Billions at Play: The Future of African Energy and Doing Deals

Wall Street Journal Best Selling Book

“I agree with the points made―and with Ayuk’s case for the critical role that OPEC will play in helping African oil products achieve a much-deserved voice in the petroleum industry.”
―OPEC Secretary-General, H.E. Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo

Two decades of negotiating African oil and gas deals have given NJ Ayuk a grasp of the continent's energy landscape that few can match. The American-educated, African energy lawyer serves up generous doses of that insight in his second book, Billions at Play: The Future of Africa Energy and Doing Deals.

Serving as a road map for the continent to do a better job of using its vast energy resources to improve its peoples' lives, Ayuk addresses how African countries can use their energy industries as springboards for diversifying and growing their overall economies.

In addition, Ayuk shows how African governments and local companies can negotiate better deals with international energy companies and how the continent's countries can use marginal oil and gas fields to develop domestic energy industries that, once strong, will compete globally.

Questions posed and answered:

• Why Africa's fledgling natural gas resources can allow the continent to emerge as a key global player in the industry
• What changes African countries can make in order to become attractive investment destinations
• The role that access to reliable, sustainable, and affordable power can play in the acceleration of economic growth
• Why and how American energy companies should stop curtailing their investments in Africa
• And why the continent’s energy industry needs more women

The book’s underlying theme is that too often, natural resources create wealth for foreign investors and a select group of African elites while everyday people (and in turn, African economies) fail to benefit.

While it is easy to see that there is a lack of local participation in African projects and an ongoing challenge in securing necessary investment, we also need to understand our role in this. We have to understand the importance of creating enabling environments with attractive fiscal terms for local and foreign investors, the role of stronger local content policies in ensuring more local participation in the sector, and the weight government and political uncertainty carries in moving projects forward.

“It’s up to Africans to fix Africa,” writes Ayuk. This statement can be considered a living theme throughout the book as he encourages that local companies and governments have to enter into collaborative agreements rather than passive engagements with IOCs and majors. “[We need] investors who show that they want to fully participate with us, by coming in and building long-term sustainable businesses that last and make a profit, create jobs and further development.”

If you’re ready to dive headfirst into accessing a frank analysis and examination of the African energy landscape and how Africans can begin to fix Africa, jump into the pages of Billions at Play.

NJ Ayuk is founder and CEO of Pan-African corporate law conglomerate, Centurion Law Group; Founder and Executive Chair-man of the African Energy Chamber; and author of Billions at Play: The Future of African Energy and Doing Deals and co-au-thor of Big Barrels: African Oil and Gas and the Quest for Prosperity. He is recognized as one of the foremost figures in African business today.

A Global Shaper with the World Economic Forum, one of Forbes’ Top 10 Most Influential Men in Africa in 2015, and a well-known dealmaker in the petroleum and power sectors, NJ is dedicating his career to helping entrepreneurs find success and to building the careers of young African lawyers. NJ strives through his work to ensure that business, and especially oil and gas, impacts African societies in a positive way and drives local content development.

NJ graduated from the University of Maryland College Park and earned a Juris Doctor from William Mitchell College of Law and an MBA from the New York Institute of Technology.

Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo of Nigeria, Secretary General of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) at the OPEC Secretariat in Vienna, Austria. An accomplished oil technocrat and veteran of OPEC, Mr Barkindo brings with him a wealth of experience in the oil and gas industry, both in Nigeria and internationally.

From 2009 to 2010, he was Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Previous to that, he served as Deputy Managing Director of Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, a joint venture between NNPC, Shell, Total and Eni. Earlier in his career, he was Special Assistant to former Minister of Petroleum Resources and OPEC Secretary General, HE Dr Rilwanu Lukman.

Mr Barkindo also worked in several key roles at OPEC between 1986 and 2010. In 1986, he was appointed to Nigeria’s delegation to OPEC, and from 1993 to 2008, served as Nigeria’s National Representative on the Organization’s Economic Commission Board. In 2006, he served as Acting Secretary General of OPEC, and represented Nigeria on OPEC’s Board of Governors from 2009 to 2010.

He has also helped produce the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto protocol as the leader of Nigeria’s technical delegation to the UN negotiations since 1991. He also served as Vice President of COP15 in 2010, when he chaired the opening session in Copenhagen attended by more than 100 heads of state and government. He is the longest serving member of the country’s delegation to the UNFCCC. He also served as Chairman of the OPEC Task Force of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development for the 15th session.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in political science from Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Mr Barkindo went on to achieve a postgraduate diploma in petroleum economics and management from the College of Petroleum Studies at Oxford University and a master’s degree in business administration from Southeastern University in Washington, DC. He is also a holder of an Honorable Doctorate Degree in Science from Modibbo Adama, Federal University of Technology, Yola, Nigeria. He is a fellow member of various international petroleum institutions such as the Institute of Petroleum, London.