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A number of international oil companies have given guarded support to energy and mines minister Youcef Yousfi’s contention that upstream shale reserves hold the key to Algeria’s long-term dominance of global gas markets, even before a regulatory regime and incentives for non-conventional reserves are unveiled. IOCs are still calling on the government and regulator Alnaft to open up unconventional oil and gas.

Kosmos Energy has launched a formal process to sell two thirds of its interest in the Mauritania/Senegal Basin, with bids expected by the end of the summer. Kosmos chairman and chief executive Andrew Inglis told a conference call on the company’s Q1 results on 6 May that the company had been encouraged by the response. “We’ve received considerable industry interest from around 15 large, highly credible companies who see the significant strategic value in gas assets and the size and quality of the resource.

Oando plc hopes to complete asset sales by end-July to reduce its debt to more manageable levels and enable it to focus on developing its upstream business following the acquisition of ConocoPhillips’ Nigerian assets. “We are optimising our balance sheet by restructuring our existing debt facilities and deleveraging an estimated $350m in asset value,” Oando Energy Resources chief executive Pade Durotoye told African Energy in an interview. He said the company was selling 60% of the downstream business, 75% of its gas and power business, and the entire rigs operation.

Cobalt International: Gabon farm in and other plays; HERITAGE: Jersey move; NATIONAL OILWELL VARCO: Joint venture

Undaunted by the latest salvo in the long-running border dispute between Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, companies active in the West African Transform Margin are pushing ahead with exploration. But emulating Tullow’s record is proving harder than several IOCs had hoped, writes Thalia Griffiths in Accra

Australia’s Rialto Energy is to take a 63.75% working interest in Block CI-202 off the Ivorian coast after the government approved its acquisition of a major shareholding in C&L Natural Resources

Also moving into Morocco is US minnow Plains Exploration and Production Company (PXP), which is to pay Australian independent Pura Vida Energy $15m upfront for a 52% stake in the Magazan deep-water permit.

The National Petroleum Institute (INP) has announced the signing of concession contracts for blocks awarded in a licensing round launched in October 2014. The INP said ExxonMobil had signed contracts on 8 October for the A5-B, Z5-C and Z5-D areas in the Angoche and Zambezi basins. Sasol Petroleum Mozambique Exploration is expected to sign for the onshore PT5-C area west of the Temane field on 15 October, and Eni will sign for the A5-A area in the Angoche Basin on 17 October.

Toronto-based Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas (EAOG) has sealed a deal to farm out majority stakes in two coal bed methane (CBM) licences to Belize-based West Bay Investments, a company run by Texan oilman Steve Looper.

Afren and its partners Optimum and Lekoil have announced that the Ogo-1 well and sidetrack on OPL 310 have found recoverable resources more than three times pre-drill expectations. Results from the well, located in the Upper Cretaceous fairway that runs along the West African Transform Margin, suggest an initial resource estimate of 774mboe, far above pre-drill expectations of 202mboe. Afren shares rose to a two-year high on the news. “The discovery looks to be one of the most important made in West Africa in recent history and to describe it as ‘transformational’ would not be hyperbole,” UBS said in a research note.

PGS has completed acquisition of its MC3D Kwanza Shelf survey in preparation for a planned 2021 licensing round. PGS said the survey complemented its 2019 data acquisition; total GeoStreamer coverage in blocks 6, 7 and 8 and the surrounding areas of the Kwanza Shelf is now 8,300km2. The 2021 round is expected to offer shallow water Kwanza Basin blocks 7, 8 and 9, as well as Lower Congo Basin blocks 16 and 31-34. Kwanza Basin Block 6, offshore Luanda, is under negotiation, according to the National Agency for Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels.

Eni’s floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel Armada Olombendo has arrived at Block 15/06 ready for next year’s start-up of the East Hub development project. The vessel was built at Keppel shipyard in Singapore for Malaysian FPSO operator Bumi Armada. Eni held a naming ceremony there on 14 October.

The existential threat to facilities in the Sirte Basin is growing while the prospects for a rapid, if partial, political solution to Libya’s crisis are diminishing. A second wave of attacks carried out by Islamic State (IS, or Daesh) on the Ras Lanuf and Sidra oil export terminals on 21 January has demonstrated definitively that the jihadist organisation intends to destroy oil production capability rather than exploiting it for commercial gain.

Oil find on Block 17/06; Aseng FPSO contract award; Anadarko starts onshore drilling; Acergy contract for Escravos gas

Sonangol has cancelled a tender issued in 2014 offering five onshore blocks in the Kwanza Basin and three in the Lower Congo Basin. Sonangol said the original aim of the bidding process was to offer upstream opportunities to Angolan entrepreneurs and companies but the sharp drop in the oil price meant the concessions were no longer viable. A statement published on Sonangol’s website on 17 May said that the original terms published for the tender would not be profitable for companies in the near future, and no change was possible without raising questions about the transparency of the bidding process.