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US-based company West Africa LNG Group Inc signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Guinea on 8 March to develop a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal to serve the industrial, mining and agro-processing sectors.Chief executive Cem Hacioglu told African Energy the import terminal would be sited in the Kamsar port region to supply planned bauxite processing plants and agricultural processing and packaging plants at a new Special Economic Zone (SEZ) 50km inland at Boké.

Having failed to secure oil acreage in the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) region, New York-based Jarch Management Group has purchased a 70% interest in Leac For Agriculture And Investment Company Ltd, a Southern Sudanese company incorporated in Juba.

Equatorial Guinea’s Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Burkina Faso to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) and build the infrastructure to import, store and transport it. Under the initial three-year agreement, both sides will negotiate an LNG sales and purchase agreement and a terminal use agreement. The MoU also calls for EG to explore and produce oil and gas in Burkina Faso.

State-owned Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (Egas) on 29 October said that plans for a second liquefied natural gas train at Damietta had been postponed until enough gas reserves were found.

Players in the political risk insurance (PRI) market report growing concern about the payments situation at state-owned Société Nationale de Raffinage (Sonara) and its 45,000 b/d capacity Limbe refinery. By end-2011, the refinery was owed some CFA163bn ($335m), equivalent to around 1.4% of GDP. Standard Chartered Bank said in early 2013 that “the accumulation of arrears, more than cash-flow problems, highlights deficiencies in public expenditure management”. The bank said that Sonara’s financial difficulties affected the banking system “because of its high credit concentration on this entity”.

Madagascar Oil has declared force majeure under its four operated licences to place the contract terms on hold while it resolves a dispute with the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons (MMH). Mines and hydrocarbons minister Mamy Ratovomalala

South African liquid fuels specialist Sasol is to proceed with the front-end engineering and design (FEED) phase for an integrated, 96,000 b/d gas-to-liquids (GTL) facility and an ethane cracker with downstream derivatives at its Lake Charles site in south-west Louisiana. Sasol announced it would embark on feasibility studies for the project in 2011.

More than a month after energy and minerals minister Sospeter Muhongo promised the location of Tanzania’s planned liquefaction facility would be revealed in less than a week, no decision has been made public and rumours of an upcoming announcement swirl in Dar es Salaam and Dodoma. On 29 March, Nairobi-based daily The East African led with the story that BG Group and Statoil, both developing huge gas reserves in the country’s offshore Ruvuma Basin, had selected Likong’o-Mchinga as the best site for the project, adding provocatively that Mtwara, which was rocked by violent protests last year, had been left out in the cold.

Engen has introduced MTN Mobile Money payments at its ten service stations in Kigali. Customers can purchase fuel, lubricants and other goods via the platform, and the service will be rolled out to up-country service stations in early 2017. Engen started operations in Rwanda in November 2008 after acquiring the assets of Total. It now has 21 service stations in the country.

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation has selected the CCS joint venture of Chiyoda Corporation, CB&I and Saipem as contractor for the initial development of an onshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) park at Afungi, on behalf of the co-venturers in Offshore Area 1. The selection is subject to negotiation and entry into a definitive agreement before Anadarko and its co-venturers take a final investment decision (FID).“I am incredibly proud of our co-venture for all of the accomplishments achieved to date, including securing more than 8m t/yr in non-binding long-term offtake agreements, which are now progressing toward binding sales and purchase agreements.

International concern over drilling for oil in the Virunga National Park, and opposition from local lobby groups including National Assembly deputies, has encouraged the Kinshasa government to block exploration in Albertine Graben Block 5 on environmental grounds (AE 203/15). The decision, announced by environment minister

Ahead of the promised law to break up Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), plans to privatise Products and Pipelines Marketing Company (PPMC) – which operates a network of petrol distribution pipelines and depots – and Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) have been shelved by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and NNPC group managing director Abubakar Lawal Yar’Adua.

The Sunon Asogli power plant has restarted operations following repairs to the West African Gas Pipeline, which resumed gas transportation from Nigeria on 13 July after almost a year of closure (AE 254/15). A ship’s anchor severed the line in Togolese waters on 28 August 2012.

Former Sonatrach vice president (downstream) and interim president Abdelhafid Feghouli has been appointed president and chief executive of the Algerian energy giant’s subsidiary Tassili Airlines (Tal).

Gasol was founded in 2005 at the same time as Afren, but where Afren has expanded into a company with a $2bn market capitalisation, Gasol has failed to progress. The original strategy involved liquefying and exporting gas from Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria, but this failed to take off, in part because of the high cost of processing compared to the market price of LNG.