Andrew Laven

Chief Operating Officer Sahara Group

Andrew Laven has worked in the oil industry for over 30 years and is the Chief Operating Officer at Sahara Energy Resources, DMCC, U.A.E, a subsidiary of the Sahara Group – an energy conglomerate with operations in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Andrew leads focus on the Africa market and the expansion of Sahara Group’s business in the Middle East. Based in Dubai since early 2006 initially as the Vice President for BP’s Integrated Supply & Trading business in the Middle East, Andy then joined Bomin in 2015 as their Managing Director overseeing supply and bunker sales across the region. Andrew has been involved across the business from upstream technical roles in Papua New Guinea, the North Sea, South Africa and Venezuela to commercial roles in Aberdeen and London. In 2004 Andy moved back to London as a Crude Trading Manager for BP in Integrated Supply and Trading covering Europe, Africa and Russia. He held this position for two years, with key responsibilities for many of the activities related to trading of equity and non-equity crude as well as crude supply to BP’s European refineries, until relocating to Dubai.