The Government of Namibia and the Commissioner for Petroleum of Namibia are pleased to welcome Global Pacific & Partners’ 9th Western Africa Oil/Gas & Energy Conference 2013 to Windhoek and invite you to support this important meeting which will focus on the oil and gas opportunities and potential across the West African offshore and onshore for hydrocarbon exploration, discovery and development as well as gas-LNG and energy development.   This Conference will be once again be a landmark event with a Strategy Briefing on Western Africa held the day prior to the Conference, led by Global Pacific & Partners, and will offer prime networking potential as well as direct exposure to Governments, National Oil Companies, Licensing Agencies and leading corporate players in and across this vast zone where a century of oil/gas development is combined with numerous fast-emerging frontier ventures, including pre-salt targets in the highly prospective offshore/deepwater zones from Morocco to Cape Town. “Western Africa” covers a vast oil and gas exploration zone, one of the world’s richest and most promising for ventures - from Morocco to the Cape, including island states, with an enormous offshore zone and hydrocarbon potential, alongside prospective deepwater blocks, ultra-deep opportunities only to date marginally explored, Exclusive Economic Zones, and promising pre-salt potential analogous to Brasil, plus numerous existing onshore basins (producing and immature, as well as frontier) and a huge interior domain across 27 countries – in effect, fully one half of Africa and the continental land mass of over 30,000 sq km. The Global Pacific & Partners 19th Western Africa Oil, Gas & Energy Conference in Windhoek 2012 reflects a consolidation of our many Conferences held in and on Western Africa  over the last two decades - from Morocco to South Africa (excluding our 19th Africa Oil Week) - and these have included the following Conferences inter alia: held in Nigeria (Lagos) and on Nigerian Independents in Cape Town (six Conferences in all), in Dakar on Northwest Africa (twice), on Equatorial Guinea (London), on Southern Africa including Namibia/Angola (thirteen occasions, Johannesburg), on Angola (thrice, Johannesburg), and on Morocco (five times) in Marrakech. While these 30 Conferences have featured Western Africa in specific focus, Morocco continues to be covered in our Annual Mena-Med Conference in Geneva, as done over the last few years, and our Annual Africa Oil Week Conference in Cape Town has extensively featured Western Africa (Morocco-to-South Africa) for nineteen years.