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With chief executive Claudio Descalzi and other senior executives already mired in a corporate bribery case over Nigerian OPL 245, Italian major Eni is coming under intense scrutiny over alleged malfeasance in the 2013 sale of a 23% stake in Block Marine XI, offshore Republic of Congo. The stake in Marine XI – operated by London Stock Exchange-listed Soco International, with Petro Vietnam and state Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo – was purchased by the previously unknown World Natural Resources Congo (WNR) for $15m, borrowed from a Swiss-based company.

Oryx Petroleum Corporation on 23 April announced an agreement to sell its 30% stake in the Haute Mer B exploration licence to operator Total for $8m in cash. Oryx, which farmed into the licence in 2012, also has a 20% interest in Haute Mer A, which is a deep-water exploration licence area operated by CNOOC.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Bin Abdelaziz held talks with Republic of Congo’s President Denis Sassou Nguesso at Al-Yamamah Palace in Riyadh on 25 March. The doyen of Central African leaders’ three-day visit was aimed at securing Saudi infrastructure investment. Sassou was accompanied by finance minister Calixte Ganongo and the recently appointed head of heavily indebted state oil company Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo (SNPC) Maixent Raoul Ominga. The delegation left the kingdom on 27 March without any major deals being announced.

Republic of Congo is to follow Equatorial Guinea in joining the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Recent new developments have made Republic of Congo sub-Saharan Africa’s third biggest producer after Nigeria and Angola, with production reaching 345,000 b/d in 2017. “The Republic of Congo has decided to accede to the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec),” the government said in a statement dated 11 January.

Republic of Congo will launch a second phase of its licensing round in H1 2018, offering ten blocks, six of them in shallow water and four onshore. The shallow water blocks are Marine XXV, Marine XXVI, Marine XXVIII, Marine XXIX, Marine XXXI and Youbi. The onshore coastal basin blocks are Niambi, Conkouati, Nanga I and Nanga III.

Anglo African Oil & Gas (AAOG) plans to start drilling a third well on the Tilapia field by the end of September. In addition to the producing R1/R2 horizon, Tilapia has an undeveloped discovery in the Mengo level and exploration potential in the Djeno. The planned TLP 103 well will target production from R1/R2 and the Mengo, and will appraise the potential from the Djeno horizon. Work to optimise production from the existing TLP 101 and TLP 102 wells is continuing.

The 19.5MW Liouesso dam in the Sangha province of northern Congo was formally inaugurated on 29 May by President Denis Sassou-Nguesso. The Chinese-financed dam was built by China Gezhouba Group, which started work in 2012, while the transmission infrastructure has been built by China Machinery Engineering Corporation. It will supply power to the towns of Ouesso, Pokola and Mokéko, significantly improving supply in the province, where Société Nationale d’Electricité’s supply was previously limited to a 3MW diesel plant in the regional capital, Ouesso.

Total on 15 March announced the start of production from the 100,000 b/d Moho Nord deep offshore project, 75km from Pointe-Noire. The development, launched in 2013, comprises 34 wells tied back to a new tension leg platform, the first for Total in Africa, and to the new Likouf floating production unit. The oil is processed on Likouf and exported by pipeline to Total’s Djeno onshore terminal. Total operates the project with a 53.5% interest.

Anglo Africa Oil & Gas (AAOG) has raised £10.6m ($13m) via a listing on London’s AIM market to finance the acquisition of Petro Kouilou (PK) and the development of the Tilapia oil field. PK has a 56% interest in Tilapia. The other 44% is owned by state oil company Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo. PK acquired the interest in Tilapia from French businessman Gérard Bourgoin’s Prestoil Kouilou in 2012.

Some 29 companies have expressed interest in Republic of Congo’s delayed licensing round, which offers eight deep-water and ultra-deep blocks and five onshore blocks. Half of the companies have bought the Congo Megasurvey data package from PGS, hydrocarbons minister Jean-Marc Thystère-Tchicaya told Global Pacific & Partners’ Africa Upstream conference. The bid round has been held up by national elections and by delays to the country’s new oil law, which was passed by parliament on 13 August and signed into law by President Denis Sassou-Nguesso on 12 October.

Soco International has announced that the Baobab Marine-1 commitment well drilled in the Mer Profonde Sud Block in the Lower Congo Basin failed to find hydrocarbons. The well was drilled by the deep-water drillship Noble Globetrotter II on the RR prospect to a measured depth of 3,275 metres, reaching total depth on 25 February. It intersected the target of stacked early Miocene channel complexes, and although good-quality sands were present, no hydrocarbons were encountered, and the well will be plugged and abandoned.

Soco International has announced that the Baobab Marine-1 commitment well started drilling on 5 February in the Mer Profonde Sud Block in the Lower Congo Basin. The well is being drilled on the RR prospect, targeting stacked early Miocene channel complexes. The well, which was postponed from last year, is being drilled by the deep-water drillship Noble Globetrotter II and is expected to take 25 to 35 days, reaching a planned depth of approximately 3,400 metres. Soco is carrying 100% of the expected $25m-$30m well cost. The London-based company completed a farm-in to the block in 2014, taking 60%, while Sweden’s PA Resources retained 25% and Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo 15%.

The Republic of Congo on 28 October launched a licensing round for all its open acreage. Awarded blocks will be governed by the terms of the new petroleum code, which is before parliament (AE 308/12). Director-general of hydrocarbons Serge Ndeko told a promotional roadshow in Cape Town that the existing code dated back to 1994 and needed updating. “Exploration is moving towards frontier areas, deep offshore, intensive exploration, ageing producing fields. Hence the need to refresh the E&P framework,” he said.

The Brazzaville government is flagging the launch of a major licensing round in Cape Town next month, despite the lower oil price, but parliament still needs to approve a new hydrocarbons code. The new code, which updates the existing 1994 law, was approved by the cabinet in March. Based on a model production-sharing contract, it stipulates that state oil company Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo (SNPC) is the holder of the mining title in each case, with the right to bring in local and international partners.

The 19.2MW Liouesso dam on the Lengoué River is expected to be completed in June 2016. President Denis Sassou Nguesso visited the construction site on 13 May and told reporters he was satisfied with progress on the project, for which he laid the foundation stone in May 2012. The dam and hydropower plant are being built by China Gezhouba Group Corporation, while China Machinery Engineering Corporation is building the transmission lines. The dam is 84km from the city of Ouesso, in the northern Sangha region, and will supply Ouesso, Pokola, Ngombé, Mokeko and Ngbala.