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First gas is expected next year for Tanzania’s strategic Ntorya onshore play, which should significantly boost gas supply amid surging local demand, while operator APT is bullish, pointing to the huge gas resources being developed in adjacent acreage across the Mozambican border.

State-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has signed a project development agreement (PDA) with Norway’s Golar LNG for a floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project offshore the Niger Delta. NNPC said the development would “monetise vast proven gas reserves from shallow water resources”.

Anglo-French independent Perenco has bought into the leading floating LNG developer, building on their existing Cameroon partnership.

TotalEnergies and state partner Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) have taken a final investment decision (FID) to develop the Ubeta gas field in the onshore OML 58 licence area.

French major TotalEnergies has agreed to sell its 10% stake in the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) joint venture to the local Chappal Energies for $860m. SPDC holds 18 licences in Nigeria’s Niger Delta. It is the latest instance of a now well-established trend for international oil companies to sell assets in the country.

French major TotalEnergies said in late July that it was withdrawing from South Africa’s offshore Block 11B/12B block, after deciding that the two gas discoveries made there were not economically viable. PetroSA had been hoping the gas could be used to supply its shuttered 45,000 b/d Mossel Bay refinery, which it wants to bring back online.

The failure to expand output at China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC)’s Agadem Rift Basin (ARB) acreage and the closure of the Niger-Benin Export Pipeline (NBEP) after it had just opened are bitter blows both for the economic programme of Brigadier General Abdourahamane Tiani’s Conseil National pour la Sauvegarde de la Patrie (CNSP) junta, and for the project sponsors.

US supermajor Chevron has confirmed its purchase of an 80% working interest in a highly prospective block offshore Namibia, in a move that affirms the Orange Basin’s status as one of the world’s most exciting gas frontiers – underlined by TotalEnergies’ latest view that its nearby Venus well points to a possibly giant discovery.

UK-headquartered Impact Oil & Gas announced on 1 December the spudding of the Venus-1X offshore exploration well in Namibia Block 2913B, operated by TotalEnergies. The well, which is being drilled in water depths of 3,000 metre by the Maersk Voyager drillship, is being closely watched by the industry as an indicator of Namibia’s potential as a major hydrocarbons player.

Many critical questions remain to be answered, as supermajors keep their counsel on developing a major new offshore oil and gas play, but things seem to be moving ahead quickly with Chevron said to be re-entering the Orange Basin after two decades, the government saying it has agreed with Shell and TotalEnergies that production from their Graff and Venus discoveries should start ‘as soon as possible’, and BW Energy making promising noises about the Kudu gas-to-power play. Local players are set for a big payday as the Namibian upstream becomes a supermajor focus, writes Marc Howard.

Oslo-listed BW Energy has drafted a revised development plan for the shallow-water Kudu field, which has proven reserves of 1.3tcf.

Africa Oil Corporation’s South African subsidiary has farmed into Block 3B/4B in the Orange Basin, taking 20% from Azinam as interest grows in South Africa and Namibia’s exploration potential following Total’s Brulpadda discovery. Operator Ricocure will retain its 60% interest. Block 3B/4B covers 17,581km2 in water depths ranging from 300 to 2,500 metres on an emerging regional mid-Cretaceous oil play. An inventory of leads and prospects has been identified from an existing 10,020km2 3D survey covering the majority of the block.

London AIM-quoted Eco Atlantic said on 20 December it had won regulatory approval from the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy and Petroleum Agency of South Africa for its wholly-owned subsidiary Azinam to acquire another 6.25% in offshore Block 3B/4B from the Lunn Family Trust.

Despite a period of intense activity in markets such as Namibia and Nigeria, merger and acquisition deals around the continent are taking longer to get over the line, reflecting the more complex structures being adopted and the need to tap less familiar sources of funding, writes James Gavin.

Norway’s BW Offshore has formalised an agreement to take a 56% stake in the Kudu licence and develop the project to a final investment decision (FID) expected in Q4 2017. Past operators, including Tullow Oil and Royal Dutch Shell, have failed to develop the gas field, but BW says falling development and contractor costs now make the project more feasible. However, questions remain over the size of the reserves, and the development’s ability to compete with low-cost US shale gas imports.