The African continent is set to witness a significant expansion in onshore oil and gas exploration operations during 2025. This surge is driven by several countries, including Libya, seeking to leverage their vast hydrocarbon wealth to support sustainable economic growth, improve energy access, and ensure stability of supplies locally and internationally.
Onshore drilling and exploration campaigns across the continent aim to extract approximately 125bn barrels of oil and 632tn cubic feet of natural gas. This represents a crucial step that is expected to substantially develop energy infrastructure and increase the local content ratio within each country’s energy sector.
Efforts in Libya and other African nations:
In Libya, despite ongoing political and logistical challenges, onshore exploration remains a key pillar of national energy strategies. Relevant authorities are working to reactivate stalled drilling projects and expand exploration areas, amid increasing interest from major international companies in the potential of Libyan onshore fields, especially those located in the resource-rich southern regions.
In Algeria, an international tender titled “Algeria Bid Round 2024” has been launched, targeting the development of substantial reserves estimated at 700bn cubic metres of gas and 560m barrels of oil, reflecting its ambition to boost production.
South Africa has made notable progress in natural gas exploration, with the Australian company Kinetiko Energy successfully raising $2.2m to fund a large-scale drilling campaign, signalling promising discoveries.
In Angola, long-term contracts have been signed with major international oil and gas companies for exploration in multiple blocks, while Uganda is striving to discover its first commercial reserve by 2026.
Namibia and Zimbabwe continue to attract significant international investments to finance advanced drilling and seismic surveys, underscoring the attractiveness of their oil and gas basins.