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Equatorial Guinea’s Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Burkina Faso to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) and build the infrastructure to import, store and transport it. Under the initial three-year agreement, both sides will negotiate an LNG sales and purchase agreement and a terminal use agreement. The MoU also calls for EG to explore and produce oil and gas in Burkina Faso.

Ghana has signed a heads of agreement with Equatorial Guinea for the supply of 150-200mcf/d of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as part of measures being put in place by the government of President Nana Akufo-Addo to guarantee the country’s energy security.The agreement was signed by Ghana’s energy minister, Boakye Agyarko, and Equatorial Guinea’s minister of mines, industry, and energy, Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima, during a visit to Malabo by Akufo-Addo.

The Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons, Ophir Energy, Golar-Schlumberger joint venture OneLNG and GEPetrol have named Gunvor Group as their preferred offtaker from the Fortuna floating liquefied natural gas project. All parties have agreed the main commercial terms subject to finalising a sale and purchase agreement for the offtake ahead of the final investment decision (FID) on the Fortuna FLNG project, expected later this year.Gunvor is committed to taking the full contract capacity of the Gandria FLNG vessel of 2.2m t/yr, which will be purchased on a Brent-linked, free on board basis for a ten-year term.

The governments of Equatorial Guinea (EG) and Cameroon signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on 10 July paving the way for joint development of Noble Energy’s Yolanda discovery in EG Block I and Yoyo discovery offshore Cameroon. The company told African Energy the MoU stated that the two discoveries were in a contiguous reservoir that would be jointly developed as the Yoyo-Yolanda condensate gas field and operated by Noble Energy.“The MoU signifies a commitment from both countries to work together to develop the Yoyo-Yolanda condensate gas field,” Noble said.

The government has announced six licence awards from the 2016 bid round, as well as a production-sharing contract (PSC) with ExxonMobil for Block EG-11, which is contiguous to the company’s Zafiro oil field.Ophir Energy, which is developing the Fortuna gas complex on Block R, was awarded Block EG-24 in the country’s southern deep water west of the Ceiba field. Dublin-based Clontarf Energy won EG-18, which had previously been under negotiation with the ShoreCan joint venture of Nigeria’s Shoreline Energy International and Canadian Overseas Petroleum Ltd, and Nigeria’s Atlas Petroleum won EG-10, immediately to the east.

Equatorial Guinea’s application to join the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) has been successful and the country will become the fourth sub-Saharan African member. An Opec statement said a meeting in Vienna on 25 May considered Equatorial Guinea’s request to join the organisation and decided to approve its admission with immediate effect.Equatorial Guinea was among 11 non-Opec members that agreed to production cuts in December to stabilise the oil price.

The Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons has announced a binding agreement with the OneLNG joint venture to commercialise gas from Noble Energy’s blocks O and I. OneLNG, a joint venture between Golar LNG and Schlumberger, will commit funding to explore the technical and commercial feasibility of a floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project. OneLNG is already a partner with Ophir Energy in the Fortuna FLNG project on Block R, where a final investment decision is due at mid year.

The government of Equatorial Guinea has signed an agreement with Dubai-based Arabian Energy DMCC to work together on the Bioko Oil Terminal. The two sides agreed to collaborate on the development, implementation, construction and financing of the $500m project to develop West Africa’s largest oil and petroleum products storage facility. Other partners in the project include South Africa’s SacOil, Nigeria’s Taleveras Exploration and Production, trader Gunvor Group and South Africa’s Strategic Fuel Fund Association, which signed a memorandum of understanding with the government in 2015.

The government of Equatorial Guinea, Ophir Energy, OneLNG and state company GEPetrol have signed a detailed umbrella agreement establishing the legal and fiscal framework for the Fortuna floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project.The agreement reconfirms GEPetrol’s right to 20% of the upstream portion of the project, and allows for a future participation of up to 30% ownership of the midstream FLNG vessel by the state. “These participations create alignment with the EG government throughout the project value chain from upstream through to LNG marketing,” Ophir said.

Sub-Saharan Africa’s third biggest producer, Equatorial Guinea, has applied to join the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) price cartel. Minister of mines and hydrocarbons Gabriel Mbaga Obiang travelled to Vienna on 20 January to meet Opec officials.Obiang, the son of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema who became minister in May 2012, has been seeking to modernise the oil sector and boost Equatorial Guinea’s international image with projects such as a crude and products storage tank farm and a petrochemicals complex.

The Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons has extended the timetable for the 2016 licensing round, giving companies more time to submit bids. Interested companies must now submit prequalification bids by 31 January 2017. Prequalified companies will be announced on 3 February and will be able to access the data room until 20 April. Final bids must be submitted by 28 April. When the round was launched on 6 June, the bid deadline was 30 November. The ministry now aims to announce the successful bidders on 15 May and issue invitations to begin negotiations at the end of the month.

Ophir Energy on 10 November announced a binding shareholders’ agreement to form a joint operating company with OneLNG to develop the Fortuna floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project. OneLNG is a joint venture between Golar LNG, which is supplying the Gandria FLNG vessel for Fortuna, and Schlumberger, which had been talking to Ophir earlier this year about developing the project before it established the joint venture with Golar.

US independent PanAtlantic Exploration has announced it will take part in the government’s licensing round roadshow events as it seeks farm-in partners for its three offshore blocks. PanAtlantic entered Equatorial Guinea’s Block K in 2010 and also has operating interests in Block W and Block EG-02. The company is offering an inventory of ready-to-drill exploration prospects with estimated resource potential of 3.4m barrels of oil. The blocks are largely covered by 3D seismic, and with regional 2D lines available that tie into nearby fields. The 3D data from EG-02 and Block W were recently reprocessed.

South Africa’s SacOil has said prefeasibility studies for the planned Bioko Oil Terminal are due for completion in Q3. The terminal has been designed to have a total storage capacity of 1.2mcm of refined products and crude and will be developed in two phases. The first phase will have storage capacity of approximately 680,000m3 for refined products with the aim of supplying regional markets with petrol, naphtha, diesel and jet A-1. Subsequent phases will include the development of further crude oil storage.

The Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Royal Dutch Shell on 4 July following the Anglo-Dutch company’s acquisition of BG Group. The MoU will enable greater collaboration between the two parties on numerous oil and gas-related projects, the ministry said. BG has a 17-year purchase agreement for all liquefied natural gas (LNG) produced by the EGLNG facility since 2007. “In addition to Shell’s heightened focus on existing activities in Equatorial Guinea’s oil and gas sector, the MoU facilitates the future entry of the firm into new hydrocarbons projects,” the ministry said.