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After more than two years of arbitration, the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce has upheld RSM Production Corporation’s claim that it was unjustly divested of its 38% stake in the Victoria Oil and Gas (VOG)-operated Logbaba gas field onshore Cameroon in July 2011 for failure to pay its share of operating costs. However, while affirming RSM’s interest in the concession, the court ordered the company to “promptly” pay its arrears or risk default. In June 2011, London-based VOG said RSM, owned by Denver oilman Jack Grynberg, had failed to comply with a cash call served on 15 June, giving it 15 days to pay the outstanding balance.

Sound Energy has announced a successful re-entry and test of the Koba-1 well on the Sidi Moktar licence. The well was drilled by Longreach Oil and Gas in 2013 but not tested. Sound said on 5 July it had successfully re-entered, completed, perforated and flared gas at surface from the Argovian reservoir, where a five-metre interval was perforated at a depth of 1,406 metres. Sound has now temporarily suspended the well in preparation for a rigless extended well test, then hopes to move rapidly to production.

Operator Noble Energy has launched production from the Aseng Field in ofshore

A new reserves review for Victoria Oil & Gas has doubled the proven and probable (2P) reserves for the Logbaba field beneath Douala.

Australia’s AuDAX Resources has completed its acquisition of the offshore Kerkouane permit from Stratic Energy (AE 131/16). Perth-based Kairiki Energy has 30% in the permit, while AuDAX is operator with 70%. The two Australian companies also have the adjacent Pantelleria permit in Italian waters, as well as the Chorbane permit west of Sfax.

Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas listed on London’s AIM market on 8 February, raising $5.09m to finance a planned 3D seismic campaign offshore Guyana, where the company has 40% in the Orinduik licence operated by Tullow Oil, close to ExxonMobil’s Liza discovery. The AIM shares were launched at £20 ($25), and had fallen to £16.55 by 13 February. Eco Atlantic also trades on Toronto’s Venture Exchange.

After several dry wells, two new finds have offered confirmation of the potential of the West African Transform Margin beyond Ghana, with African Petroleum announcing Liberia’s first oil find, and success for Anadarko with the Jupiter well offshore Sierra Leone.

Cairn Energy has spudded the third well in its appraisal programme for the SNE field. The BEL-1 well is being drilled by the Ocean Rig Athena drillship to a total depth of 2,757 metres in water depths of 1,100 metres. Partner FAR said the well would appraise the SNE field and test the Bellatrix exploration prospect, evaluating the untested Buried Hills play. BEL-1 will be deepened to appraise the northern portion of the SNE oil field. The aim of the appraisal programme is to prove a minimum economic field size for the SNE discovery, which FAR estimates to be approximately 200m barrels of oil.

The UK’s Serious Fraud Office said on 31 July that it had opened an investigation into Soma Oil & Gas in relation to allegations of corruption in Somalia. The investigation follows a report by the United Nations Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group to the Security Council which said that Soma had been making regular payments to the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources since mid-2014, some to senior civil servants who were instrumental in securing the company’s initial contract and negotiating subsequent agreements. Soma said it was confident that there was no basis to the allegations and it was co-operating fully with the SFO.

Nigeria’s South Atlantic Petroleum has given Norway’s Petroleum Geo-Services a contract to acquire more than 9,000km2 of 3D seismic in the central Mozambique Channel. The Ramform Sterling vessel will acquire more than 7,000km2 in the Juan de Nova permit, a French overseas territory, and more than 2,000km2 in Madagascar’s Belo Profond licence.

ALGERIA: Sonatrach finds, CAMEROON: New onshore licence for Bowleven, COTE D’IVOIRE: Tullow, Kufpec join Edison block, GHANA: Songa Saturn for Kosmos, MAURITANIA: Sonatrach farms into Total acreage

Gazprom has moved a step closer to taking a share of strategic upstream assets in Libya from Italy’s Eni, potentially adding another facet to Moscow’s energy influence in North Africa. The Russian giant is also believed to be talking about possible deals with Algeria’s Sonatrach and has offered to invest in Nigeria

A new partnership agreement between Eni and Sonatrach has extended the Italian company’s original oil and gas licence – the first ever signed between Sonatrach and an international oil company (IOC) – while preserving the terms agreed under the 1986 oil and gas law. However, there is no guarantee that other IOCs will be able to use the deal as a benchmark in their own negotiations – apart from anything else, not even the broad outlines of the agreement have been made public.

Tullow Oil continues to face problems in increasing oil production from the Jubilee field. An operational update on 15 January said output averaged 100,000 b/d for 2013, lower than the planned 120,000 b/d, following issues with the water injection system on the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel that Tullow said had now been resolved. However, increasing output to the target of 120,000 b/d is hampered by difficulties with handling the associated gas. Tullow said the Ghana National Gas Company’s onshore gas-processing plant would not be ready to receive Jubilee gas until H2 2014.

Nigerian independent Seplat Petroleum announced on 15 October that it had agreed to buy AIM-listed Eland Oil & Gas for £382m ($478m). The 166p/share price represents a premium of approximately 28.5% to the Eland closing price of 129.2p on 14 October. The offer has been recommended by the Eland board and is supported by its three largest shareholders, which hold about 59% of the company’s shares, Seplat said.