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Concerns over Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC)’s mounting debts to international oil companies and uncertainty over the hydrocarbons sector’s long-term political management have not dissuaded bidders from signing up new exploration concessions. The Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (Egas) bid round announced in June has been put back by four months, but EGPC has finally announced the result of its bid round launched in October 2011.

National Oil Corporation (NOC) has been obliged to reduce oil output by as much as 15% owing to the combined effects of accidents and routine maintenance.

Jacka Resources’ arrival as Somaliland’s first new IOC entrant in four years reflects renewed interest in the region’s geology, which could be further spurred by drill-bit success in neighbouring Puntland

African Petroleum has raised $3.1m in a private placement on the Oslo Axess junior market.The placement raised NOK26,675,000 in gross proceeds through the allocation of 10,670,000 shares at a subscription price of NOK2.50/share.African Petroleum chief executive Jens Pace said the proceeds would be used to strengthen the company’s balance sheet and liquidity position while it works towards completing farm-out transactions:“The proceeds will also help us prepare for the exciting and approaching spudding of the exploration well with Ophir Energy in Q2 2017 on the CI-513 Block in Côte d’Ivoire.

Mineral Resources minister Gwede Mantashe published a notice on 28 June suspending the granting of new oil and gas licences until a new invitation for applications is announced. “This restriction shall not affect the processing of applications for reconnaissance permits, technical cooperation permits, exploration and production rights received before the date of publication,” the notice said.

Tullow Oil has farmed into Pancontinental’s EL 0037 in the Walvis Basin, taking 65%. The block is immediately north of HRT’s licence, where the Wingat well was drilled earlier this year (AE 255/12). Wingat was non-commercial, but samples of light oil were recovered. Industry sources said the well had proved that the oil system in the Walvis Basin was working, but had tested the wrong reservoir interval. HRT said Wingat had identified two well-developed source rocks, both within the oil-generating window, and collected four samples from thin-bedded sandy reservoirs saturated by oil.

Hyperdynamics has completed the acquisition of 10,000km of 2D seismic over its offshore exploration acreage.

Eni on 20 July announced a gas discovery on the Nooros exploration prospect in the Abu Madi West licence in the Nile Delta. The Italian company said the Nidoco NW2 Dir NFW well was drilled to a total depth of 3,600 metres and encountered a 60-metre gas-bearing sandstone interval of Messianian age. The discovery is estimated to contain 15bcm of gas in place, with associated condensates. The new discovery will be put into production in two months’ time through a tie-in to the Abu Madi gas treatment plant, 25km to the south-east.

Tullow Oil and Dana Petroleum have reached a settlement with Hyperdynamics subsidiary SCS Corporation in their dispute over drilling plans. The two companies have pulled out of the production-sharing contract (PSC), and transferred their interest in the long-lead items purchased by the consortium in preparation for the drilling of the Fatala well. Hyperdynamics has agreed a one-year extension to the PSC covering a smaller area, with a commitment to drill a well next year. In January 2016, Hyperdynamics took legal action against Tullow and Dana, saying they had failed to meet their obligations under the joint operating agreement and the PSC which required a well to be drilled by September 2016.

Norwegian activities in African upstream

Seychelles Petroleum Company (Seypec) has invested A$2.08m ($2.2m) in Australia’s WHL Energy, which recently acquired exploration acreage in the archipelago.

AIM-listed Madagascar Oil has resolved outstanding issues with the government over exploration blocks 3105, 3106 and 3107

London-based Panoro Energy signed a sale and purchase agreement on 28 June for the acquisition of DNO Tunisia from Norway’s DNO ASA, while Petrofac announced the sale of its 45% interest in the Chergui licence to Perenco. Panoro will acquire an 87.5% interest and the operatorship of the Sfax Offshore Exploration Permit and Ras El Besh Concession, and a 46% stake in the Hammamet Offshore Exploration Permit operated by Medco. No cash will change hands up front; Oslo-listed Panoro concurrently raised $8.3m via a private share placement.

Rakgas has given Bell Geospace a contract to acquire just under 15,000 line km of airborne survey data in Zanzibar. The contract includes the acquisition of 3D full-tensor gradiometry (FTG) data as well as processing and interpretative services. Flights started on 14 March from Abeid Karume international airport in Zanzibar. Rakgas operates the Pemba Zanzibar Block, which surrounds the island

Tower Resources has given DMT Petrologic a contract to reprocess the 3D seismic data over and around the Thali licence in the Rio del Rey Basin. The contract, awarded following a competitive tender, involves merging and reprocessing data from five existing surveys to cover an area of approximately 500km2, including the entire Thali Block and the surrounding area, covering three discovery wells on the block itself and additional key wells to provide further data control.