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The Government of Southern Sudan will not compromise in negotiations with the north over the status of Abyei, and is prepared to take up arms again if the impasse continues

The issues that African Energy covers have risen much higher up the global agenda than seemed likely when the first issue was published in April 1998, when global concern about sub-Saharan Africa’s struggle to provide electricity to hard-pressed populations and industrial users, and the continent’s potential to provide energy to a fast-changing global economy driven by growth in emerging markets, seemed considerably less than now.

Dana Petroleum’s Cormoran well has found gas at a lower depth than the Pelican discovery, potentially opening up a new play in northern Mauritania’s offshore.

South Sudan is seeking expressions of interest (EoIs) from international investors for a proposed 50,000 b/d refinery in Akon.

Sonker Bunkering Company has secured a $341m financing package for the development of Egypt’s first private bulk liquids terminal at Ain Sokhna port on the Red Sea. The financing consists of a $144m package from the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, including a loan of up to $70m, $52m mobilised from partners, and $22m in mezzanine financing, alongside a $72m senior loan and $22m mezzanine loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and a $72m equivalent loan from the Commercial International Bank, consisting of loans of $28m and the equivalent of $44m in Egyptian pounds, as well as a $30m credit support instrument facility.

Speculation is growing that the political order has changed in important ways in recent weeks, during which ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has remained in Saudi Arabia for medical treatment amid growing concern that a dangerous power vacuum is growing. Most analysts still believe Yar’Adua will hold on to his job for as long as he lives

Concerns are rising about Algeria’s ability to finance major projects from its fast-diminishing foreign reserves, but state energy giant Sonatrach continues to make strategic investments, on 30 May completing the purchase of 8.04% of the Medgaz pipeline company’s equity. The purchase from Abu Dhabi state investment fund Mubadala gives Sonatrach a 51% majority stake in the 8.2bcm/yr pipeline running to Spain, which started operation in 2011 and is slated for further expansion, market conditions permitting.

Prospects for development of the Kudu gas field offshore Namibia have improved despite the withdrawal of Russia’s Gazprom as an upstream partner. Tullow Oil chief executive Aidan Heavey told African Energy that Gazprom pulled out of Kudu earlier this year, leaving upstream partners Tullow and Itochu looking for a new partner. However, the Namibian government was showing new enthusiasm for developing the field to supply a gas-to-power project and was now treating Kudu as a priority project in its future energy planning, Heavey said.

ANGOLA: Top crude supplier to China; LIBERIA/NIGERIA: Crude supply deal

Indian partners in the Anadarko -led consortium which plans to develop the Windjammer, Barquentine and Lagosta complex have said they will soon unveil plans to import LNG into their domestic market

Ghana National Gas Company has given US support services company AECOM Technology Corporation a $15.6m first-year contract for project management of the Western Corridor Gas Infrastructure Development Project. The contract is renewable annually.

ExxonMobil and Eni signed a sale and purchase agreement on 9 March enabling the US supermajor to take an indirect 25% stake in Area 4 for $2.8bn in cash. Eni will continue to lead on the Coral South floating liquefied natural gas project, while ExxonMobil will lead the construction and operation of natural gas liquefaction facilities onshore. “This operating model will enable the use of best practices and skills within Eni and ExxonMobil with each company focusing on distinct and clearly defined scopes while preserving the benefits of a fully integrated project,” Eni said.

Plans for an integrated LNG regasification terminal project in Morocco remain far from implementation, despite reports that a site has been identified and the project could go ahead soon

Shoreline Energy Limited has signed up Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd as a partner in an agreement to explore opportunities to buy, market, distribute and sell natural gas to consumers and companies in the Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Lekki and Epe areas of Lagos.

Libya’s oil sector has become increasingly prone to strikes over the past year, as small armed groups representing local, tribal or political interests have realised that interrupting oil flows is an effective way of attracting attention, advancing political aims and leveraging jobs or higher pay from the government. This trend was exacerbated by what one source in Tripoli described as a “terrible” Ramadan, coinciding with the longest and hottest days of the year and widespread power cuts. Sector officials and oil industry sources have told African Energy that they expect most of the current strikes at export terminals to be lifted after the Eid al-Fitr celebrations, which mark the end of Ramadan.