Xenophobia: Angola Will Attend, As Nigeria’s Top Firms Stay Away From Annual Energy Summit In Cape Town

Angolan state hydrocarbon company Sonangol is committed to attending the Africa Energy Week (AEW) in Cape Town South Africa in October 2026.

So are ExxonMobil Angola and the National Oil, Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANPG), the country’s upstream regulator.

But the southwest African country’s keen interest in the event is at odds with the decisions of some of Nigeria’s most notable hydrocarbon producing firms.

Africa Oil+Gas Report can confirm that NNPC Ltd, the Nigerian state hydrocarbon firm, will not be represented at AEW. Neither will Renaissance Energy, Aradel, Seplat nor Waltersmith Petroman .

Nigeria’s largest hydrocarbon producing companies are signaling their disapproval of the ongoing xenophobic attacks in South Africa by choosing to stay away from the largest and most prestigious gathering of hydrocarbon C-Suite executives, which holds in the resort town at the southern tip of the continent. Officials at these five companies spoke to us on condition of anonymity. None of their communications units, we learn, are likely to make any public statements on the issue.

Anti-immigrant attacks and xenophobic tensions have been a recurring and serious issue in South Africa for decades, but the recent wave has been primarily driven by citizen-led vigilante and nationalist movements who escalated localized frustrations into a nationwide crisis by setting an unofficial June 30, 2026 deadline for all undocumented migrants to leave the country, sparking widespread rioting, looting, and violent assaults. Multiple migrants were killed during the unrest, including several Ethiopian and West African nationals. Governments in Ghana, Nigeria, and Mozambique strongly condemned the attacks.

Aradel, Renaissance and Seplat were all fully represented at the AOW Energy conference, a similar summit to AEW, but organized by a different entity, which concluded in Accra, Ghana in early September, 2026.

NNPC was absent in Accra and would have gone to Cape Town if it wasn’t for the wrong message, it would send if it did, ranking managers at the firm disclosed to Africa Oil+Gas Report.

On the sidelines of the Angola Oil and Gas Conference, which held in Luanda (September 9–10, 2026). Angolan officials told Tako Koning, chairman of the Africa Oil+Gas Report’s International Advisory  Board, that the xenophobia in South Africa was not a worry for Angolans. “Angola and South Africa have had friendly relations since the end of apartheid and there is no need for entry visas between both countries”, said one respondent.

South Africa’s Oil and Gas Minister Gwede Mantashe’s attendance at the AOW Energy Summit in Accra was intended “for the purpose of assuring that everyone including Nigerians would be met with hospitality and friendliness at the AEW in Cape Town in October”, according to a ranking Sonangol executive, who was at the AOW in Ghana.

South Africa did indeed have a large contingent at AOW, but it was not obvious to Africa Oil+Gas Report that any of those representatives, which included Thembinkosi Bonakele, Chairperson of (state hydrocarbon company) PetroSA and Ayanda Noah, Group Chairperson of the Central Energy Fund, were trying to solicit attendance at the AEW.  Africa Oil+Gas Report did have an extensive chat with Mr. Bonakele, but discussions about AEW did not come up.

PRIOR TO DECISIONS by individual companies to stay away from AEW 2026, the Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG), an association of Nigerian indigenous oil and gas production companies, had written to the Africa Energy Chamber, organisers of AEW, expressing concerns about the xenophobic attacks and the security of its delegates. The AEW responded with a beautiful letter telling IPPG that staying away from such an investment summit would encourage the worsening of the crisis of poverty that had led to the protest in the first place. The AEW stridently made the case for assuring security of delegates, “but how can we convince ourselves, as leaders, to sit around in dignified posture at a conference in a place where our citizens were being butchered?”, one source told Africa Oil+Gas Report.

Even after some of the companies have expressed their decisions to stay away from “The Southern Sun” (as South Africa’s summer months are described in the country’s tourism books), in mid-October 2026,  AEW continues to engage Nigerian industry leaders.

“I do not believe this is a boycott of the African Energy Chamber’s work, nor of African Energy Week itself”, N. J. Ayuk, the charismatic Executive President of the Africa Energy Chamber, wrote to one industry leader. “I understand it instead as a serious and principled response to the painful events that have shaken South Africa. The recent wave of xenophobic violence is deeply distressing, and I fully appreciate the depth of concern that led to your withdrawal”. Ayuk argued that “sometimes leadership requires us not to run from discomfort, but to walk through it with our heads up and our purpose intact.”.

Ayuk further explained: “There is value in staying the course, even when the road is rough. We need to go through this pain honestly, soberly, and together, and then regroup with clearer minds and steadier hands. What we must avoid now are rushed choices, emotional overcorrections, and decisions that we may regret long after tempers have cooled”.

But the response to Ayuk’s letter was particularly instructive.

“I have attended the World Petroleum Congress (2005), the African CEO forum and several editions of your conference in South Africa. My experience has always been the same…..from visa processing preparatory to travel, to immigration encounter in SA, South Africa has always been unwelcoming. They have never attempted to show leadership within the sub–Saharan African subregion. They would always tend to look down on their fellow black Africans, almost implying that their apace is well beyond us…they belong with the advanced economies and such groupings as the G20 and BRICS. Maybe their history has imposed such sentiments on them, but Nigerians are far too proud to accept such posturing”.

The leader’s response to Ayuk’s letter concluded that: “the job you do, and your signature conference are too important to us and the African continent to allow a hostile host Nation destroy, or even dilute its impact”.

The anti-immigrant protests, erupting into sporadic street fights, stone-throwing, and clashes between local anti-immigrant demonstrators and foreign nationals, have continued into September 2026 and cases are being reported at the time of this writing.

COURTESY: africaoilgasreport.com