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A new liquefied petroleum gas terminal at Mombasa is due to open in early 2012, promising to remove infrastructure constraints and bring down prices, writes Kimemia Mugo

US company Badger Licensing has announced a contract to provide proprietary technology and basic engineering for a 300,000 t/yr ethylbenzene/styrene monomer (EBSM) plant.

Sonatrach has given Amec Foster Wheeler a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract for three new refineries located in Biskra, Tiaret and Hassi Messaoud. The three refineries will each have a capacity of 5m t/yr of Algerian crude oil and contain facilities for atmospheric distillation, liquefied petroleum gas separation, hydrocrackers, desulphurisation, bitumen production, utilities, blending, effluents treatment, control room and laboratories. The Biskra site will include lubrication oil facilities.

Despite the disappointment of Chinguetti, International oil companies are looking again at Mauritania, where Dana Petroleum and Petronas plan to drill this year. Tullow Oil exploration director Angus McCoss told African Energy that Mauritania had been “off the industry radar screen for a couple of years, which has given Tullow a great opportunity to do a regional geological review of the plays that may exist in that area”. Previous exploration led by Australia’s Woodside drilled down into the Miocene, finding the Chinguetti field, which causes great initial excitement but then proved geologically complex and expensive to develop.

The Algerian corruption crisis took a decisive turn in early May when a criminal court in Oran sentenced former Sonatrach president director-general (PDG) Mohammed Meziane to two years jail for embezzlement, while his interim successor, former downstream vice president Abdelhafid Feghouli, received a one-year term.

Government of Southern Sudan vice president Riek Machar has denied reports that the autonomous southern government has been calling for exploration ahead of the referendum on southern independence in 2011. Meanwhile, the national government has called on international oil companies to accelerate their operations, and, in the blighted territory of South Darfur, the governor has announced the start of exploration by Chinese operating company Petro Energy.

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has revised its crude sales contract with the government, dropping the price at which it sells crude to the Société de Raffinage de Zinder (Soraz) refinery to $57, from $70 previously. The $70 price was fixed in the contract for the 20,000 b/d refinery signed in 2008 because the government wanted price stability, but at current market prices this makes the refinery’s production uncompetitive.

A year after the Arab Spring, North African officials are once more flocking to events held beyond their borders, signalling a less introverted approach to doing business by companies traumatised by political turbulence

South Sudan’s oil production has fallen by about 25,000 b/d, or 15%, due to problems with well maintenance in the key producing state of Upper Nile, according to the latest sales and marketing data from the Ministry of Petroleum and Mines. The ministry has outlined a lifting programme for 4.2m barrels of crude for November, equivalent to 140,000 b/d. Production in H1 2014 averaged 165,000 b/d. The drop is significant, and will be costly for the government. The outbreak of hostilities in mid-December had already resulted in a sharp drop in output from 220,000 b/d in November 2013.

After more than a year of blockage, the detailed provisions in the latest deal reached by negotiators from Sudan and South Sudan mean oil could start to flow again within weeks. The deal was reached in the early hours of 12 March after almost a week of talks in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. An implementation schedule has been agreed by the two sides that demands a resumption in oil production be mandated by the two governments by 24 March. South Sudan halted oil exports via Sudan in January 2012, after the Khartoum government began to confiscate South Sudanese oil as payment for what it claimed were unpaid transit fees.

Nigeria LNG (NLNG) Limited has awarded contracts to two consortia for front-end engineering design (FEED) work for its long-awaited Train 7 expansion project. A signing ceremony took place in London on 11 July for the project, which aims to increase liquefied natural gas output to 30m t/yr from 22m t/yr now. A completed FEED process will pave the way for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) pricing and bidding processes, which are required before a final investment decision (FID).

East Africa could benefit from the results of a European Commission-funded study coordinated by Spain’s Enagás aimed at developing a safe and efficient, integrated logistics and supply chain for liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the transport industry, particularly for maritime transport in the Iberian peninsula. The study is scheduled to be completed by end-2020 at a total cost of €33m, of which half comes from the European Commission. The study will make recommendations for the Spanish and Portuguese national policy frameworks for alternative fuel supply infrastructure, and will prepare plans for future commercial deployment along the Mediterranean and Atlantic corridors in the Iberian peninsula.

Nigerian joint venture West African Gas Ltd has given Golar LNG Ltd a firm contract for a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) for an LNG import scheme at Tema port. WAGL is jointly owned by subsidiaries of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation with 60% and Sahara Group subsidiary Sahara Energy Resource Ltd with 40%. Golar said the FSRU would be moored inside the port at a new jetty being built by WAGL. Start-up is planned for Q2 2016, and the contract will be for an initial period of five years, with the option for WAGL to extend for a further five years.

French petroleum products storage and distribution company Rubis has signed an agreement with Royal Dutch Shell to buy its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distribution activities in southern Africa for E50m ($70m).

Gabon has replaced its oil minister as part of a larger cabinet shuffle. Pascal Houangni Ambouroué, previously deputy economy minister, will replace Etienne Dieudonne Ngoubou, who was appointed in January 2014. Ambouroué was the youngest minister in the government when he was appointed to the cabinet in October 2016, aged 40. Before that, he spent a decade in international finance, including stints with BNP Paribas, Natexis and Crédit Agricole. He then joined the central African stock exchange, the Bourse des Valeurs Mobilières d’Afrique Centrale, where he became director-general in January 2012.