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Tullow Oil plans a busy year of exploration and appraisal on its Ghana and Uganda discoveries, either of which could more than double the super-indie’s reserves base. Meanwhile, it has sold off its minority stake in a much-hyped field in Congo-B as it prunes its assets, writes Thalia Griffiths.

London-based Gasol has announced a new alliance with another Afren-related company, Afrique Energie Corporation (AEC), to source upstream gas assets for its marketing plans. Gasol Upstream has taken a 47% stake in AEC and says it is “working with its management team to acquire discovered gas reserves in West Africa that require development, as opposed to higher risk exploration opportunities”. Gasol has a regional scheme to import liquefied natural gas into Cotonou harbour in Benin to supply offtakers in Benin, Togo and Ghana via the West African Gas Pipeline.

Petroceltic International, the formerly Dublin-based and London-listed exploration company, has run into difficulties with the Algerian authorities over a contract approval at its Ain Tsila development, formally scheduled for first gas in 2020. The company had hoped to award an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to build a gas plant at the site by the end of 2017, but this did not happen and delays are continuing. In early March, two statements on the company’s official Twitter feed blamed national oil and gas company Sonatrach for the hold-up.

Houston-based CAMAC Energy has announced the signing of petroleum exploration, development and production licences for offshore exploration blocks A2 and A5, which were awarded in January

BG Group has successfully completed and flow tested the Pweza-3 appraisal well as it proves up reserves for a planned two-train liquefied natural gas development. The Pweza-3 appraisal well was drilled 2km north of the original Pweza discovery well and encountered 61 metres of pay. The drill stem test achieved an equipment-constrained flow rate of 57mcf/d with minimal drawdown and no observable depletion after five days of flow. Partner Ophir Energy said the unconstrained flow rate was expected to be more than 150mcf/d, and the test had confirmed that the Tertiary reservoirs in Block 4 had similar excellent characteristics to those in Block 1.

Ghana’s Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) has urged the government to delineate the maritime border with Togo to defuse a potential row over the East Keta Ultra Deep Block, operated by GNPC Operating Services Company Limited (Gosco).“PIAC is concerned that companies exploring in the East Keta Ultra Deep Block jointly owned by Gosco, Bluestar and Heritage are facing challenges from the Togolese authorities regarding the maritime boundary between Togo and Ghana.

Houston-based Madagascar Oil – which recently won a farm-in from Total on the Bemolanga oil sands accumulation (AE 146/17) – has increased its resource estimates for the Tsimiroro heavy oil field to up to 1.3bn barrels of oil in place, based on its 2008 drilling programme.

The fall in the oil price combined with Egypt’s failure to remit funds owed for oil and gas supplied to the domestic market has forced the management of Dublin-based Petroceltic International to put the company up for sale while simultaneously divesting its Egyptian assets. Italy’s Edison International has already taken over Petroceltic’s stakes in the prime offshore blocks that it operates, at what may turn out to be a bargain price. Several producing onshore Egypt fields will be sold next, leaving the Ain Tsila gas development in Algeria as the core asset to be sold with the company.

Private grantmaking foundation The Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) has confirmed it is part of the investor consortium for a $117.5m investment in Mainstream Renewable Power-Actis joint venture Lekela Power. Via the financing, whose close was announced on 28 July, Mainstream is investing $177.5m of equity in the Lekela Power platform, of which $117.5 will come from RBF and the other investors, and $60m from Mainstream itself. “The teaming up of the world’s leading independent renewable power developer with a foundation started by members of the family that effectively founded the global oil industry, is a significant moment in the world’s transition to a new power system based on clean energy,” said Mainstream chief executive Eddie O’Connor.

Tullow Oil and Chariot Oil & Gas plan back-to-back wells in Namibia’s Walvis Basin this year. Tullow plans to spud the Cormorant well on PEL 37 on 1 September using the Ocean Rig Poseidon deep-water drillship. This will be Tullow’s sole exploration well in 2018 as the company focuses on development in Ghana and Kenya. It will be followed in late October by Chariot’s planned well on Prospect S on PEL 71.

Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) announced a final investment decision on 23 December for the Assa North gas development project in Imo State. The project is expected to produce 300mcf/d of gas at peak, which will be treated at SPDC’s gas processing facility and distributed through the Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben pipeline network.SPDC managing director Osagie Okunbor said the project was a key element in the Seven Critical Gas Projects initiative led by the Ministry of Petroleum and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

London-based Savannah Petroleum has announced a fourth oil discovery in the Agadem Rift Basin and plans to drill a fifth well. Savannah said on 15 August the Eridal-1 exploration well had encountered 13.6 metres of oil-bearing reservoir sandstones in the Eocene Sokor Alternances objective. The well is being suspended for future re-entry and the rig is being moved to the Zomo-1 well site. Savannah, which is exploring acreage relinquished by China National Petroleum Corporation in the Agadem, has options for a further four wells.

Oslo-listed PetroNor has reached agreement with the government of Senegal to suspend arbitration related to the Rufisque Offshore Profond (ROP) and Senegal Offshore Sud Profond (SOSP) licence areas for six months with a view to reaching an amicable solution. African Petroleum, which merged with PetroNor in 2019, lodged Request for Arbitration documents with the World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in June 2018 over the contracts.

Investor Crown Ocean Capital has called a general meeting of Bowleven shareholders to try to remove most of the company’s board and change its strategy. Monaco-based Crown Ocean, which holds 10.62% in Bowleven, argues that the Edinburgh-based company’s spending is unjustifiable. It wants to transform Bowleven into a holding company focused on returning cash to shareholders, and seeks to remove six of the board’s seven members and appoint two of its own.Crown Ocean said in a stock market filing that Bowleven’s cash holdings exceeded the company’s market value at end-2016.

Heavily indebted Sasol has opened a data room for its 50% stake in the Rompco pipeline, in a bid to gauge investor interest in a potential sale within the next few months. Even before the impact of coronavirus and the oil price collapse, Sasol had run up $9.8bn of debt, much of it from the Lake Charles chemicals facility in the US. The company is considering various options, including the sale of its 49% stake in Oryx GTL, which runs a gas-to-liquids plant in Qatar, and has hired Bank of America to find a buyer for a minority stake in the Lake Charles complex.