African Energy Week (AEW) 2026 will examine carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a route to extracting additional value from oil and gas operations across the continent, South African trade publication Energize reports.

The conference program places CCS alongside conventional upstream and midstream themes, signalling that African producers now treat emissions management as part of the project economics conversation rather than a separate environmental track.

Why CCS at an oil and gas event?

Organizers frame the topic around value extraction — the argument that captured carbon, reservoirs suited to storage, and decarbonized barrels can extend the commercial life of African hydrocarbon assets. That framing matters for basins such as those offshore Namibia, South Africa's Orange Basin, and Nigeria's Niger Delta, where operators face growing pressure from lenders and buyers to cut emissions intensity per barrel.

For refinery and terminal operators, the agenda item is also relevant: CCS could eventually factor into hydroskimming and coking unit economics if carbon costs or crude-selection criteria tighten.

What the program signals

The AEW platform has positioned itself as Africa's principal energy investment conference, drawing national oil companies, independents, and service firms each year. Adding CCS sessions for the 2026 edition indicates:

• Producers want CCS discussed as a value driver, not only a compliance cost
• Storage potential in depleted fields and saline aquifers is entering African project screening
• Conference organizers see demand from delegates for emissions-linked financing content

Energize's report does not list specific projects, operators, or storage capacities tied to the 2026 sessions, and no sanctioned African CCS developments were named in the announcement.

The watch item

The detail to track is the AEW 2026 program itself: which operators bring appraisal-stage storage studies, which African regulators present CCS licensing frameworks, and whether any storage capacity figures or investment sizes emerge from the sessions. African Energy Week typically runs in Cape Town; delegate registrations and session lineups will firm up closer to the event date.

For now, the story is agenda-setting rather than project sanction. No FID-sized CCS commitment in Africa was announced alongside the program.