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Operator Addax Petroleum Corporation has signed an agreement with Transocean for the use of the Deepwater Pathfinder drillship to drill the Kina prospect on Block 4 in the Joint Development Zone.

The presidents of Nigeria and São Tomé & Príncipe have called on oil companies with acreage in the Joint Development Zone to move ahead with exploration.

Cristina Dias was sworn in as São Tomé and Príncipe’s oil minister on 11 November, the fourth person to hold the position since June 2008 and the latest indication of political uncertainty in the island state – which has yet actually to find oil (AE 149/14).

President Fradiqué de Menezes sacked Natural Resources and Energy Minister Agostinho Rita following corruption allegations, replacing him with a businessman also drawn from his Movement of Democratic Forces for Change (MDFM) party, Carlos Fernandes Marques.

An independent arbitration tribunal has given Addax Petroleum Corporation an additional 7.2% participating interest in its operated Block 4 of the Nigeria/São Tome e Principe Joint Development Zone (JDZ).

ENERISQ: Nigeria partnership; GALP: Portuguese buying Shell operations in three countries

TULLOW: Hickey quits; ERHC ENERGY: Appointments

Total has signed an agreement with the local Conoil Producing Ltd to farm into the deep offshore OPL 257 licence with a 40% interest. Conoil remains the operator with a 50% interest, and a smaller local company holds the remaining 10%. Total will be the technical advisor.

Controversial ERHC remains a player in the Gulf of Guinea and has high hopes for the Nigeria/STP JDZ.

Portugal’s Soares da Costa is to finance, build, own and operate 12 small hydropower plants with a combined capacity of about 30MW, at a total cost of around 3m ($4.4m). Fernando Nogueira, the company’s director in São Tomé, said STP’s total installed capacity would be quadrupled once all 12 plants were in operation. Under the project, Soares da Costa will also operate two existing small hydro schemes. Construction of the first plant – Roca Bombaim, with an installed capacity of 4MW – was launched at a ground-breaking ceremony held on 23 January.

ANGOLA: InterOil farms into Cabinda North; GABON: Themis Marin well fails; LIBYA/TUNISIA: NOC reorganises Tunisian joint ventures; NIGERIA: Amec consortium wins $220m contract; NIGERIA/STP: JDA confirms Dana Gas stake; TUNISIA: Etap seeks support for international subsidiary; TUNISIA: New permit in Algerian border region