Benin’s Energy Minister Kingnidé Paulin Akponna will speak at AEW: Invest in African Energies 2025, highlighting the country’s growing oil, gas and solar sectors and its push for regional energy leadership

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, June 3, 2025/ -- Kingnidé Paulin Akponna, Minister of Energy, Water and Mines of Benin, has confirmed his participation as a speaker at African Energy Week (AEW): Invest in African Energies 2025, taking place from September 29 to October 3 in Cape Town. His attendance comes as Benin’s upstream sector gains renewed traction, supported by drilling campaigns, a robust pipeline network and major public-private partnerships aimed at revitalizing both hydrocarbon and renewable energy development. Minister Akponna will join key stakeholders to showcase Benin’s strategic positioning in West Africa’s energy landscape, highlight investment opportunities and engage in high-level dialogue to advance cross-border cooperation and infrastructure development. 

As a country seeking to strengthen its energy independence and regional trade integration, Benin has made substantial progress across the oil, gas and renewable sectors. From offshore oilfield development to critical trade finance programs, and from the commissioning of new solar capacity to the operationalization of the Niger-Benin Export Pipeline, Benin is emerging as a competitive and forward-looking energy market. Minister Akponna’s presence at AEW: Invest in African Energies 2025 will underscore Benin’s renewed commitment to unlocking its hydrocarbon potential, diversifying its energy mix and forging stronger investment partnerships with global stakeholders.  

AEW: Invest in African Energies is the platform of choice for project operators, financiers, technology providers and government, and has emerged as the official place to sign deals in African energy. 

Benin’s energy resurgence is marked by a series of recent milestones. In February 2025, Niger confirmed the export of over 14 million barrels of oil through the Niger-Benin Export Pipeline, operated by the China National Petroleum Corporation. This $4.6 billion infrastructure investment has become critical not only to Niger’s debt repayments but also to Benin’s strategic growth as a regional transit hub. Exports from the pipeline resumed in August 2024 following diplomatic agreements, reaffirming the pipeline’s importance for regional stability, energy security and trade. 

In December 2023, offshore oil developer Akkrake Petroleum signed a production sharing contract for a 76% operated interest in the shallow-water Sèmè Field, situated in Benin’s offshore Block 1. With historical production of 22 million barrels, the field is now well-positioned for revitalization through a modern production system that includes a jack-up mobile production unit and floating storage. A vertical exploration and appraisal well is planned for mid-2025, and if successful, will be converted into a producer, followed by horizontal drilling in 2026. This marks the return of significant drilling activity in Benin’s offshore blocks and supported the country’s ambition to unlock untapped hydrocarbon reserves. 

Meanwhile, Benin continues to position itself as a solar development hotspot. With a goal of reaching 150 MW by 2026 and 300 MW by 2030, the country is ramping up renewable deployment. A major step forward was the commissioning of the second phase of the Illoulofin solar PV plant in 2024, a 25 MW project delivered through a public-private partnership with Japan’s Toyota Tsusho and the Société Béninoise de Production d’Électricité. Representing the first large-scale Japanese-led renewable project in West Africa, the plant demonstrates the country’s openness to international clean energy investment and lays the groundwork for future collaboration. 

“Benin represents one of West Africa’s most promising frontiers for upstream development midstream integration and clean energy diversification. By accelerating projects across the oil, gas and renewable energy industries, the country is reaffirming its position as both an attractive market to invest as well as a regional trade hub,” stated Tomás Gerbasio, VP of Commercial and Strategic Engagement, African Energy Chamber.