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Hyperdynamics has signed a letter of intent for Nigeria’s South Atlantic Petroleum (SAPetro) to take a 20% stake in the company’s offshore oil and gas concession where a well is due next year. The letter of intent, which is non-binding, calls for SAPetro to take a 20% participating interest in exchange for paying 40% of the costs of the upcoming Fatala well up to a $50m cap of predicted total well costs. Above that amount, SAPetro would pay its proportional 20% share.

The Ministry of Mines and Energy and the US’ Titan Resources Corporation, owned by Nelson ‘Bunker’ Hunt, have signed two production-sharing agreements covering acreage in the Ogaden and Abay basins, which were offered in an open tender earlier this year (AE 141/18).

Royal Dutch Shell has confirmed the appointment of Osagie Okunbor as managing director of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, with effect from 1 March. He will replace Mutiu Sunmonu, who is retiring. Okunbor, who will also serve as country chair of Shell companies in Nigeria, is presently a senior adviser for Shell’s upstream international operations business in The Hague, and has previously worked as vice-president human resources for Shell Upstream’s business in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as vice-president infrastructure & logistics at Shell Nigeria.

IOCs and local corporates are getting to grips with a complex new law on Angolanisation, which puts pressure on companies to employ local contractors and staff, in senior roles

Azurite disappointment; Oando swamp rig for Shell; Total starts work on Ofon Phase 2; Shell wins Orange Basin right; Third time lucky for Tower?

Kent Watts, former chairman of Guinea explorer Hyperdynamics, has brought in an ex-colleague as a partner on his new Namibia venture. Watts’ Hydrocarb Energy Corporation, which has four blocks in northern Namibia’s Owambo Basin along the edge of the Etosha game reserve, has farmed out 39% to Duma Energy Corporation.

Bill Brumbaugh’s Swiss Oil Holdings International has given up Lamu blocks L4

South Africa’s offshore potential has seen an upsurge of interest following recent success in Mozambique, with significant new acreage licensed and the pace of exploration speeding up, writes Thalia Griffiths in Cape Town

Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines has signed a reconnaissance contract for the Tadla I area with US company EOGI International; Australia’s Tangiers Petroleum has raised A$6.35m ($6.7m) through a private placement in conjunction with its AIM listing

Having recently pulled out of Republic of Congo and Angola, London-listed Soco International has moved into Egypt, with the acquisition of Merlon Petroleum El Fayum Company for $215m, to be paid in cash and shares. Merlon, a company incorporated in the Cayman Islands, has 100% in the onshore El Fayum concession in the Western Desert, which will add production, reserves and exploration upside to Soco’s Vietnam-focused portfolio.

Tullow Oil has decided to exit the Norwegian Continental Shelf, selling its working interest in eight licences to Aker BP, and another four to Statoil. The Statoil transaction includes the Wisting discovery in the Barents Sea. BP Norge and Det Norske Oljeselskap completed a merger in September, creating Aker BP as a new independent company. Aker BP said the acquisition, which includes 15% in the Oda (previously known as Butch) discovery in PL 405, strengthens its position in core areas surrounding the Ula, North of Alvheim, Skarv and Krafla/Askja areas.

Kosmos Energy is drilling a second well offshore Mauritania, with results expected in the middle of Q4. The Dallas-based company said in an operational update that the Marsouin-1 well on Block C8 spudded on 28 August. The well is located some 60km north of the basin-opening Tortue-1 well in a water depth of 2,400 metres and is designed to test a four-way trap with multiple stacked targets, including Lower Cenomanian, Albian and Aptian formations. It is targeting 300mboe of gas and liquids, and Kosmos plans up to seven exploration and appraisal wells over the next 18 months.

Having brought in a Japanese partner, the US indie is preparing to drill off Sierra Leone and Liberia, hoping to continue the region’s success with the drillbit established by Ghana’s oil plays. Meanwhile controversial entrepreneur Frank Timis is tightening his grip on resources plays in Sierra Leone

A decade-old production-sharing agreement (PSA) for three blocks in the Cuvette Centrale Basin has moved a step closer to approval with a new draft submitted to cabinet on 15 January. The PSA was originally signed on 21 December 2007 between the government and the Comico-Cohydro joint venture of Compagnie Minière du Congo and the state-owned Congolaise des Hydrocarbures for the exploration and development of blocks I, II and III of the Cuvette Centrale Basin.

ANGOLA: New find on Block 31; ANGOLA: First oil from Morsa West; ANGOLA: Total gives CGGVeritas 4D inversion project; CHAD: New find for CNPC; EGYPT: BG begins Phase V gas production from WDDM; EGYPT: East Mediterranean Gas in repricing deal; LIBYA: Petrobras drills in Area 18; MOROCCO: New gas find for Circle; NIGERIA: Oando wins swamp drilling contract; NIGERIA: Acergy to revamp Mobil platforms