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Tullow Oil has added to its Walvis Basin acreage, taking up to 40% in Block 2012A from Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas. The block lies immediately to the north of Block 2012B, where Tullow farmed in in September 2013 and acquired 1,000km of 2D and 3,000km2 of 3D seismic earlier this year. Initial data mapping has identified four main prospects, inclusing Albatross, a Cretaceous turbidite fan structure, the same play that proved succesful offshore Ghana. Tullow also operates the Kudu gas field offshore southern Namibia, where a gas-to-power development is planned.

Hyperdynamics and AGR Well Management have reached a settlement in their dispute over cost overruns for the Sabu well offshore Guinea, three weeks before the case was due to open in London. AGR provided project management services for Hyperdynamics’ subsidiary SCS Corporation for the well in 2011-12. Under the settlement, SCS will receive $17.7m from an escrow account previously established by the companies. The net proceeds to SCS will be $15.6m after reconciliation of a joint interest account with block partner Dana Petroleum.

The provision of electricity and access to clean energy remain beyond the grasp of hundreds of millions of sub-Saharan consumers, but Africa’s information and communications technology (ICT) boom points to a capacity of investment, entrepreneurship and innovation that, if harnessed to energy supply, could radically lift economic performance. Mobile financial services have brought unbanked communities into the globalised economy; apps relevant to African communities are drawing in funds from US and other tech investors; new ways of linking communities to the diaspora are stimulating business and supporting entrepreneurs.

Shares in temporary power solutions company APR Energy continue to trade at more than 25% below their March peak, although the London Stock Exchange (LSE)-listed firm has released some positive figures and deal flow data.

Kigoma North MP Zitto Kabwe has told an investigative committee headed by attorney-general Fredrick Werema that he does not have the names of five individuals accused of stashing over $190m in Swiss banks. Kabwe, an MP for the opposition Chadema Party that campaigns on an anti-corruption platform, previously claimed in parliament that large sums of taxpayers’ money were held in accounts in Switzerland and the Channel Islands, but that the government was not willing to recover the cash. The ‘Swiss Billions’ scandal has been much discussed in Tanzania since June 2012, when a Swiss National Bank report said the country held $196m of Tanzanian money in its accounts.

Exasperated by delays to implementation of a payments disclosure provision in the Dodd-Frank Act, Oxfam America filed a lawsuit against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on 16 May

MOROCCO: Record consumption; NIGER: Kandadji deal; SOUTH AFRICA: Eskom signs first carbon credits deal; CONCENTRIX SOLAR: CPV pilot at South African game reserve

Man Diesel has appealed to the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board to stop Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) awarding a contract to build the 120MW Kipevu III thermal power plant in Mombasa. German-based Man, one of five companies that tendered, said the contract awarded to Finland’s

Tullow Oil has announced that the Cheptuket-1 well in Block 12A has encountered oil shows across more than 700 metres. Cheptuket-1 is the first well in the Kerio Valley Basin and was drilled by the PR Marriott Rig-46 to a final depth of 3,083 metres, testing a structural closure in the south-western part of the basin. The rig will now be demobilised. “This is the most significant well result to date in Kenya outside the South Lokichar Basin. Encountering strong oil shows across such a large interval is very encouraging indeed. I am delighted by this wildcat well result and the team are already working on our follow-up exploration plans for the Kerio Valley Basin,” said exploration director Angus McCoss. Tullow’s partners on the block are Delonex Energy, which acquired Marathon’s Kenya assets last year and Africa Oil Corporation.

The amicable resolution reached in March of the arbitration dispute between Sonatrach and Anadarko Petroleum Corporation over a windfall tax introduced in 2006-07 is moving ahead.

Sonangol EP announced the start on 31 October of the early production system on the south wellhead platform of the Mafumeira Sul project. The Chevron-operated project is located about 24km off the coast of Malongo in water depths of about 60 metres. It includes a central processing facility, two wellhead platforms, 121km of subsea pipelines, 34 producing wells and 16 water injection wells. The facility has a design capacity of 150,000 b/d of liquids and 350mcf/d of natural gas per day.

Greek power contractor Metka has signed an agreement worth $350m to provide fast-track engineering, procurement and construction services and operations and maintenance support for a 250MW gas power plant. The deal was struck with the Ghanaian government in partnership with Africa and Middle East Resources Investment Group (Ameri Energy) – the investment vehicle of Sheikh Ahmed Bin Dalmook Al-Maktoum, a member of Dubai’s ruling family – who is the concessionaire for the project. It will be developed under a five-year build, own, operate and transfer arrangement.

The revelations and opinions included in leaked US cables suggest it is business as usual in the Nigerian oil industry, where IOCs and indigenous players are looking to trade more acreage, speculation surrounds a proposed marginal fields round and decisions on new natural gas schemes are being pushed ahead of next April’s elections

Botswana has come out as the most transparent in Africa in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2013, placing 30th out of 175 countries. This delighted the government, which said it was down to the country’s “zero tolerance” approach and the establishment of oversight institutions: the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime, the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board and the Competition Authority and the Financial Intelligence Agency. Cape Verde was ranked 41st, Seychelles 47th, Rwanda 49th and Mauritius 52nd. Somalia came bottom, and deputy finance minister Ahmed Hassan Adan reacted angrily, saying the report was not trustworthy. “We want to see any evidence to these allegations.

Balkans Energy looks for opportunities across as its controversial Osagyefo barge project continues to face delays