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Chevron could sign a production-sharing contracts for offshore blocks EG-06 and EG-11 with national oil company GEPetrol in the coming weeks, the government said as Equatorial Guinea prepares for its biggest US investor to pull out.

Africa Oil Corporation has called interest in an offshore farm-out deal ‘staggering’ and Marathon Oil is looking to take advantage of LNG arbitrage opportunities but, while IOCs talk up opportunities, oil production is on a downward trajectory and the political environment remains opaque, writes James Gavin.

AOC has made further changes to its senior team, as it looks for partners to share the costs of developing offshore blocks EG-18 and EG-31, which the Canadian-headquartered junior acquired earlier this year. Meanwhile oil majors continue to divest from Equatorial Guinea.

Equatorial Guinea is seeing more dynamism in its upstream oil and gas sector, with independents planning drilling programmes across a number of blocks. Further phases are being planned for the Regional Gas Mega Hub project, amid renewed interest in natural gas resources, writes James Gavin.

Amid a waning consensus over strategy, the Opec+ meeting in early June broke up with African members unhappy at an unwelcome squeeze on their future production while Saudi Arabia made a unilateral output cut of 1m b/d, reflecting Riyadh’s determination to shape market forces, writes Jon Marks.

Marathon Oil Corporation has been talking up plans for its 3.7m t/yr Punta Europa liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant on Bioko Island, where it is looking to generate $1bn in profits in 2024, when it can drop the US Henry Hub indexation that has curbed its earnings potential.

The replacement of long-serving oil minister Gabriel Obiang Lima with Antonio Oburu Ondo appears to have had an immediate impact, with block entries announced on 20 February for two experienced – but relatively small – independents into Equatorial Guinea’s offshore. Further developments are awaited in the ‘last enclave for American Big Oil in Africa’, writes James Gavin with Our Central Africa Correspondent.

The reshuffle and apparent downgrade of oil minister Gabriel Obiang Lima has brought a close aide of President Teodoro Obiang, former national company GEPetrol head Antonio Oburu Ondo, into the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons. The controversial new minister is also close to Obiang’s favoured son Teodorin, who is ever more strongly placed to eventually replace the octogenarian president in Equatorial Guinea’s most critical succession battle.

Equatorial Guinea’s high-profile oil minister Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima has been reshuffled by his father, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, to take over as finance, economy and planning minister. He has been replaced at the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons by former national company GEPetrol head Antonio Oburu Ondo. International partners will be looking to see if there is any change in hydrocarbons policy – and political analysts whether it points to Gabriel having any better chance of leapfrogging his controversial but favoured half-brother Teodorin to eventually replace his father.

President for four-plus decades, Teodoro Obiang is continuing in office for another term – with the prospect of his controversial son Teodorin taking over – but if that represents ‘stability’ there are still leaves plenty of challenges in the hydrocarbons in-tray, with oil production in decline and even historic partners having second thoughts, writes James Gavin.

Equatorial Guinea’s 80-year-old leader President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo faces political difficulties at home and abroad. Sham election accusations from the exiled opposition, independent analysts and Washington DC have marked his latest success, with a near unanimous vote reported following the 20 November election.

Kosmos Energy reported progress on its core development projects in West Africa in a Q3 2022 results release on 7 November. The New York Stock Exchange- and London Stock Exchange-listed firm said it was advancing several gas opportunities, which it now believes will drive growth beyond 2024 as it continues to increase the weighting of natural gas in its traditionally crude-heavy portfolio.

Glencore received the ‘highest ever fines and costs ordered in a British corporate criminal conviction’, the UK’s Serious Fraud Office said after a London court found the resources giant guilty of graft – in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria – and of ‘failures to prevent bribery’ in Equatorial Guinea and South Sudan in 2011-14. Chastened once more after its practises were reported in eye-watering legal detail, Glencore has embarked on “an extensive programme of corporate reform”.

Oslo-listed Panoro Energy has acquired a 12% non-operated interest in the Kosmos Energy-operated Block S in offshore Equatorial Guinea.

Having closed its $307m merger with Canada’s TransGlobe Energy, Houston-headquartered Vaalco Energy is looking to exploit potential cost savings of up to $50m, its chief executive George Maxwell told African Energy.