The timing gives the market a useful checkpoint: which opportunities have moved from plans into commitments, and which still need capital, partners or regulatory decisions? Here are five developments to have on the radar.

Kenya: A New Upstream Licensing Round

Kenya is weighing an early-2027 licensing round offering around 10 oil and gas exploration blocks, according to the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA). The proposed round follows a restructuring of the country’s acreage, which reduced the number of exploration blocks from 63 to 50 and was designed to create more commercially workable areas for investors. The timing could be significant for a country still working to commercialize its upstream resources while attracting fresh exploration capital.

Kenya’s proposed round could arrive in the months immediately preceding IAE 2027, making Paris a natural meeting point for companies evaluating new East African acreage and Kenyan officials seeking exploration partners.

Uganda: Hoima Refinery FID

Uganda is targeting February 2027 for the FID on its long-delayed 60,000-barrel-per-day refinery at Kabaale. The approximately $4 billion project is being advanced with UAE-based Alpha MBM Investments, with basic engineering work already under way.

The decision would have implications beyond refining. The project is intended to process crude from Uganda’s emerging oil industry into fuels including gasoline, diesel, kerosene and LPG, while supporting a wider industrial park around the refinery. By May, investors could be assessing a newly sanctioned Ugandan downstream project alongside opportunities in crude production, EACOP logistics and regional petroleum-product supply.

Ghana: West-East Gas Pipeline

Ghana Gas is targeting an early-2027 FID for a proposed $500 million, 278-km West-East gas pipeline connecting western processing facilities with industrial users in southeastern Ghana. The project is expected to reduce reliance on the West African Gas Pipeline and support growing industrial gas demand.

Ghana Gas expects domestic gas demand to rise to 715 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d) by 2030, from about 502 mmscf/d in 2026, making transportation infrastructure an increasingly important part of the country's energy investment equation. The project puts midstream infrastructure, domestic gas monetization and industrial demand squarely on the IAE 2027 agenda – particularly for infrastructure investors and lenders looking beyond upstream assets.

Ghana: Can Pecan Finally Move to FID?

Ghana’s Deepwater Tano Cape Three Points Pecan development remains one of West Africa’s most closely watched unresolved upstream projects. FEED has been completed, but the project’s ownership structure remains unsettled following Lukoil’s exit from international assets and ongoing discussions around new partners. Industry analysts now see FID potentially slipping into 2027.

The proposed development is substantial: the Pecan project has previously been designed around production of roughly 80,000 barrels per day. If the partnership question is resolved before May, IAE 2027 could provide a timely venue for the companies, financiers and service providers needed to move Pecan toward execution.

Angola: New Projects and Fresh Acreage

Angola enters 2027 with several upstream decisions to watch. Afentra has been targeting FID on Block 3/24 around late 2026 or early 2027, while additional developments are progressing across the country's mature offshore basins. Angola is also preparing another licensing round as it looks to offset natural decline with new discoveries.

The broader investment backdrop is substantial: TotalEnergies said in September that it plans to invest $10 billion with partners in Angola over the next five years, while the company and ExxonMobil have also secured new exploration licenses. Angola's combination of near-term FIDs, mature-field investment and new exploration acreage makes it a natural case study for the capital-allocation discussions at IAE 2027.

The Paris forum is positioned to bring governments, operators, financiers, DFIs and strategic investors together after several of these decisions have either been made or moved significantly closer to execution. With a dedicated Business-to-Government Day and an Exploration and Discovery Forum, IAE 2027 offers an opportunity to turn the year's emerging deal pipeline into the next round of partnerships and financing discussions.