COVID-19: African Petroleum Producers Organization headquarters moved from Abuja to Congo

The headquarters of the Ministerial Council of African Petroleum Producers’ Organization, (APPO) has been temporarily relocated from Abuja, Nigeria to the permanent headquarters in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.

APPO said the global lockdowns and restrictions in travels necessitated the relocation to enable a better coordination of its activities.

Persecondnews recalls that the APPO headquarters was temporarily moved to Abuja in 2018 when Nigeria assumed the Presidency of the organization with a mandate to execute its approved reform programme.

In a statement in Abuja on Tuesday from APPO secretariat signed by Engr. Bakary Traore, it also directed the Secretary-General to liaise with the authorities of Congo on a mutually acceptable date for the relocation.

The statement said the decisions were reached at its 38th session on Monday 15th June 2020.

In addition it approved the new host country agreement between the Republic of Congo and APPO, and directed the Secretary-General of the organization, Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim to sign it on behalf of APPO.

In the course of the reform, new minimum requirements for the hosting of the APPO headquarters were approved and the hosting right of the headquarters was opened to all APPO member-countries interested to contest.

Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Equatorial Guinea and the host country Republic of Congo have indicated interest. All the new entrants for the hosting of the headquarters withdrew and left Congo as sole candidate.

A ministerial delegation visited Brazzaville to evaluate the extent of compliance by Congo with the minimum requirements and was pleased with the result which informed the decision to go back to Brazzaville.

The Ministerial Council also decided to postpone the first ever summit of the Heads of State of APPO member-countries earlier scheduled to hold in Brazzaville in 2020 to a date in 2021 in view of the global coronavirus pandemic.

The Council also banned illicit crude oil exports from Libya following a review of the presentation of the Head of Delegation of Libya on the negative impacts of crude oil and petroleum products theft in Libya especially on the lives of the people and their environment.

It recalled the UNSC Resolution 2146 on the ban and condemned in very strong terms the perpetrators of the nefarious acts and called on the international community to take necessary actions to sanction those perpetrating the criminal actions against the Libyan people and the environment.