Arc of instability threatens Sahel’s upstream, pipeline ambitions
Coups and geopolitical rivalries complicate energy projects in the expansive region
The Sahel is an extensive, semi-arid zone that spans the African continent south of the Sahara from the Atlantic to the Red Sea coasts. The region’s countries are poor and have been historically isolated, but growing instability in the past few years—most recently with the coup in Niger—demonstrate the Sahel’s geopolitical importance for the competing global powers of the US, Europe, China and Russia. With IOCs and oil and gas projects already impacted by ongoing events in the Sahel, Petroleum Economist looks at what the zone’s precarity might mean for the sector. Amid the panoply of armed insurgents, Islamist groups and smugglers active in the region, there is also mounting ethnic violence

Also in this section
27 September 2023
Regional industry body ANGEA remains bullish about Asia's adoption of gas and LNG, despite elevated prices and logistical challenges
26 September 2023
Half a century after the 1973 conflict, the world is dramatically different. But OPEC’s power remains
26 September 2023
Bottlenecks continue to constrain gas-rich Appalachia, and relief may not be in the pipeline
22 September 2023
Former executives and a successor company are accused of complicity in Sudanese war crimes in what is now South Sudan