By: OrePulse

SLB, the oilfield services company, and South Africa's state-owned South African National Petroleum Company (SANPC) have signed an agreement covering digital transformation and skills development in the country's energy sector. The agreement was announced during African Energy Week 2026 in Cape Town.

Under the deal, the two organizations set out a framework for cooperation intended to strengthen technical capabilities within South Africa's energy industry. The arrangement is also meant to encourage innovation and support the transfer of technology and knowledge between SLB and SANPC. A stated goal of the partnership is building the digital skills that the companies say the sector needs as its energy landscape changes. Digital transformation efforts of this kind in the oil and gas industry typically involve data analytics, automation and connected systems used in exploration and production work, though neither company specified which tools or technologies the new framework would cover.

SLB was represented in the signing by Miguel Baptista, the company's managing director for Central, East and Southern Africa, and by Eniola Oludemi, the company's digital manager for the region. SANPC's side of the agreement was signed by its chief executive, Godfrey Moagi, and its exploration executive, KB Trivedi.

The announcement did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement, how long the partnership would run, or specific targets for the number of people to be trained under it.

SANPC is South Africa's state-owned national petroleum company. SLB, which was formerly known as Schlumberger, provides technology and services to oil and gas companies in markets around the world.

The signing took place on the sidelines of African Energy Week 2026, an annual gathering of energy companies, officials and investors held in Cape Town, which had concluded shortly before the agreement was made public.

Neither SLB nor SANPC set out further steps expected to follow the signing, such as a start date for joint projects or specific digital tools to be deployed. The agreement follows South Africa's broader efforts to expand exploration and development of its domestic oil and gas resources, with state-linked companies such as SANPC seeking to build internal technical capacity alongside established international partners.