The UNCTAD Secretariat, in cooperation with the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (PTA Bank), is organizing a large conference on oil marketing, risk management and finance. The conference is hosted by the Government of Zimbabwe, and will take place in Harare from 15 to 17 April.
This conference, which will be opened by Hon. Simon K. Moyo, M.P., Minister of Transport and Energy of Zimbabwe, will bring together sub-Saharan Africa´s major players in the oil and finance areas.
The objective of the conference is to contribute to improving oil trading, risk management and financing practices in Africa´s oil sector. Studies have shown that African countries can make major savings through improving these practices - importers alone could save over US$500 million a year. By bringing together key decision makers from Africa´s oil and finance sectors, it is hoped to create the momentum needed to implement important changes.
Speakers include S. Dossou-Awcret, Chairman, Petrolin Group and former Chairman of thhe OPEC Board of Governors; C. Edordu, President of the African Export-Import Bank; M. Ogang, President of the PTA Bank; O.A.R. Oladele, Group Executive Director of the Nigerian National Oil Company; M. M´Pundu, Managing Director of the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe; T. Tsikata, Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation; and a number of the leading experts in these areas from western banks, oil exchanges and other organizations active in the oil sector. Senior executives of a large number of other African oil companies, refineries and end users, as well as African banks, are also expected to attend the event.
This conference has been made possible through funding by the Government of The Netherlands and with the financial assistance from the private sector (the New York Mercantile Exchange, the International Petroleum Exchange, Union Bank of Switzerland, Standard Chartered, Refco, Masefield, Reuters, Petroleum Argus, Futures & Options World and Energy Risk). It aims at improving oil trading, risk management and financing practices in Africa´s oil sector.
The conference will consist of sessions on futures, options and over-the-counter markets; oil pricing; how to develop practical risk management strategies; how to overcome internal resistance to change; how to avoid Barings-type crises; how to negotiate better with providers of over-the-counter risk management instruments; traditional and non-traditional oil trade financing techniques; the use of derivatives in raising medium-term finance; and new forms of financing such as asset-backed security issues.
The conference will close with panels of exporters and importers, in which the African oil companies most advanced in the risk management and finance area will share their experience; a panel on the role governments can play; and a final panel on the concrete actions that can be taken to realize in full the benefits possible through better use of modern marketing, risk management and finance instruments in the oil sector.
