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Morocco is quietly hoping that drilling next year will prove up significant amounts of gas offshore and reduce its dependence on costly imports, writes Nadine Marroushi in Marrakech

The US Treasury on 21 December placed sanctions on Israeli businessman Dan Gertler, a close business associate of President Joseph Kabila whose substantial mining and oil interests in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have long been controversial. The Treasury said Gertler had amassed his fortune through hundreds of millions of dollars worth of opaque and corrupt mining and oil deals in the DRC.

The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) is providing a $50m loan to Cheiron Finance Limited, a subsidiary of Egypt’s Pico International Petroleum, in an effort to bolster domestic energy supplies. The loan is part of a $200m financing package arranged by IFC, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and HSBC. It will help Pico, one of Egypt’s leading independent producers, expand operations and optimise production at its oil and gas fields in the Gulf of Suez. Those fields help supply Egypt’s oil and natural gas-fired power plants, which provide the vast majority of the country’s electricity.

The scale of the Mamba South discovery announced by Italian major Eni wasn’t such a shock after Anadarko Petroleum Corporation’s upbeat reporting of its Barquentine-2 appraisal well, which has shown that northern Mozambique could become a major gas producer, just as northern neighbour Tanzania is shaping up to be

Operator Total is drilling the long-awaited Brulpadda-1AX re-entry well targeting a 1bn barrel prospective resource. The well, on Block 11B/12B in the Outeniqua Basin some 175km off the southern coast, was suspended in 2014 because of the strong Agulhas current. This time, Total has designed a special riser tension system for the well to resist the challenging sea conditions. A discovery would spark interest in the potential of South Africa’s offshore after a lengthy period of uncertainty over the licensing regime.

Australia’s Far said on 20 June it had asked the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris to start arbitration proceedings to resolve a joint operating agreement dispute regarding the company’s right to pre-empt the sale of ConocoPhillips’ interest in the Rufisque, Sangomar and Sangomar Deep joint venture. ConocoPhillips said in July 2016 it had agreed to sell Woodside its 35% stake in the three Cairn Energy-operated blocks, which include the SNE and FAN discoveries.

The Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy has announced new appointments and department mergers in a bid to streamline its operations. Minister Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima has named Jose Manuel Abaga Mba as his chief of staff, replacing Lucas Nguema Mbulito, who recently became chief executive of state power company Segesa. Mercedes Eworo Milam has been named director of petroleum economics, replacing Tomás Felix Ongo Ehapo, and will retain her position as director-general of hydrocarbons, representing a merger of the hydrocarbons and petroleum economics portfolios.

The government has made a $350m payment to BG Group, reducing its outstanding debt to around $1.2bn. Egypt’s total arrears to foreign companies reached some $6.3bn in 2013, and the government has started paying off part of its debt to encourage companies to stay and continue investing in the upstream exploration and production sector. BG was obliged to declare force majeure on its liquefied natural gas agreements in January because of the quantity of gas diverted to the domestic market.

Norway’s DNO International and United Arab Emirates-based RAK Petroleum have signed a heads of agreement to merge RAK Petroleum’s Middle East and North Africa (Mena)

The Joint Development Authority (JDA) has approved a six-month extension of exploration phase I in blocks 3 and 4 of the Nigeria-São Tomé Joint Development Zone, enabling the companies involved to complete the studies needed for further exploration (AE 194/14).

Mauritania and Senegal signed an intergovernmental agreement in Nouakchott on 10 February, paving the way for development of the 15tcf Tortue gas discovery, that straddles their maritime border. “The two presidents, convinced of the importance of the role of energy in sustainable economic development, expressed their common desire to intensify cooperation in this sector.

Aminex has agreed to sell up to a 13% interest in the Kiliwani North development licence to its Ruvuma partner Solo Oil for $7m. Solo will initially acquire a 6.5% interest from Aminex subsidiary Ndovu Resources for $3.5m, and will have a 45-day option to purchase an additional 6.5% for $3.5m. Aminex, which is waiting on the start of gas production to provide it with cash flow, will use the proceeds to reduce debt and strengthen its balance sheet. Aminex and Solo are partners in the Ruvuma production-sharing contract, where gas was discovered in 2012 at Ntorya-1.

Teodorin Nguema Obiang, son of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, has been put under formal investigation in France for money laundering. French police have been investigating allegations that Teodorin, whose official titles are agriculture minister and second vice-president, embezzled public funds to buy real estate and other assets in France. He has denied this, saying his wealth came legitimately through successful business dealings. In June 2013, a French court rejected a bid by Equatorial Guinea to get the preliminary probe annulled; a few months earlier, another court ruled that the Catholic Committee Against Hunger and for Development NGO did not libel President Obiang in a 2009 report.

The government has announced six licence awards from the 2016 bid round, as well as a production-sharing contract (PSC) with ExxonMobil for Block EG-11, which is contiguous to the company’s Zafiro oil field.Ophir Energy, which is developing the Fortuna gas complex on Block R, was awarded Block EG-24 in the country’s southern deep water west of the Ceiba field. Dublin-based Clontarf Energy won EG-18, which had previously been under negotiation with the ShoreCan joint venture of Nigeria’s Shoreline Energy International and Canadian Overseas Petroleum Ltd, and Nigeria’s Atlas Petroleum won EG-10, immediately to the east.

Sasol Petroleum International has signed an exploration right permit to explore for hydrocarbons in the Durban and Zululand basins offshore KwaZulu-Natal province on South Africa’s east coast. The Petroleum Agency SA granted the permit for an initial period of three years.The Durban and Zululand basins are of interest because they sit at the southern end of the Mozambique Channel. Sasol has exploration and production acreage further north, onshore and offshore in Mozambique. “This is Sasol’s first operated Exploration Right licence in South Africa for at least a decade,” said Sasol Petroleum International managing director Ebbie Haan. Sasol was granted a technical cooperation permit in 2011 for an area covering 83,000km2.