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Speaking in Brussels on 2 February, the minister said a planned phase 2 expansion of the Moanda metallurgy complex by the Compagnie Minière de l’Ogooué (Comilog) was dependent on power availability and would require at least 80MW. Similarly, Nouvelle Gabon Mining, owned by Singapore-based investors, which is developing the Franceville manganese deposits and planning a manganese alloy plant, needs 70MW for phase one of the project and 80MW for the second phase. Existing generation capacity is not sufficient to supply these projects, let alone the future Belinga iron ore project, whose total reserves are estimated at 1bn tonnes.

Seismic acquisition company Polarcus has signed a letter of intent with Perenco Oil & Gas Gabon SA for a 3D marine seismic acquisition project. The survey, to be acquired by the Polarcus Nadia vessel and subject to the execution of a service contract, will start in Q1 2015 and is expected to take approximately 21 days.

Veteran French investigative journalist Pierre Péan has returned to Gabon, a country he first worked in from 1962, by following up his famous 1983 Affaires Africaines with a new book that is creating a buzz in Franco-African circles: Nouvelles Affaires Africaines: Mensonges et pillages au Gabon (Fayard, Paris). While Libreville has sought to craft a modern, outward-looking image for President Ali Bongo Ondimba, since his election in 2009 – embodied by the much-hyped Emerging Gabon economic diversification plan – Péan focuses on a culture of enrichment by the elite and its foreign allies, where esoteric beliefs can shape policy even more than internationally recognised investment initiatives.

Operator Perenco has announced that the Sputnik-1 well, targeting a pre-salt structure in the offshore Arouwe Block, has encountered non-commercial hydrocarbon pay in up to 300 metres of net sandstone reservoir. The Vantage Tungsten Explorer drillship drilled Sputnik-1 to a final depth of 4,868 metres in water depths of 1,023 metres. The rig will now leave the block, and the results of this well will be incorporated into wider understanding of the region, Perenco said.

US independent Vaalco Energy has launched a new six-well development drilling campaign at the Etame Marin Block. The campaign follows the recent installation of the Etame platform and the Southeast Etame/North Tchibala platform to support production. Vaalco is using the Transocean Constellation II jack-up rig for the drilling work. The new platforms are each equipped with eight well slots, giving Vaalco the option to drill up to five more development wells. The programme aims to increase production to a level close to capacity of the project’s floating production, storage and offloading vessel.

The Direction Général de Hydrocarbures has approved the development and production plan for the Ruche development on Harvest Natural Resources’ Dussafu Marin permit. The development includes the Ruche A, Ruche B (Tortue), Ruche C (Moubenga) and Ruche D (Walt Whitman) discoveries. The plan is based on a centrally located floating production, storage and offloading vessel with sub-sea wells tied back from each of these discoveries. Front-end engineering design studies are under way and, once these are completed, a final investment decision is scheduled for Q1 2015.

Shell has announced a pre-salt gas discovery with the Leopard-1 well on block BCD10. Shell said the well encountered a substantial gas column with around 200 metres of net gas pay in a pre-salt reservoir. Leopard-1 is located around 145km off the Gabonese coast, west of Gamba. It was drilled in water 2,110 metres deep to a total vertical depth of 5,063 metres. Shell and its partner CNOOC are planning to undertake an appraisal programme to further determine the resource volumes.

Agro-industry firm SIAT Gabon signed a power purchase agreement with state utility Société d’Energie et d’Eau du Gabon (Seeg) on 7 August to sell its surplus power to the grid. SIAT Gabon produces electricity from palm oil production residues. Local media reports said the supply from SIAT would meet nearly 20% of demand from the city of Lambaréné in the Moyen Ogooué region, where SIAT has a large palm oil plantation. “This agreement testifies to Seeg’s desire to provide new sources of clean energy in collaboration with companies committed to the sustainable industrial development of Gabon,” Seeg director-general Jean-Paul Camus said at the signing ceremony.

CGG has signed an exclusive multi-client data agreement with the Ministère du Pétrole et des Hydrocarbures for 35,000km2 of 3D data over the latest available and awarded deep-water blocks, and 9,900km of 2D data over the country’s ultra-deep water offshore area. The programme, which has already received support from the industry, will be implemented in association with the Direction Générale des Hydrocarbures (DGH). The first phase, covering almost 24,000km², will start in Q4 2014 and is scheduled to last seven months.

Italy’s Eni has announced a gas and condensate discovery in the pre-salt Nyonie Deep prospect in Block D4. The discovery will be welcome news following a string of unsuccessful wells drilled by Ophir Energy and comes as the government negotiates with bidders for new pre-salt blocks offered in a recent licensing round. Eni estimated initial reserves in place at 500m boe. The discovery was made with the NFW Nyonie Deep 1 well, which was drilled in 28 metres of water to a total depth of 4,314 metres.

Gabon has written to United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon rejecting part of Angola’s December 2013 submission to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS). The northern maritime limit separating Angola’s territorial waters to the north of Cabinda from Republic of Congo’s waters, instead of running straight from the coastline, turns off abruptly to the north and intersects first Congo’s continental shelf area, then Gabon’s.

The process of awarding blocks from Gabon’s pre-salt licensing round continues to cause confusion for oil companies. Several years in preparation, the new hydrocarbons code was adopted in February, passed by edict by the government during a parliamentary recess. However, a different version was published in the Official Gazette on 25 April. Law firm Miranda Correia Amendoeira & Associados says the bill will need to be ratified when parliament is next in session and could be amended then. A list of 13 block awards was published in October 2013 and companies were invited for contract talks. Then, in May, oil minister Etienne Ngoubou said three had been dropped because they lacked the necessary financial strength.

Ophir Energy has drilled a second unsuccessful well in its four-well exploration programme offshore Gabon. The Affanga Deep-1 well in the Gnondo Block was drilled using the Vantage Titanium Explorer drillship to a depth of 4,240 metres, targeting a number of reservoir intervals of Turonian and Cenomanian age. Ophir said the well encountered thinner-than-expected sandstone sections with poor reservoir characteristics. Gas and indications of liquids were encountered, but no significant hydrocarbon shows, though cuttings confirmed the presence of a Cenomanian oil-prone source rock, which may have positive implications for the wider Ogooué Delta outboard play and for the deep-water play to the west of the well location.

Three companies previously named as having won blocks in the 2013 offshore oil licensing round have been dropped from the list because they lack the necessary financial clout, oil minister Etienne Ngoubou said on 28 May. “The offshore requires huge investment and the companies turned down did not meet those requirements,” Ngoubou told reporters. The three were Noble Energy, Cobalt International Energy and Israeli miner Elenilto. Gabon announced the award of 13 oil and gas blocks to 11 companies in October 2013 and contract negotiations are under way.

Angola’s Petroplus Overseas plans to drill this year on the offshore Hyembe Block, close to Port-Gentil. The company signed two contracts in Gabon in 2011 that were confirmed by presidential decree last year. The company said in a news release that Hyembe contained 80m barrels of recoverable reserves in an area of 2,000km2. The company also has the Espadon/Roussette licence, which covers 4km2, to the west of Port-Gentil, containing an estimated 24m barrels of recoverable oil. Exploratory drilling is scheduled for 2015, Petroplus said.