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Africa to Capitalize on Deepwater Drilling

BP have taken a huge hit, to their balance sheet and public perception due to the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico

In the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico disaster, offshore deepwater drilling is now being questioned as too risky a venture. However the domino effect of how this will impact other regions is a far less damaging then initially expected.

Africa has always had a strong market for offshore exploratory drilling projects and with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. saying on Monday that they struck oil offshore of Ghana at the Owo prospect in the Deepwater Tano Bloc, does little to dampen new drilling projects in the western region.

Even BP, who have taken a huge hit, to their balance sheet and public perception due to the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, has no plans to stop deepwater drilling in the Gulf or other offshore areas, but has not gone unnoticed by regulatory and government bodies.

The Obama administration's financial reform act has already started setting precedent to show that a global standard for corporate transparency should be geared toward mining and energy companies. However there is a large gap between setting precedent and taking ownership in the marketplace, and these are topics that the oil and gas industry as a whole are starting to look at together.

When an industry experiences negative environmental and health and safety impacts on a yearly basis, the cooperation of the industry as a whole to develop new methods for developing the global energy supply becomes extremely important. A spokesperson from Shell explains ‘We had 132 spills last year, against 175 on average. Safety valves were vandalized; one pipe had 300 illegal taps. We found five explosive devices on one. Sometimes communities do not give us access to clean up the pollution because they can make more money from compensation'

Repairing pipelines, developing effective oil spill response teams, and working on better technologies for blowout preventers (BOP) are precautions that are part of a major oil and gas companies daily activities.

The importance of developing new sites sees Africa at the forefront of major talking points at NG O&G Summit in Africa. The top executives in the industry like BG Group - Emmanuel Enu, GM Exploration, Nigeria, Galp Energy - Daniel Elias, Head of Development and Production, Vanco International - Jeff Mitchell , COO, Lukoil - Alexander Shelev , Ghana Country Manager, and Sonangol - Francisco Lopes da Cunha, Chief Geophysicist are working together to on making deepwater drilling a safer way to capitalize on the huge reservoirs of oil found below a mile under the sea.

More Stories By John Funnell

John Funnell has worked in online media for over ten years, after achieving his First Class BSC Hons Degree (BBC Sponsored), John won Bos 18-21 Princess Trust Entrepeneur of the year at 21, setting up Clean Living Records Ltd (including www.BeatReview.com) with great success having many acts that charted in Europe and Canada. After selling the business John looked for a new challenge and joined GDS International, having a successful career in sales and Delegate acquisition, he worked up to Event Director EMEA, forging contacts with some of the biggest technology names in the world, this lead to John having a lead role in the creation of MeettheBoss.com and MeettheBoss.tv – the worlds largest business IPTV channel. John then took over as Marketing and Communications Director and ran a multifaceted global Marketing team for GDS International in New York, Sydney, Kuala Lumper and the UK.. John joined Global in 2011 with the challenge of supporting its growth by developing a solid Marketing foundation through various Digital, PR and brand initiatives.