The Invest in African Energy Forum (IAE) 2025 in Paris provided a pivotal platform for global investors and African project sponsors to connect. Among the highlights was the Premier Invest Deal Room, which showcased over $10 billion in oil, gas, and renewable energy projects across 17 active deals. Headed by Marcel Awasum, Premier Invest’s Head of Business Development, the Deal Room underlined the firm’s commitment to mobilizing capital—particularly from family offices and private-equity houses in the Middle East and Europe—to accelerate Africa’s energy ambitions (Energy Capital & Power).

A Forum Designed for Impact

The Invest in African Energy Forum (IAE) is an exclusive, invitation-only gathering that facilitates dialogue between African energy markets and the global financial community. Over two days, delegates engage in high-level panels, one-on-one meetings, and Deal Rooms to explore financing solutions for projects spanning upstream, midstream, downstream, and renewables. Organized under the auspices of Invest in African Energy, IAE’s core mission is to catalyze new sources of capital—ranging from development finance institutions to pension funds and private equity—while showcasing the continent’s diverse energy and infrastructure pipeline (Invest in African Energy 2025).

The Premier Invest Deal Room: Spotlight on $10 Billion

“This is a platform to showcase interesting opportunities across Africa that we are advising on,” explained Marcel Awasum. “All of the deals we are advising on, we are also mobilizing capital for—from family offices to private equity in oil and gas—mostly from the Middle East, and some from Europe” (Energy Capital & Power). By congregating project sponsors, sovereign entities, and institutional investors under one roof, Premier Invest facilitated dozens of bilateral discussions, many of which are expected to culminate in term sheets by Q3 2025.

Breaking Down the 17 Active Deals

The Deal Room’s roster comprised a balanced mix of large-scale and niche projects:

1. 200,000 bpd Crude Oil Refinery (Equity & Debt: $4.8 billion)
   
2. 360-Day Revolving Letter of Credit Facility ($50 million)
   
3. Upstream Development Project (40 % Participating Interest)
   
4. African Oil & Gas Company Capital Raise ($30 million)
   
5. National Refining Capacity Expansion (€2–5 billion, debt/equity/strategic)
   
6. Offshore Guyanese Block Equity Investment ($25 million for first-mover advantage)
   
7. Defunct Caribbean GTL Plant Sale (Proven $50 million EBITDA potential)
   
8. Active Production Field Drilling Facility ($18 million debt)
   
9. Fast-Moving Field Development ($360 million, soft commitments)
   
10. Republic of Congo Asset M&A SPV (Co-investor sought)
    
11. Burundi Fuel Importation Deal ($70 million)
    
12. Ivory Coast Crude & Refined Purchase Package ($200 million)
    
13. Kenya Geothermal Project (70 MW, $362 million)
    
14. Zambia Hybrid Solar PV & Wind (71 MW, $92 million)
    
15. South Africa Solar PV Project (100 MW, $87 million)
    
16. Benin Clean-Gas Plant (43 MW, $84 million)
    
17. South Africa Clean-Gas Facility (100 MW, $100 million)
    

Each deal was accompanied by detailed financial models, reserve reports, and term sheets—enabling investors to conduct preliminary due diligence on the spot.

Flagship Upstream and Refining Ventures

Upstream Spotlight: A major oil and gas developer offered up to 40 % participating interest in a greenfield onshore block with in-place resources exceeding 500 million barrels of oil equivalent. Investors were attracted by the producer’s existing export infrastructure and off-take agreements with European refiners. Simultaneously, a mid-sized African energy company pitched a $30 million equity and working-capital package, including a strategic equity partner and offtake arrangement to expand its midstream trading volumes.

Refining Focus: In light of persistent deficits in local refined products, two downstream projects dominated discussions:

• A brand-new 200,000 barrel-per-day crude refinery in West Africa, seeking $4.8 billion of mixed equity and debt.
  
• A national capacity expansion programme calling for €2–5 billion to upgrade existing refineries and construct modular units—open to sovereign-backed debt, private-equity partnerships, and strategic investors.
  

Such downstream investments are critical to reducing Africa’s annual import bill of petroleum products—estimated at $30 billion—while supporting petrochemical derivatives and job creation (Energy Capital & Power).

Trade Finance and Import Facilities

Recognizing the need for working-capital instruments, Premier Invest also showcased a 360-day revolving letter of credit facility of $50 million to underwrite the import of refined products. This structure enables local distributors and government agencies to secure supply without immediate cash outlays, addressing the upfront-payment challenge that often hampers end-user affordability. A parallel deal offered an $18 million debt facility to fund drilling of new wells in an active production field—ensuring flat output while development capex is deployed (Energy Capital & Power).

Renewable Energy: Financing a Green Future

Highlighting the energy-transition imperative, five renewable projects collectively sought over $725 million:

• Kenya Geothermal Project (70 MW, $362 million equity/debt)
  
• Zambia Hybrid Solar PV & Wind (71 MW, $92 million)
  
• South Africa Solar PV (100 MW, $87 million)
  
• Benin Clean-Gas to Power (43 MW, $84 million)
  
• South Africa Clean-Gas Facility (100 MW, $100 million)
  

These initiatives resonated with multilateral development banks and green-bond investors, who are increasingly allocating capital toward ESG-aligned infrastructure. According to Reuters, African policymakers are calling for a balanced approach to transition—one that meets basic energy needs before decarbonizing, acknowledging that nearly 600 million Africans still lack reliable electricity access (Reuters).

Widening the Lens: Policy and Market Context

Beyond the Deal Room, IAE featured sessions on regulatory certainty, licensing rounds, and cross-border financing. Attendees heard from NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber, who emphasized the role of indigenous operators in driving M&A and mobilizing local capital. His keynote, shared via the Chamber’s social channels, underscored the need for policy reforms, tax incentives, and off-taker guarantees to de-risk projects and attract institutional allocations.

Parallel panels tackled:

• Maximizing Mature Assets: Strategies for brownfield revitalization across North and West Africa.
  
• Gas Monetization: High-level discussions on the Republic of Congo’s gas resources, including pipeline and LNG export options.
  
• Downstream Supply Chains: Approaches to bolster refining capacity and logistics in East Africa.
  
• Technological Innovation: The role of fintech platforms and blockchain in streamlining trade finance and improving transparency.
  

Building Local Capital and Talent

A recurring theme was the urgency of talent development. While external sponsors bring capital and technical expertise, sustainable growth demands a skilled workforce of local engineers, financiers, and compliance officers. Premier Invest committed to launching an academy in Nairobi and Lagos before year-end—offering certification programmes in project finance, ESG compliance, and financial modeling. Scholarships and secondments with partner institutions are slated to commence in Q3 2025, ensuring that knowledge transfer accompanies capital deployment (Energy Capital & Power).

Regional Spotlight: Country-Specific Opportunities

While the Deal Room projects spanned the continent, several country highlights stood out:

• Ghana: Upcoming bidding round for deep-water licensing in the Tano Basin, driven by discoveries estimated at 1 billion barrels of recoverable oil (total resource potential) (Reuters).
  
• Uganda: Plans to tender new permits for the under-explored Albertine Graben, where over 6.5 billion barrels of oil reserves have been identified; the finance ministry warns that exploration must intensify to sustain growth (Reuters).
  
• Nigeria: Following a recent Fitch upgrade of its long-term foreign-currency rating to ‘B’ on the back of energy-sector reforms, local projects can tap cheaper funding lines, supporting initiatives such as the Dangote Refinery’s expansion. Fitch forecasts that Nigeria’s reforms will sustain its current-account surplus even amid price volatility (Africa.com).
  
• Mozambique: The Coral Norte LNG venture, though not in the Deal Room, was frequently cited as a benchmark for public-private collaboration, with developers eyeing downstream monetization to maximize returns.
  

Investor Sentiment and Credit Outlook

Post-forum market reactions were broadly positive. Frontier-market funds tracking African energy assets saw inflows of $120 million in the week following IAE—even as global oil prices hovered around USD 80 per barrel, buoyed by OPEC+ production discipline. Fitch Ratings maintains a neutral outlook on the global oil and gas sector for 2025, pegging Brent assumptions at USD 70 per barrel—a baseline that underpins many of the upstream valuations discussed at IAE (Fitch Ratings). Meanwhile, green-bond issuances in Africa reached a record $4.5 billion in Q1 2025, indicating ample liquidity for renewable energy deals.

Challenges and the Road Ahead

Despite the Deal Room’s successes, several challenges persist:

1. Regulatory Clarity: Many host governments must finalize regulations on ESG disclosures, fuel pricing, and environmental permits to provide investors with long-term certainty.
   
2. Infrastructure Gaps: Land-locked and coastal countries alike struggle with inadequate pipelines, ports, and electricity grids—necessitating co-investment from development agencies.
   
3. Financing Terms: High interest rates and FX risks remain deterrents; hedging solutions and credit-enhancement facilities are critical to bridge the gap between sponsor requirements and lender risk appetites.
   
4. Geopolitical Volatility: Regional security concerns—such as insurgency in parts of the Sahel—underscore the importance of political-risk insurance and sovereign guarantees.
   

Premier Invest and its partners are already structuring blended-finance vehicles and risk-sharing mechanisms to de-risk projects and crowd in mainstream capital.

Conclusion: Mobilizing Capital, Empowering Africa

The Premier Invest Deal Room at IAE 2025 epitomized the shift from passive capital allocation to active deal-making—where global financiers, project sponsors, and policymakers converge to co-create Africa’s energy future. By showcasing a diverse pipeline of oil, gas, and renewable opportunities worth $10 billion, the platform not only highlighted immediate investment needs but also signaled the dawn of a more integrated, commercially driven energy ecosystem. As projects move from term sheets to financial close, the true test will be translating promises into pipelines, kilowatts, and refined-product barrels—fueling Africa’s growth and powering its next era of prosperity.

Ready to take your career to the next level? Join our dynamic courses: ACCA, HESI A2, ATI TEAS 7 , HESI EXIT  , NCLEX – RN and NCLEX – PN, Financial Literacy!🌟 Dive into a world of opportunities and empower yourself for success. Explore more at Serrari Ed and start your exciting journey today! ✨

Photo source: Google

By: Montel Kamau

Serrari Financial Analyst

15th May, 2025