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The Lagos-based Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) has announced a $28m subordinated loan facility for the development of the Helm oil project on Tunisian exploration and production company Topic SA’s Halk El Menzel offshore block. The subordinated loan note has a 30-month tenor and will ensure the long-mooted project reaches first oil production by January 2018.The Helm project is a low-cost development of a marginal field covering an offshore area of 570km2 in the Gulf of Hammamet in northern Tunisia.

Russia’s Lukoil Overseas has found an “oil-saturated reservoir” with its first exploration well offshore Sierra Leone. The well on the Savannah structure on SL-5-11 was drilled to more than 4,700 metres in water depths of more than 2,000 metres using the semisubmersible Ocean Rig Eirik Raude (AE 262/14). Lukoil said oil-saturated reservoirs were identified and oil samples were taken from the Turonian sands.

New find on Block 31 Sonangol and BP have announced an 18th discovery on ultra-deep Block 31 with the Oberon-1 well. Located in the southern part of the block some 4.3km north-east of the Dione discovery,the well was drilled in a water depth of 1,624metres, reaching a total depth of 3,622 metres. Test results confirmed the capacity of the reservoir to flow more than 5,000 b/d under production conditions.First oil from Morsa West Process system integrators DPS have announced the start of oil production from Sonangol’s shallow water Morsa West field. The marginal field development project was awarded to Angola Drilling.

AIM-listed Circle Oil is to plug and abandon the NFA-1 exploration well on the onshore Lalla Mimouna permit after finding only gas shows. NFA-1 was the third well drilled by Circle on the permit and was drilled to 1,077 metres total depth targeting Miocene sands. The well encountered gas shows but the reservoir quality failed to meet expectations. The first well, LAM-1, flowed gas from two target intervals, while the ANS-2 well encountered gas shows.

On 3 March, the Benghazi Defence Brigades (BDB), a largely Islamist militia opposed to Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, gained control of the Ras Lanuf and Sidra oil terminals and held them until they were driven out again by Haftar’s Libyan National Army on 14 March. Haftar first took over the facilities in September after driving out the militia commanded by Ibrahim Al-Jathran, who had blockaded them for the previous two years.

Ophir Energy has given Australia’s WorleyParsons a contract to provide engineering and project management services for the Fortuna project on Block R, as well as a master services agreement to provide engineering support to any of Ophir’s worldwide assets. Ophir plans to develop Block R’s gas reserves through a 3m t/yr floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility – which could be Africa’s first floating LNG project, provided it starts up before other projects mooted for Cameroon, Mozambique and elsewhere. WorleyParsons and its specialist deep-water division Intecsea will oversee the front-end engineering design scopes and tendering

The much delayed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is undergoing yet another drafting, and is expected to be submitted to the presidency “within the next six to eight weeks”, petroleum minister Diezani Alison-Madueke said on 21 February. She told CWC’s Nigerian Oil and Gas conference in Abuja the bill would then be passed to the national assembly for debate.

Operator Tullow Oil has announced a fourth discovery in the South Lokichar Basin with the Ekales-1 exploration well in Block 13T. The well was drilled between the Ngamia and Twiga South discoveries and encountered potential oil pay in the Auwerwer and Upper Lokone sandstone reservoirs of between 60 and 100 metres. 
Once operations have completed, the rig will move to drill the Amosing-1 exploration well, south of Ngamia-1. The Agete-1 well, 7km north of Twiga South, began drilling on 16 September along the same ‘string of pearls’ basin bounding fault trend, and a third rig will be operational in Kenya by year-end.

Plans for a big East African regional pipeline may take some time to get off the ground, but Tanzania pioneer Aminex is hopeful it can develop significant reserves of gas with a relatively simple infrastructure

ALGERIA: Gulf Keystone gas find ANGOLA: Cabinda South drilling LIBYA: Eni charter MADAGASCAR: Aminex pulls out; MADAGASCAR: Chinese partners; MAURITANIA: RWE farms into onshore; MAURITANIA: Chinguetti drilling; MOZAMBIQUE: Indians plan Rovuma farm-ins; SIERRA LEONE: Elixir completes seismic; TUNISIA: Al Thani rig contract

BP announced on 10 May that it has started gas production from the first two fields of the West Nile Delta development, Taurus and Libra. BP said the project was delivered eight months ahead of schedule and under budget. First gas was exported to the grid on 24 March and the commissioning of all nine wells of the development’s first two fields and ramp-up to stable operations has now been completed.

BG has named Dr Arshad Sufi as president and general manager for BG Egypt, replacing Tim Blackford

US-based Hyperdynamics says the government has given the go-ahead for offshore seismic acquisition, even though it is reviewing its 2006 production-sharing contract. Calgary-based Geophysical Service Incorporated is acquiring 2D seismic as a first phase of a multi-client contract for 2D and 3D seismic.

Ghana launched its first upstream oil licensing round on 15 October, offering six offshore blocks with the aim of bringing fresh exploration and development impetus to West Africa’s newest oil exporter. At a time of rising crude prices and ongoing uncertainty over the direction of new petroleum policy in regional oil superpower Nigeria, the round’s timing could not have been better, but rather than the usual upbeat bid round launch message stressing Ghana’s upstream potential and generous fiscal terms, President Nana Akufo-Addo used the launch event to warn existing licenceholders that they needed to step up the pace of exploration.

While much has been made of the push by Gulf-based companies into African and other frontier exploration and production (E&P) territories, establishing themselves in unfamiliar environments has proved more problematic than many thought. One example is Qatar Petroleum