)
)
)
Blackwater’s Erik Prince Says No Room for Delay to Protect African Energy Assets
Erik Prince, Founder of Blackwater, has sounded the alarm on Africa’s energy security, warning that critical oil and gas infrastructure remains dangerously exposed to sabotage, theft and piracy unless governments and companies act now.
“You need to have capability that when something happens, or is about to happen, you can pick it up and reliably deploy force. There is no room for delay. You need to have that level of reliability, just as oil companies have the same level of discipline when drilling. You need a continuous chain of capability,” Prince declared.
Prince made the remarks during a fireside chat with NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber, at the African Energy Week: Invest in African Energies 2025 conference on Wednesday. Prince did not mince words: Africa’s oil and gas wealth will not be effectively unlocked without revised security systems.
From Nigeria’s massive pipeline theft - what he called “the single-largest organized crime in the world” - to the ongoing instability in Mozambique, Prince argued that weak security responses invite disaster. “You need industrial capacity to move that much oil - it is easy to find and locate that level of barge traffic,” he warned, urging stronger surveillance and direct coordination between oil companies and state security.
He pointed to Somalia as proof that private sector solutions work. “We built a marine police unit in Somalia to address piracy. We interrupted the pirate logistics. That unit went active in 2011 and by 2012, the rate of attacks went to nearly zero,” Prince said, describing how targeted, localized enforcement can flip a crisis into control.
Across the continent, Prince stressed that international oil companies will only deploy billions if local capability is built to ensure predictability and stability. “Any major international oil company wants to see reliability and local capacity to counteract security problems. Building local capability will address this.”
For Prince, the stakes are clear: unless Africa secures its pipelines, platforms and shipping routes, billions in investment could evaporate. “For Blackwater, our model is not to be a defense contractor; we would rather be a fulfillment partner for governments,” he concluded.