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Tullow Oil has announced plans to farm down its equity in the Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme (Ten) development and production area in return for a carry on development costs. “This will enable Tullow to manage its exposure to development spend over the coming years whilst retaining a material interest and operatorship of the high-value oil production expected to commence in mid-2016,” the company said. The importance of Tullow’s West African oil production portfolio can be seen in the company’s H1 results, in which the region represented 77% of the company’s 88,600 boe/d working interest production. Production from Ghana’s Jubilee field is 110,000 b/d, with a target of 120,000 b/d by year-end, while the company is working to maintain stable production from established fields in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

Tullow Oil has appointed Eoin Mekie as

AIM-listed Tower Resources suspended its shares on 12 May citing cash problems after failing to reach a farm-out deal on its Thali asset in Cameroon. The company said it was considering appointing administrators. Tower had been in talks with a potential partner on Thali but an 11 May deadline to sign a heads of agreement that would have triggered a non-refundable deposit to Tower was missed. Remaining staff have been given notice that their jobs will be terminated.

Petroceltic International has announced the start of appraisal drilling on the Isarene permit.

Broadway Consolidated’s successor company Peppercoast Petroleum has sold off 100% of Block LB-13 to Calgary-based Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited (COPL).

Continuing violence involving renegade militias, international oil companies and their security contractors, and government forces in the Virunga National Park area of eastern Congo highlights the wider region’s chronic instability and the problems that poses for IOCs who are entering Central Africa excited by its hydrocarbons potential.

Former Woodside Energy vice-president Eve Howell has quit Tangiers Petroleum after losing the support of a group of Australian shareholders. The company’s growth strategy had caught the imagination of overseas investors, but industry sources said a local group opposed the dilution of assets implied by the proposed takeover of Jacka Resources. Tangiers said on 4 February that Howell and non-executive director Max de Vietri had resigned with immediate effect, “citing the loss of support of several major shareholders”.

CAMAC Energy has signed a long-term drilling contract with Northern Offshore for the drillship Energy Searcher. The rig is expected to be delivered to the Oyo field in OML 120 offshore Nigeria to start drilling activities in H1 2014. The signed agreement covers an initial period of one year, with an option to extend the contract for an additional year. Initial production from the Oyo field is scheduled for Q3 2014. Three wells are planned this year in a first phase, with an initial production rate of 7,000 b/d per well.

Dana Petroleum is currently drilling the Akhenaton-1 well, in the South October concession in the Gulf of Suez. Results are expected by mid-December, after which the IO3 rig will move to the SE July concession, where the SE July-1 well is expected

Operator Eni has discovered another 10tcf of gas in its offshore Area 4 with the Mamba North East 2 exploration well, bringing the total potential of the block to 70tcf of gas in place.

Stakes in the Ghanaian offshore, including the Jubilee field, held by Sabre Oil and Gas are said to be in play, with Kosmos Energy underlining its commitment to stay in Ghana by exercising its right of first refusal to bid for the assets, 4.05% of Deepwater Tano and 1.8% of West Cape Three Points

Africa Oil Corporation has completed the farmout of stakes in the South Omo and Rift Basin blocks and received a completion payment of $12.8m from Maersk Oil. Maersk has taken 25% in the Rift Basin Block, alongside Africa Oil, which remains as operator with 25%, and Marathon with 50%. In South Omo, Tullow Oil is operator with 50%, while Maersk has taken 15%, Africa Oil retains 15% and Marathon has 20%. Maersk also agreed in November to take 25% in Kenya blocks 10BB, 13T and 10BA, in a deal totalling upto $845m.

Afren has announced a successful exploration well on the Ebok North Fault Block. The well discovered 113 metres of oil pay, which broker FoxDavies Capital said “proves commerciality of the entire Ebok field”.

A special session of the National Assembly approved a new petroleum code on 24 January. Law 01/2019 replaces the previous code drafted in 1998, which has been revised to take account of Senegal’s offshore oil and gas discoveries since 2014. The law includes local content provisions, and provides for Société des Pétroles du Sénégal (Petrosen) to take a minimum 10% paid interest in all contracts.

More new exploration licence awards have been announced from recent Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (Egas) bid rounds. The new licences will be formally awarded once the concession agreements are finalised. In the 2013 EGPC bid round, Eni has been awarded a 100% participating interest and operatorship of the onshore South-West Melehia Block in the Western Desert, close to the Melehia development lease, in which Eni has a participating interest. The new licence covers 2,058km2.