Sectoral Experts from the Ministries in charge of Hydrocarbons of certain ECOWAS Member States met from August 31 to September 02, 2022 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire to carry out a final review and alignment of the draft Petroleum Code of ECOWAS (ECOPEC) in order to submit it very soon for ministerial validation.
The Abidjan meeting following the regional validation workshop of the first draft of the Regional Petroleum Code, which was held from May 25 to 27, 2022 in Accra, Ghana, was attended by a representative of the Bank Development, the Consultant in charge of the study and delegations from 7 ECOWAS countries including Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. At the end of the 3-day restricted meeting, the participants finalized the cross-reading of all the provisions of the draft document by making the necessary corrections and carried out an effective alignment of the French and English versions of the draft regional Petroleum Code.
Following this meeting, ECOWAS will organize in October 2022, the meeting of Ministers in charge of hydrocarbons preceded by a meeting of experts for the validation of the Draft Regional Petroleum Code. This will be followed by the presentation of the Draft Regional Petroleum Code to the ECOWAS Parliament for opinion; and in December 2022, the presentation and signature of the act of adoption of the Draft Regional Petroleum Code by the competent statutory body of ECOWAS (the Council of Ministers or the Conference of Heads of State and Government).
It should be noted that this meeting was launched and closed by Mr. Bayaornibè DABIRE , Director of Energy and Mines of ECOWAS who, in his closing speech of the workshop, congratulated the experts for the quality of the exchanges. He was also pleased that the work resulted in an effective alignment of the two versions of the document, the content of which will promote the integrated development of the oil sector in the ECOWAS region.
It should be recalled that the project to develop the ECOWAS Petroleum Code was initiated in 2018 by the ECOWAS Commission with a view to harmonizing policies and regulations in the hydrocarbons sector following an analysis study oil policies, laws, regulatory and institutional frameworks of the oil sector in West Africa, conducted with the support of the African Development Bank.
Overall, it appeared that regional harmonization will make it possible to develop regulations by considering international best practices and current issues in this sector (technological, security, environmental, local content, etc.); but also to exploit and develop hydrocarbon resources in the region in an efficient manner, and this in a regional perspective in order to federate efforts and develop synergies and complementarities to promote a substantial contribution of this potential to the sustainable development of the region. region
The Regional Petroleum Code thus prescribes common and specific general provisions governing all hydrocarbon development and valorization activities in the ECOWAS region.
In addition to the methods of prospecting, research, exploitation, transport of crude hydrocarbons by pipeline, as well as tax, customs and exchange provisions, the Regional Petroleum Code also prescribes provisions relating to transparency, measures to promote local content, supply to the internal ECOWAS market, local development, management of cross-border deposits, gas torloading, development and management of cross-border pipelines, the establishment of oil development funds and sovereign wealth funds, environmental protection, etc.
The ECOWAS Regional Petroleum Code comprises 8 Titles, and 76 articles. Its implementation will enable Member States to make the most of their oil and gas resources for the benefit of the populations.
