African Energy Week (AEW) 2026 to Explore How Carbon capture and storage (CCS) Can Unlock New Value From Africa’s Oil and Gas Assets
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is emerging as a potential tool for Africa to reduce emissions from existing oil and gas infrastructure while preserving asset value and opening new investment opportunities. The role of the technology will come under discussion at African Energy Week (AEW) 2026, as part of the Energy Additions Forum.
The dedicated panel, “Carbon Capture and Storage: Turning Africa’s Oil and Gas Asset into Climate Solutions,” will examine how carbon-management technologies can support lower-emissions hydrocarbon production, extend the economic life of existing infrastructure and create new commercial opportunities across the energy sector.
The opportunity spans the continent’s existing geological and industrial infrastructure. Depleted oil and gas reservoirs across North, West and Southern Africa could provide permanent carbon storage, while established pipelines, processing facilities and industrial sites could serve as the foundations for regional decarbonization hubs.
Investment opportunities extend across the carbon-management value chain. Capture facilities at refineries, power plants and industrial sites could connect to shared pipeline and shipping networks before transporting CO₂ to saline aquifers or depleted reservoirs. Developing this infrastructure could create new businesses serving multiple emitters while generating long-term transportation and storage revenues.
CCUS could also create additional value from Africa’s natural gas resources. Retrofitting hydrogen production with carbon capture could support blue hydrogen, while captured carbon could potentially be used as a feedstock for industrial chemicals, building materials and synthetic fuels. These applications could broaden the commercial case for carbon management beyond permanent underground storage.
Policy and carbon-market frameworks will be critical to bringing projects to scale. Nigeria is developing a more structured carbon-market architecture, with its National Carbon Market Framework and Carbon Market Activation Policy establishing mechanisms for project registration, international carbon transfers and corresponding adjustments. Planned carbon-tax and emissions-trading mechanisms could provide further incentives for high-emitting industries to adopt carbon-management technologies.
South Africa is similarly moving from geological research toward commercial CCUS applications. The Leandra pilot in Mpumalanga has advanced understanding of deep saline formations, while collaboration between the Council for Geoscience and Sasol is examining opportunities to capture and store industrial emissions and potentially convert captured carbon into commercially useful products.
Across the continent, emerging projects demonstrate the range of approaches available. Kenya is exploring basalt mineralization, in which injected carbon dioxide reacts with volcanic rock and becomes permanently mineralized, while Nigeria continues to build its carbon-storage knowledge base and South Africa assesses additional onshore and offshore basins.
For Africa’s oil and gas producers, the development of CCS infrastructure could ultimately provide a pathway to address emissions from existing assets while creating new industries around carbon transportation, storage and utilization. The scale and commercial viability of that opportunity, however, will depend on investment, policy frameworks, infrastructure and cross-border cooperation.
“CCS gives Africa a practical pathway to reduce emissions while continuing to develop its oil and gas resources. With the right investment and policy frameworks, we can turn our geological resources and existing infrastructure into a new carbon-management industry that creates jobs, attracts capital and keeps more value on the continent,” says NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman, African Energy Chamber.
