"2021-08-23T21:53:56","modified_gmt":"2021-08-23T19:53:56","slug":"opec-secretary-general-commences-historic-visit-to-congo-brazzaville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/opec-secretary-general-commences-historic-visit-to-congo-brazzaville\/","title":{"rendered":"OPEC Secretary General Commences Historic Visit to Congo-Brazzaville"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"image_wrap\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/thumb\/494f761a08201dd\/600\/418\" alt=\"Energy Capital &#038; Power\"\/><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><em>H.E. Mohammed Barkindo, Secretary General of OPEC, was received by H.E. Bruno Jean-Richard Itoua, Congolese Minister of Hydrocarbons, ahead of a three-day working visit to Congo-Brazzaville; The inaugural visit marks a critical turning point for the Congo&rsquo;s energy sector, as the country seeks to play a more prominent role on the regional and global energy stage; The Republic of the Congo is home to 2.9 billion barrels of proven reserves and represents sub-Saharan Africa&rsquo;s third-largest crude oil producer. &nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>H.E. Mohammed Barkindo, Secretary General of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), was received on August 22 in Congo-Brazzaville by H.E. Bruno Jean-Richard Itoua, Congolese Minister of Hydrocarbons, kicking off a three-day working visit aimed at boosting regional and global energy cooperation with the Central African producer. This is OPEC&rsquo;s first-ever state visit to Congo-Brazzaville, with the delegation is organized by African Energy Chamber and attended by Energy Capital Power.<\/p>\n<p>The Secretary General and the Minister expressed their joint enthusiasm toward strengthening relations between OPEC and Congo-Brazzaville, the latter of which joined the Organization in June 2018.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;At OPEC, we are confident that under the excellent leadership of the Minister of Hydrocarbons, we will be turning a new page in the relations between OPEC and the Republic of the Congo,&rdquo; noted H.E. Barkindo.<\/p>\n<p>The visit comes at a crucial turning point for Congo-Brazzaville&rsquo;s burgeoning energy sector. In recent years, the country has doubled down on efforts to boost its petroleum industry via enhanced private sector participation and foreign direct investment. Between 2015-2019, the Ministry of Hydrocarbons launched licensing rounds with 28 blocks on offer, awarding licenses to leading IOCs including Total, Perenco, Lukoil and Eni.<\/p>\n<p>As sub-Saharan Africa&rsquo;s third-largest crude oil producer with 2.9 billion barrels of proven reserves, the country is seeking to catalyze broad-based, socioeconomic growth through the development of its oil and gas industry. The Secretary General&rsquo;s presence in the country underscores growing interest from international stakeholders to engage with the country&rsquo;s hydrocarbons sector and foster joint energy cooperation. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>H.E. Barkindo highlighted the vital importance of cooperation among OPEC members and saluted the Congo&rsquo;s &ldquo;high level of compliance,&rdquo; as the country seeks to play an increasingly prominent role on the regional and international energy stage.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Looking ahead, we need to facilitate the further development of the charter of our cooperation, focusing on long-term cooperation in technology, the energy transition and sustainable development,&rdquo; he added.<\/p>\n<p>H.E. Barkindo&rsquo;s visit will include high-level meetings with Congolese Prime Minister H.E. Anatole Collinet Makosso and H.E. Minister Itoua. The Secretary General will also travel to Pointe-Noire on August 24 to visit a platform, as well as meet with the country&rsquo;s key industry stakeholders and leaders.<\/p>\n<p><i>Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Energy Capital &#038; Power.<\/i><\/p>\n<div class=\"well well-sm\"><b>Media files<\/b><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/bc97bda5e3bfa79\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/bc97bda5e3bfa79\" alt=\"Energy Capital &#038; Power\" style=\"max-width:500px;\"\/><\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/download\/bc97bda5e3bfa79\">Download logo<\/a><\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/\">Source: Africa Newsroom &#8211; APO<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>H.E. Mohammed Barkindo, Secretary General of OPEC, was received by H.E. Bruno Jean-Richard Itoua, Congolese Minister of Hydrocarbons, ahead of a three-day working visit to Congo-Brazzaville; The inaugural visit marks a critical turning point for the Congo&rsquo;s energy sector, as the country seeks to play a more prominent role on the regional and global energy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":199384,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[4585],"class_list":{"0":"post-199383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa-news-2","8":"tag-apo","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/opec-secretary-general-commences-historic-visit-to-congo-brazzaville.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}