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Kenya plans to redraft its exploration acreage, raising the total number of blocks from 46 to 60, petroleum commissioner Martin Heya told the East African Petroleum Conference in Kigali on 4 March. He said a new bid round was planned, but preparations would take at least two years. “We need to prepare data and package it and put it in a room where people can come and look at it,” he said.

The BP/government joint venture Pharaonic Petroleum Company has given OneSubsea a contract of more than $80m to supply subsea equipment for the East Nile Delta END-3 development. The development, some 70km offshore, is an expansion of the Taurt development to which OneSubsea supplied equipment in 2006. The contractor, a joint venture of Cameron and Schlumberger, will supply subsea production equipment, wet gas flow meters, high-integrity pressure protection systems, and installation and operational spares for four well systems.

The government has announced provisional awards from Sierra Leone’s fourth licensing round to Cluff Energy Africa and Innoson Oil and Gas. Cluff ’s acreage covers graticular blocks 23,24,25,36,37,38,39,54,55,56,57,74,75,94 and 95 in shallow water offshore Freetown, while Nigeria’s Innoson was awarded blocks 96, 97, 114, 115, 116, 117, 133, 134 and 135 off the southern coast. Block 133 contains theVenus-B1 discovery well, drilled by Anadarko in 2009.

A satellite oil seep survey over Origin Energy’s Blocks L8 and L9 in the Lamu Basin has examined surface evidence of hydrocarbon seepage from the sea floor, Pancontinental Oil & Gas (PCL) said. “The slicks seen in Block L8 are the largest and highest ranked in offshore Kenya and coincide with several main prospects mapped from seismic.

The new Agência Nacional de Petróleo, Gás e Biocombustíveis (ANPG) on 2 October published bidding parameters for the ten blocks in the 2019 bid round. The terms, published on the ANPG website, include a carried 20% stake for state oil company Sonangol in each block. Biddable terms for each block include the signature bonus, social projects contribution, number of wells and amount of seismic data to be collected.

Tullow Oil has agreed a farm-in to Guinea’s offshore, taking over operatorship from Houston-based Hyperdynamics, which drilled a dry well on the acreage earlier this year.

Fresh details of the machinations surrounding the sale of Heritage’s Ugandan oil acreage have emerged in the latest batch of WikiLeaks releases, writes Adrian J Browne.

Australia’s Ormil Energy has received government approval for a four-year petroleum exploration licence for an area of 23,700km2 in the Ngamiland and Central districts

Controversy is growing over the award by President Joseph Kabila of an oil exploration permit in the Virunga National Park, home to some of the world’s last few mountain gorillas. But while international organisations are urging the government to protect the park, MPs from North Kivu want exploration to go ahead in the hope of bringing development cash to the region.

Petroleum minister Sameh Fahmy and Eni chief executive Paolo Scaroni have signed a strategic framework agreement for the development of joint initiatives in Egypt, Iraq and Gabon and to help Eni gain access to the Arab Gas Pipeline system. They aim to develop a “pre-eminent Mediterranean gas hub” in Egypt, which would increase energy-hungry Italy’s security of supply

International oil companies continue to manoeuvre ahead of the controversial start of drilling in Moroccan-licensed acreage offshore the disputed Western Sahara – a development that is hotly contested by the Polisario Front independence movement and its supporters. Amid speculation that more Morocco players might joint Kosmos Energy and partner Cairn Energy in drilling this year, Longreach Oil & Gas has changed its name to PetroMaroc and says it has transferred its stakes in blocks that include part of the disputed territory to its partner San Leon Energy.

With just two weeks until polling day, Kampala is plastered with election posters,most of them showing President Yoweri Museveni in his trademark straw hat. He is widely expected to defeat his main opponent Kizza Besigye in the first round but, whatever the outcome, the elections will be followed by a lengthy interregnum before the new president is inaugurated and the new parliament in place. This means that much government business will effectively be suspended until at least May, including resolving the protracted dispute over tax due on Heritage Oil & Gas’ sale of its assets to Tullow Oil.

India’s ONGC Videsh signed agreements with Tullow Namibia on 28 June to acquire 30% in PEL 37, comprising blocks 2112A, 2012B and 2113B. Tullow will retain 35% and the operatorship, while Australia’s Pancontinental Oil & Gas holds 30% and the local Paragon Oil and Gas 5%.Pancontinental chief executive Barry Rushworth welcomed the news, saying: “The credentials of ONGC Videsh are well known to us and we expect this to be a positive step toward testing the large oil potential of PEL 37.”

Sonatrach expects revenues in 2009 to be half those of 2008, but the authorities are determined to show this won't affect investment. Sonatrach's turnover fell to $10.3bn in Q1 09 compared with $19.6bn in Q1 08, the official APS news agency reported.

While African exploration had been recovering from the last slump, 2020 could see no more than six or seven high-impact exploration wells drilled continent-wide. Tullow Oil has declared force majeure on its development in Kenya and Kosmos Energy has tweaked its exploration strategy to reduce risk and costs. In Namibia, the Venus well has been put off to later in the year, while BW Energy has written down the full value of the much-postponed Kudu development. Vantage Drilling has seen itsTopaz Driller rig terminated early by Vaalco Energy in Gabon, while Eni has declared force majeure on its contract for the Sapphire Driller in Republic of Congo.