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Algeria has finally unveiled details of its long-awaited seventh licensing round, which will set the basis for IOCs’ co-operation with a resurgent Sonatrach.The Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) has issued the timetable for the seventh licensing round, inviting prequalified companies to bid for acreage in “different Algerian sedimentary petroleum basins offering a high potential in petroleum resources.

The great opportunities that tempted so many international players into Libya’s energy sector have not gone away.

A month after announcing a fourth oil discovery in the Lokichar Basin, Tullow Oil and Africa Oil Corporation have been forced to suspend exploration in the Turkana region for nearly two weeks following local protests over employment.
Tullow said on 28 October it had “temporarily suspended all operations as a precautionary measure in Block 10BB and Block 13T in northern Kenya. This decision follows demonstrations by local people regarding concerns around employment. The company said it was resuming work on 8 November following signing of a memorandum of understanding with the energy ministry laying out a plan for the companies and national and local authorities to work together to avoid future problems.


Shukri Ghanem – an academic who became one of Libya’s few genuine economic reformers, he spent most of the 1990s working as a petroleum economist at OPEC in Vienna, where he established a close connection with Saif Al-Islam Al-Qadhafi.

BP has said its recent three-well drilling campaign offshore Mauritania and Senegal “has further confirmed the world-class scale of the gas resource in the region”. Three appraisal wells drilled this year, GTA-1, Yakaar-2 and Orca-1, encountered gas in high-quality reservoirs in all nine hydrocarbon-bearing zones targeted. The wells, the first to be operated by BP after it took over as operator from Kosmos Energy, encountered 160 metres of total gas pay.

A $200m naira-linked loan for Nigerian energy player Oando has set a series of benchmarks, writes Kevin Godier.

Tullow Oil has settled a capital gains tax (CGT) dispute with the Ugandan government relating to its farm-down to CNOOC and Total in 2012. The company said on 22 June that it had agreed to pay $250m, substantially less than the $473m originally demanded by the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA). Tullow paid $142m in 2012, the minimum amount required to launch an appeal against the assessment, leaving $108m outstanding. A first instalment of $36m was paid on settlement, with two more payments to be made in 2016 and 2017.

A violent attack on the National Oil Corporation (NOC) headquarters in Tripoli which left two employees dead and 25 seriously injured appears to have been an attempt to cause serious damage to Libya’s oil sector by incapacitating its senior management. The attack has been claimed by Islamic State (IS), which if confirmed would make it the first attack by the jihadist group on the sector since early 2016.
At least three attackers penetrated NOC’s main building in the centre of Tripoli at 9am on 10 September.

Aker Energy has given Fugro a contract for geotechnical and geophysical surveys over the Pecan field on the Deepwater Tano Cape Three Points Block. The surveys will obtain seabed and sub-seabed information to facilitate the planning and emplacement of the Pecan subsea infrastructure and FPSO, Fugro said. Aker Energy decided in October to change its strategy after failing to win approval for a plan for development and operations (PDO) covering the full Greater Pecan area.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is considering providing a $28m loan to finance the expansion of Egyptian oil field services company Advanced Energy System. The expansion includes the purchase of an offshore drilling rig, to be operated in Egypt. The loan aims to increase domestic private sector participation in the Egyptian offshore drilling industry, which is dominated by a handful of large multinationals and public sector companies.

AIM-listed Gulfsands Petroleum has reached an agreement with Caithness Petroleum to acquire Cabre Maroc, which has oil and gas exploration and exploitation licences covering 13,352km2 in northern Morocco.

ALGERIA: In Salah contract; MOROCCO: Dry well for Repsol; LIBYA: Gazprom stalls on Elephant deal.

Seven companies have been awarded petroleum exploration licences following Zambia’s first bid round. Eight bids were examined by the government’s Petroleum Committee, and The Post daily quoted mines minister Maxwell Mwale as saying seven companies had been successful

A new and obscure player has emerged in the battle to secure choice sub-Saharan Africa oil and gas reserves, with a $4.8bn bid by Lagos-based Sunrise for ExxonMobil’s Nigeria assets.

Undeterred by the region’s numerous challenges, Germany’s E.ON Ruhrgas is expanding into North and West Africa as it moves to secure gas and LNG supplies for its European markets, writes Thalia Griffiths.