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CGG has early data available from more than 25,000km2 of new 3D multi-client seismic acquired to support Gabon’s 11th licensing round. CGG said a fast-track pre-stack time-migrated dataset for the survey over available and licensed blocks in the South Basin was available, along with sample pre-stack depth reverse time-migrated (RTM) data in one area. The final RTM for the whole of the survey area will be available later this summer.

Tullow Oil expects to start small-scale production from its Ugandan fields in late Q4 12 and will drill 20 wells there this year

Eni announced on 24 October that it had formally committed not to perform oil and gas exploration and development activities within the boundaries of natural sites included in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage List. The threat of oil and gas exploration in World Heritage sites such as the Virunga National Park in Democratic Republic of Congo has been controversial for other companies, though Eni has so far steered clear.

Afren has completed acquisition of a 2,700km2 3D seismic survey over OPL 310 and the adjacent Aje field aimed at examining the potential for the new syn-rift play opened up by the Ogo discovery. Panoro Energy chief operating officer Nishant Dighe told Global Pacific & Partners’ Africa Independents’ Forum in London on 3 June that Afren had approached Panoro at end-2013 proposing the survey, which completed on 12 May. He said it would not affect development of the Aje field on OML 113, which is targeting first oil in Q4 2015, but he hoped it would add to the prospect inventory elsewhere on the block.

Multi-client seismic data specialist Spectrum plans to acquire a long-offset broadband 2D multi-client seismic survey over Tender Area 2, covering the southern Rovuma and north-eastern Zambezi basins. The survey will be a variable grid with lines spaced from 10km to 20km, totalling more than 16,000km. Spectrum said the new data will image the subsurface potential in open areas of the southern Rovuma Basin and the western flanks of the Kerimbas Graben, west of the Davie Fracture Zone. Potential targets already identified along the Mozambique margin include Cretaceous and Tertiary turbidites and buried canyon plays.

Maurel & Prom has named former Total executive Olivier de Langavant to replace Michel Hochard as chief executive. De Langavant, a former managing director of Total E&P Angola who was most recently a member of the Total Group Management Committee, takes over with effect from 1 November. Earlier this year, M&P acquired the 20% stakes in Angola blocks 3/05 and 3/05A previously owned by Angola Japan Oil Company, and the company is considering buying Colombia-focused Amerisur Resources.

Players in the breakaway state of Puntland claimed to be just over two months away from drilling a first well, which may or may not have brought oil to poverty-stricken Somalia.

Tullow Oil says it is now expecting a final investment decision (FID) on the Lake Albert development in Uganda in H2 this year. In a 25 April trading update, the company said the development had made “good technical and operational progress” in Q1. Tullow cited a target of mid-year when it announced its 2018 results in February, while energy minister Irene Muloni mentioned early 2019 in comments at Africa Oil Week last November.

Royal Dutch Shell has entered the West African Atlantic Margin, taking two recently relinquished blocks offshore Mauritania. The company announced on 23 July that it had signed production-sharing contracts with the government for blocks C-10 and C-19. Once it has obtained government approval for the contracts, Shell will open an office in Nouakchott and begin exploration activities, starting with reprocessing and analysis of existing seismic data and acquisition of new data, the company said.Shell will operate the exploration programme with a 90% interest.

Chevron has agreed to acquire Noble Energy, in an all-shares deal focused on the Eastern Mediterranean and US onshore. Chevron will acquire 2bn barrels of proven reserves, and says it can deliver $300m of cost cuts within a year by combining the companies’ operations.

In the latest scandal to hit Namibia’s highly politicised oil sector, petroleum commissioner Immanuel Mulunga has admitted to taking money from entrepreneur Knowledge Katti, writes Our Windhoek Correspondent

Eni and its partners announced a final investment decision on 1 June for the $8bn Coral South floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) development offshore northern Mozambique.All the drilling, construction and installation contracts for the production facilities were signed at a ceremony in Maputo, as well as agreements with the Mozambican government for the regulatory framework and financing of the project. Coral South is the first project in the development of the huge gas resource discovered by Eni in Area 4 of the Rovuma Basin.

The Libyan export industry is coming back to life, with the resumption of oil production in the western offshore and Sirte Basin's easternmost fields, and Eni expecting gas exports to resume this month. But a return to substantial production may take longer than recent projections suggest, writes John Hamilton

Cairn Energy and its partners have secured the Ocean Rig Athena for a fourth well in the current campaign offshore Senegal. The SNE-4 well spudded in mid-April, 5km south-east of the NNE-1 discovery well. The well aims to appraise the eastern extent of the field, and confirm the nature of the upper reservoirs in the oil zone. SNE-4 will be drilled to a total depth of 3,020 metres in a water depth of 940 metres.

San Leon Energy has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines giving it exclusive rights to a 36km2 block in the Timahdit oil shale deposit for two years. San Leon will evaluate the commercial viability of a production project using a surface retorting process.