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Kosmos Energy has appointed Andrew Inglis as board chairman and chief executive with effect from 1 March, enabling current chief executive Brian Maxted to focus on his exploration role. Maxted, a founding partner of Kosmos, will serve as chief exploration officer and remain on the board, while current board chairman John Kemp will retire. Inglis joined Petrofac in January 2011 after 30 years with BP, most recently as chief executive of its exploration and production business.

CITYVIEW: Share suspension; SONATRACH: Cherouati opens his account; TULLOW OIL: New deep-water licence in Suriname

Houston-based Vaalco Energy plans a well on the Kindele prospect on Block 5 in Q4. Vice-president exploration David Cameron told Global Pacific & Partners’ Africa Independents’ Forum in London on 3 June that the block was on trend with Cobalt Energy International’s pre-salt discoveries, but exploration had been in limbo for some time following the departure of the previous block partner, Norway’s Interoil, which ran out of money. Sonangol P&P was named in 2012 or 2013 as 40% working interest partner in the block, in which it held 30% alongside BP and StatoilHydro before the block was licensed to Vaalco and Interoil in 2006.

In a series of bold and politically risky moves, the Egyptian government has attempted to stabilise its economy and reduce its dependence on financial support from the Gulf by devaluing its currency, reducing subsidies and turning to Iran as an alternative source of imported fuel. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s administration appears to be banking on the assumption that it can contain any public unrest provoked by domestic price rises and shortages of essential goods. It believes it can weather a geopolitical storm with its former patron, and that in the long term the economy will rest on firmer ground.

Canada’s Griffiths Energy International plans to change its name to Caracal Energy and list its shares on the London Stock Exchange’s main market. The company planned an initial public offering last year, but the plans were shelved when the company discovered that its late founder, Brad Griffiths, had bribed Chadian officials to obtain exploration acreage. Griffiths Energy was fined C$10.35m by a Calgary court in January.

The shape of policy towards unconventional gas is becoming clearer, as the government and Sonatrach see potentially vast shale reserves as a game-changer that will assure Algeria’s status as a strategically important gas exporter for decades to come, write Jon Marks and Oualid Khelifi

A joint venture of Edison International and Petroceltic International has been awarded the North Port Fouad Block, in the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company 2013 International Bid Round. North Port Fouad (Block 7), is located offshore the Nile Delta and lies to the north of, and immediately adjacent to, the North Thekah Block, which was awarded to a Petroceltic/ Edison joint venture in 2013.

Amid growing interest in West Africa’s untapped potential, Bergen Oilfield Services (BOS) is to acquire a big multi-client 2D seismic survey extending from Senegal to Guinea.

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation’s Barquentine well has made another gas find in Offshore Area 1 of the Rovuma Basin

Ophir Energy has revived plans to seek a share listing to help fund its growing exploration activity. The company was considering an initial public offering in 2007, but opted to stay private. It argued that markets liked to see short-term results, but that it was still a couple of years from drilling, and private equity was a better way of meeting its needs (AE 126/14

The government on 6 June launched its 2016 licensing round, offering all 37 of the country’s open blocks. The launch took place in Cape Town, and roadshows will be held in London on 20-21 June, in Singapore on 20-23 September, in Istanbul during the World Energy Congress on 9-13 October and finally in Houston in November. The blocks on offer include Block A-12, which was recently relinquished by Marathon, while Glencore’s former EG-05 has been subdivided into smaller blocks.

The past four years have been a period of intense frustration for National Oil Corporation (NOC) and its international partners as persistent violence and political mayhem have cut oil production to one-quarter of the 1.6m b/d maximum and made it impossible to implement exploration and development plans. NOC’s inability to make progress on a practical level has not stopped it from working up new investment schemes, which it has presented to international oil companies (IOCs) in increasing detail over the past several years.

The World Bank brought together nine countries, ten oil companies and six development institutions in Washington on 17 April to commit to ending routine gas flaring at oil production sites by 2030 at the latest. Participants in the Zero Routine Flaring by 2030 initiative will publicly report their flaring and progress towards the target on an annual basis, and will ban the burning off of gas at new oil field developments. Governments have committed to provide an operating environment conducive to investments and to the development of functioning energy markets.

Petroleum Minister Sameh Fahmy has signed a long-awaited agreement to supply Lebanon with 600m m3/yr of natural gas through the Arab Gas Pipeline Project (AGPP).

Madagascar Oil has been awarded a development mining title for the Block 3104 Tsimiroro production sharing contract (PSC). This follows approval of the Block 3104 Tsimiroro development plan by the Block 3104 management committee. This is the first PSC to enter into the development phase in Madagascar. The development mining title is valid for 25 years with possible extensions to enable a development period of up to 50 years provided production remains commercial.