This conference is organised jointly by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi, and PRIO. It will bring together researchers working on energy and security to discuss Africa’s role in the global search for oil, and investigate the multiple consequences of energy extraction and production across the African continent. India’s relations with African countries are within the framework of partnership in multi-sectoral areas. India’s effort is to give an effective role to the African nations in global trade and an equally effective voice in determining international regimes. The conference will explore the many dynamics and perceptions, especially as linked to discourses of ‘energy security’. How are identities (national and sub-national) reconstructed and reemployed in the context of energy security? What are the political and social implications of such identity politics within oil-rich countries such as the Sudan, Nigeria, Angola and Chad? What is the significance of African oil as a ‘security hedge’ in the foreign policy-making of import-dependent countries? And finally, how is oil transforming the concerned African states?