Africa is a continent of 54 countries with an estimated mid-2000 population of 805 million people. The upstream oil industry is key to the continent of Africa. According to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, Africa had proven oil reserves of 117.481 billion barrels at the end of 2007 or 9.49 % of the world's reserves and in 2007 the region produced an average of 10317.6 thousand barrels of crude oil per day, 12.5% of the world total and a change of 3.1 % compared to 2006. Five countries dominate Africa's upstream oil production. Together they account for 85% of the continent's oil production and are, in order of decreasing output, Nigeria, Libya, Algeria, Egypt and Angola. Other oil producing countries are Gabon, Congo, Cameroon, Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Cote d'Ivoire. Exploration is taking place in a number of other countries that aim to increase their output or become first time producers. Included in this list are Chad, Sudan, Namibia, South Africa and Madagascar while Mozambique and Tanzania are potential gas producers.
According to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, Africa consumed an average of 2955.2 thousand barrels a day of oil in 2007, 3.49% of the world total and a change from 2006 of 131 tbpd.
According to the same survey, Africa had 2007 proved natural gas reserves of 14.58 trillion cubic metres, 8.22% of the world total. Natural gas production for 2007 was 190.37 billion cubic metres, 6.45% of the world total.
The downstream oil industry comprises 44 refineries in 25 countries with a total distillation capacity of 3,000 thousand barrels per day which represents 4% of the world total. The major refining centres are in Egypt (19.2%), Algeria (16.7%), South Africa (15.6%), Nigeria (14.6%), Libya (11.6%), Morocco (5.2%) and Kenya (3.0%) in decreasing magnitude of refining capacity (1/1/99) as a percentage of total African capacity. South Africa also has synfuels production. All countries have marketing and distributing facilities. In addition to fuels, Africa has an active lubricants industry which encompasses base oil refining, lubricant blend, distribution and marketing.
All the major international oil companies have a presence in Africa, but there are also local African oil companies. Most of the companies issue regular press releases which are a supplement to the news available about their activities and to the investment reports of investment analysts.
The World Bank and other bodies have undertaken studies and produced reports on the African oil industry. In recent years, there have been several conferences devoted to the African oil industry in both the upstream and downstream sectors.
