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A court in N’djamena has fined the ExxonMobil-led consortium producing oil from the Doba Basin $76bn in a dispute about royalties. Exxon said it disagreed with the court’s ruling and was “evaluating next steps”. It said the dispute was over “commitments made by the government to the consortium, not the government’s ability to impose taxes”. The court awarded the finance ministry CFA483.6bn in damages, plus a penalty of CFA44,294bn. The consortium has lodged an appeal in N’djamena as well as a case at the International Court of Arbitration in Paris.

State energy giant Sonatrach has established a powerful ethics committee to enforce a new code of conduct which was published in English and French on its website on 25 November

Amendments to the 2005 hydrocarbons law (05-07) will introduce the “necessary conditions for the development of unconventional resources”; Kosmos Energy says it plans to drill the Sipo well testing the Liwenyi prospect on the Ndian River Block in late 2012; Chariot Oil & Gas has announced that subsidiary Enigma Oil & Gas has signed a drilling rig contract with AP Moller Maersk; UK oil company Afren has completed a successful well test programme on its Okoro East field in the offshore OML 112 and plans two production wells in H2 using existing facilities

Operator Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum has signed a contract with Saipem for the Scarabeo 3 rig to carry out the drilling and completion programme for the Aje field Cenomanian oil development on OML 113. Partner Panoro Energy said first oil was expected in December. The Aje field contains hydrocarbons in sandstone reservoirs in three main levels – a Turonian gas condensate reservoir, a Cenomanian oil reservoir and an Albian gas condensate reservoir.

Australia’s Cooper Energy is looking to sell its Tunisian portfolio and opened a data room in March. Cooper said a number of interested parties were reviewing the opportunity and the data room was expected to remain open during most of Q2. “In the absence of a compelling offer, Cooper Energy considers that the greatest value will be realised through a sale after the drilling and production testing of the planned Hammamet West-3 ST-2” sidetrack well, expected in early 2015 provided a rig can be secured, Cooper said.

Key upstream partners are making bullish noises about their Algerian operations, but a call by judicial authorities to reopen investigations into historic accusations of malfeasance at state energy giant Sonatrach threatens to undermine confidence (see View). Italian major Eni has been anxious to secure long-term contracts and reiterate its commitment to Algerian business after ex-president Abdelaziz Bouteflika left office. Gas supply deals were signed in June with Portuguese buyer Galp and Sonatrach’s largest Italian client, Enel.

SOCO plans drilling; Sea Dragon to drill; Vitol seeks farm-in partners; Circle Oil makes gas find; Total farms into deep water

Anadarko Petroleum has said the Paon-5A horizontal well drilled to appraise the 2012 Paon discovery on Block CI-103 encountered nearly 100 feet of pay. The well, drilled by the Dolphin Drilling drillship Bollette Dolphin, was Anadarko’s first horizontal deep-water well. In its Q1 2016 report on 2 May, the company said it was drilling the Paon-3A horizontal sidetrack to be followed by drillstem and interference testing.

London-based Soco International has written off $79.5m associated with costs incurred on the Albertine Graben Block V in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Soco carried out a seismic survey over a portion of Lake Edward in mid-2014. Processing of the data has been completed; interpretation is under way in the UK and should be completed by mid-2015. “After providing the DRC government with interpretation of the seismic results, Soco will have no further involvement in the block. Consequently, all costs incurred on Block V to date and any further costs anticipated in the course of 2015 have been written off as exploration expense in 2014,” the company said in its preliminary results statement.

Nigeria’s Oranto Petroleum is acquiring 2,000km2 of 3D seismic on the St Louis Shallow Block, which the company said would fulfil the first work programme commitment on the licence. The block contains two main four-way closures, Fish Eagle and Vulture, with prospective resources of 100m-200m barrels of oil. A third closure, Gainde, is located to the south. Oranto acquired the licence in 2015. A previous well, Cayar-1, was drilled on the block by Shell in 1977.

The Ministry of Finance has agreed a loan with the African Export Import Bank (Afreximbank) against future crude sales to finance infrastructure development and oil well rehabilitation, according to documents seen by African Energy. The loan, concluded in recent weeks, is worth $400m, two sources close to the market told African Energy.The structure of the deal is similar to an existing crude pre-sales agreement between the government and Afreximbank. Crude cargoes will be bought by local/Indian joint venture Trinity Energy and lifted by Glencore.

The African Petroleum Producers’ Organisation (Appo) is seeking a leadership role as the continent’s oil and gas industry starts to mature. At the heart of its ambitions lies its members’ common aim to unshackle themselves from dependence on international oil companies (IOCs). Much as the technical and financial contribution of IOCs is understood and desired, at another level it is also resented. Appo’s aim is to create a new Africa-wide solidarity that would enable its members to deal with the global industry on a more equal basis.

The start of exploration on Block 5B has yielded two dry wells, but Lundin Petroleum is optimistic that the WNPOC grouping can replicate the success of Block 5A despite the physical and political challenges of operating in a vast but isolated region of southern Sudan, writes Thalia Griffiths.

Canada’s Epsilon Energy has converted its study agreement into a production-sharing agreement (PSA) with the Ministry of Mines and Energy for an area of 79,345km2 in north-west Ethiopia (AE 147/18).

A company owned by mining magnate Jean-Raymond Boulle has filed for arbitration against the government of Comoros at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris claiming it has exclusive oil and gas exploration and production rights throughout the archipelago’s territorial waters.