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Houston-listed Vaalco Energy has secured government approval for the Venus Block P development plan in Equatorial Guinea, where the company now has an 80% participation interest in the project and is the operator.

Houston-based independent Vaalco Energy is to acquire Canada’s TransGlobe in an all-share transaction valued at $307m, creating a larger Africa-focused independent exploration and production company.

Trident Energy has begun a project to convert 15 gas lift wells to electrical submersible pumps (ESPs) by the end of 2022, aimed at unlocking the capacity of its Okume complex, in the Gulf of Guinea offshore Equatorial Guinea.

With gas prices rising, times are changing for Sociedad Nacional de Gas (Sonagas GE). Speaking to African Energy at the recent Africa Energy Forum in Brussels, director-general Juan Antonio Ndong Ondo said Sonagas GE is looking to develop renewables to help free up gas for export.

Nigeria and Angola are responsible for the vast majority of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) supply shortfall that is helping to sustain high global oil prices. Above-ground issues including theft and sabotage continue to contribute to a large deficit from the two sub-Saharan oil giants.

Commodity giant Glencore has pleaded guilty and agreed to pay the US authorities almost $1.2bn to end investigations into bribery and market manipulation. The settlement was part of a coordinated resolution with criminal and civil authorities in the US, UK, and Brazil announced on 24 May.

Trident Energy has secured an extension to its production sharing contract in Block G, in the Rio Muni Basin of Equatorial Guinea to 31 December 2040. The block currently produces around 35,000 b/d of oil.

Oil output in Algeria remains below the amount allowed under the Opec+ arrangement – something which is also the case for several other big African producers, as shown by the cartel’s Monthly Oil Market Report for March. According to their official filings, almost all African producers are producing below their agreed quota.

Among Russia’s portfolio of interests in Africa – which include a large military sales business and nuclear development ambitions – state-owned entities such as Gazprom, Gazpromneft and Rosneft have built up hydrocarbons industry interests in markets around the continent, from Algeria in the north to Nigeria, and Angola and Mozambique south of the Sahara.  African Energy examines Russia's investments in Africa's upstream sector and its possible strategic objectives.

With oil prices rising above $100/bbl as geopolitical tensions in Ukraine ratchet ever upwards, exploration and production companies in Africa are enjoying a boom, but the prospects for merger and acquisition deals are mixed. Companies that had been planning to offload assets can be reluctant to let go of a lucrative earner, while buyers have an incentive to wait for prices to fall before agreeing a deal.

US major Chevron has signed a production-sharing agreement for Block EG09 in the offshore Douala basin, on the maritime border with Cameroon.

Controversy continues to dog financing from China, the world’s largest bilateral lender by a distance. Its debt provision has transformed the African funding landscape over the past two decades: according to African Energy Live Data, $38bn of Chinese investment was committed to power projects across the continent between 2014 and 2019 alone.

A dispute over maritime rights between Equatorial Guinea and Gabon in Corisco Bay is heading for the courts, with implications for the exploration and development of hydrocarbons resources. The dispute between the two countries dates back to the early 1970s and centres on three uninhabited islands, Mbanié and the two tiny neighbouring islets of Conga and Les Cocotiers, which both sides claim.

Panoro Energy chief executive John Hamilton seems more focused on Equatorial Guinea and Gabon than Tunisia (see above), following the Oslo Stock Exchange-listed minnow’s recent acquisition of Tullow Oil’s Central African assets AE 439/21, 432/20.

Malabo has big ambitions to become a regional gas hub, but from an oil production perspective Equatorial Guinea is a small player. Despite activity involving Noble/Kosmos and Trident, ExxonMobil wants to get out In oil terms, Equatorial Guinea is an Opec minnow whose already small crude production has edged lower in recent years, with output in 2019 of 117,000 b/d slipping to 112,000 b/d last year – and averaging just 107,000 b/d in Q1 2021, amid Opec quota restrictions that kept barrels in the ground.