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Italy’s Eni has announced a successful production test on the Minsala Marine 1 well in the Marine XII Block. The discovery is located 35km offshore and 12km from the recent Nene Marine discovery. During the production test, the well delivered more than 5,000 b/d of oil and 14 mcf/d of gas, from a 37 metre section of the 420 metre oil column identified in the discovery well. The oil quality is 41° API. Eni estimates the potential of the Minsala Marine discovery to be about 1bn boe in place, of which 80% is oil.

Democratic Republic of Congo’s latest national conference has heard a call for a new push to settle the maritime border with Angola and enable the country to take a potential share of the region’s offshore oil. The ‘concertations nationales’ held from 7 September to 5 October in Kinshasa, gathered MPs, senators and civil society organisations to discuss the country’s political and economic future. Kinshasa University geologist Professor Ezequiel Kasongo Numbi Kashemukunda, a former MP of President Joseph Kabila’s Alliance de la Majorité Présidentielle and former diplomat, called on the government to stop wasting time and energy in trying to secure the recognition of its claims over the continental shelf beyond the 200-mile limit.

Wentworth Resources is to take over as operator of the Rovuma Onshore concession and carry out appraisal of the Tembo-1 gas discovery. The company said it had applied to the Ministry of Energy and Minerals for approval of a proposed appraisal programme for Tembo-1, and to increase its holding in Rovuma Onshore from 11.59% to 85%.Current operator Anadarko, Maurel & Prom and Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production have all notified the National Petroleum Institute (INP) of the relinquishment of their interests in the block with effect from 31 August 2015.

Chevron Global Energy has sold its 25% non-operated interest in the Doba Basin to the government for $1.3bn. The sale closed on 13 June. The transaction includes the sale of Chevron’s interests in seven fields in the Doba Basin, which in 2013 had average crude oil production of 18,000 b/d net to Chevron. The sale also includes a 21% non-operated interest in the export pipeline system that transports crude to Cameroon’s Kribi port, and associated marine facilities.

The international upstream arm of state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Company (KPC) has a mandate to increase its reserves and production mainly through acquisitions across Africa and elsewhere

The Polisario Front’s government-in-exile, the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), has protested to Norway’s Fugro-Geoteam and the US’ Kosmos Energy over their contract to acquire seismic offshore the disputed Western Sahara (AE 151/16).

Advances in plans to boost output from the country’s two largest oil and gas fields, together with indications of important changes to exploration licensing, suggest that Algeria may finally be shifting to a more realistic approach to oil and gas sector development. But the direction of policy remains difficult to read, not least because the ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has not been seen in public for two years, meaning there is great doubt about the authority behind strategic decision-making over national resources.

Eve Howell’s Tangiers Petroleum has agreed a takeover of Jacka Resources, giving it new assets in Tunisia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Somaliland and Australia. Tangiers is offering 0.468 Tangiers shares for every Jacka share held, in an off-market deal valuing Jacka at $37m. The combined company will have interests in two high impact wells planned for 2014: the TAO- 1 exploration well in the Tarfaya block in Morocco, operated by Galp Energia, and the Hammamet West-3 sidetrack on the Bargou permit in Tunisia.

ANGOLA: ROC Cabinda stake sale; ANGOLA: New find for Total; ANGOLA: Pazflor FPSO in place

Roc Oil has suffered another disappointment in its seven-well programme on the Cabinda South block (AE 127/16).

Cooper Energy Tunisia Bargou has given AGR a well-management contract for planning, execution and post-drilling activities for the planned Hammamet West-3 well on the Bargou permit in the Gulf of Hammamet in Q4 this year

Moroccan state oil company Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (Onhym) plans to acquire seismic onshore in the disputed territory of Western Sahara next year. A senior Onhym official told African Energy the company planned to acquire between 800 and 1,000km of 2D seismic across onshore Blocks XI and XII, which the official said were particularly underexplored. In addition, Onhym has relinquished its interest and operatorship in the neighbouring Boujdour Onshore Block, which has now been renamed Block 188.

RANGE RESOURCES: Bogor leaves, Povey moves aside; TECHNIP: New Nigerian contract

Norway’s Aker Energy has awarded contracts for the Pecan-4A appraisal well on the Deepwater Tano Cape Three Points (DWTCTP) Block. The well is due to spud in Q4 2018 to test the extension of the Pecan field, discovered in 2012 by former operator Hess. Aker has contracted Maersk Drilling for one firm well, Pecan-4A, and two optional wells. The deep-water drillship Maersk Viking will drill the well in a water depth of 2,674 metres.

Cobalt International Energy has filed two arbitration requests with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris seeking more than $2bn in compensation from Sonangol. In March 2017, Cobalt submitted a notice of dispute to Sonangol EP over the sale of the US company’s 40% holdings in blocks 20 and 21. In an operational update on 8 May, Cobalt said it had now filed a request for arbitration with the ICC against Sonangol EP for breach of the August 2015 purchase and sale agreement for the sale by Cobalt to Sonangol of the assets.