According to EnergyNet, the company that is staging the event, 20 ministers and other senior officials from African governments are taking part, "to present investment opportunities in the energy sector of this continent", as well as countless investors, in this 21st forum. The event is returning to Europe, after last year’s meeting in Mauritius.

Organisers expect more than 2,500 participants at the meeting, which runs until 14 June and is to be inaugurated by Portugal’s secretary of state for energy, João Galamba, with speeches by the minister for the economy, Pedro Siza Vieira, and the European Commission’s director-general for energy, Dominique Ristori.

The forum is to host more than 300 speakers from the energy sector, including commercial and development banks, energy generating companies, engineering and technology firms, law firms and consultants.

According to the event’s managing director, Simon Gosling, the idea of holding the forum in Lisbon "was warmly welcomed by the government of Portugal”.

Among officials from Portuguese-language countries confirmed as attending are the minister of energy and water of Angola, João Baptista Borges; the minister of public works of São Tomé and Príncipe, Osvaldo Abreu; the minister of industry, trade and energy of Cape Verde, Alexandre Dias Monteiro, and the minister of energy, industry and natural resources of Guinea-Bissau, António Serifo Embaló.

Around 46% of those attending are from Africans, and 21% of all delegates are political leaders and legislators, according to organisers. Mozambique, Angola, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Nigeria, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Ethiopia are to present their latest projects and investment opportunities at the forum, in a networking environment that has grown to become not only Africa's largest energy forum, but the world's largest, said Gosling.