Senegal Committed To Green Energy Despite Oil Extraction Ambitions - Environment Minister

Senegal Committed to Green Energy Despite Oil Extraction Ambitions - Environment Minister

Senegal strives to diversify its energy consumption through wind power despite the discovery and prospective exploitation of a large oil field in the country's waters, Senegal's environment minister Abdou Karim Sall told Sputnik on the sidelines of the COP25 climate conference in Madrid

MADRID (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th December, 2019) Senegal strives to diversify its energy consumption through wind power despite the discovery and prospective exploitation of a large oil field in the country's waters, Senegal's environment minister Abdou Karim Sall told Sputnik on the sidelines of the COP25 climate conference in Madrid.

"Senegal was lucky to discover the resources of gas and oil, and I think that in 1-2 years from now we will move to the exploitation phase," Sall, the minister of environment and sustainable development, told Sputnik.

The SNE oil field, located about 60 miles off the coast of capital city Dakar, is the first oil discovery in the region and may spur a wave of oil exploration Off the West Africa's Atlantic coast.

Sall underlined that Senegal is ahead of its neighbors in developing green energy and diversifying its energy mix.

"We must note that Senegal made a considerable effort for its energy mix, because we have an ambition to bring the share of renewable energy to 30 percent in our energy mix. A large wind farm creation is planned, and it will become the most significant one in West Africa, and it will be established soon," Sall went on to say.

The country's first wind farm is nearing its launch in the Thies region, some 40 miles northeast of Dakar.