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Key public and private sector parties have signed a cooperation agreement for the construction of an estimated $6bn natural gas pipeline from northern Mozambique to Gauteng, South Africa. The main signatories are Mozambique’s Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH), Profin Consulting, SacOil Holdings and pipeline construction company China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau (CPP).SacOil chief executive Dr Thabo Kgogo described the agreement as a key milestone in the development of the pipeline and distribution project.

Almost exactly a year after the board suspended him and ordered an independent audit of the loss-making parastatal’s activities, National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor) managing director Sam Beukes has been dismissed (AE 199/16, 194/15). In a statement, board chairman Siseho Simasiku said the move came after a disciplinary inquiry

Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST) has given Penspen a contract to conduct a front-end engineering design study for further development of the Ghana Natural Gas Interconnected Transmission System. BOST, as holder of Ghana’s natural gas transmission utility licence, has a mandate to operate, maintain and further develop a country-wide gas transmission network as part of Ghana’s national agenda to exploit gas as an efficient and cost-effective means of augmenting power supply. The first phase of this build-out will be the addition of approximately 750km of pipeline from Aboadze to Tema, and from Prestea to Buipe, via Kumasi.

Oman Oil Company (OOC) has opened its first overseas office in Dar es Salaam as part of what it describes as a broad investment programme to increase its presence in key growth markets. Operating under the name Oman Energy Limited, the company will work alongside its majority-owned Oman Trading International petroleum products, crude oil, petrochemicals and carbon emissions trading company. “Commencing operations in Tanzania is an important milestone as we expand our presence throughout the African continent. The representative office will act as a focal point to explore and develop investments in Tanzania’s petroleum and energy sectors,” said OOC chairman and Ministry of Finance undersecretary Nasser Bin Khamis Al-Jashmi.

The federal government has negotiated a $15bn investment with India, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources said on 17 October, although terms have still to be agreed. A memorandum of understanding fleshing out the preliminary agreement, which was signed in India by visiting minister of state for petroleum Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu and is expected to be finalised by year-end, involves the Indian government making an upfront payment to Nigeria for crude purchases. Kachikwu said the deal was feasible as crude production was expected to rise to 2.2m b/d – its Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) quota

UK gas operator Centrica has denied reports from Lagos that it has signed a $12bn deal with Akwa Ibom State to build a new liquefied natural gas plant. Reuters on 27 May quoted state governor Godswill Akpabio as saying that the plant would be built on Tom Island in Mbo district.

Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has awarded direct sale-direct purchase (DSDP) contracts to 15 consortia grouping more than 30 energy companies, oil traders and politically well-connected Nigerian partners. The contracts are effectively a swaps arrangement where NNPC supplies export crude to companies which in exchange supply NNPC with a similar amount in value of gasoline and diesel to be imported into Nigeria. The companies have won access to up to 300,000 b/d of NNPC’s crude exports in exchange for supplying gasoline and diesel to Africa’s largest fuels import market.

At the end of November, prime minister Ali Zeidan warned that the government will need to borrow on the international markets to pay salaries. A blockade of most of Libya’s oil export terminals means that since July, revenues have at most been half of expected levels and production has frequently fallen below one-tenth of total capacity. According to one estimate presented to African Energy, the entire 2013 budget of about $60bn has already been spent, plus a further $20bn which remained unspent from 2012. Several sources have suggested that inroads may have been made into the Central Bank of Libya’s foreign currency reserves, although the official position is that they are untouched.

Production cuts by a majority of Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) producers, working in coordination with non-Opec exporters led by Russia, have helped to raise oil prices from their 2014-16 lows; the strategy seems likely to maintain crude benchmarks at around $50 for some time. While second-guessing the oil price is a hazardous business, African Energy’s soundings of major international oil companies (IOCs) suggest this represents a ‘new normal’ for the industry, as factored into corporations’ base case scenario-planning.

GdF Suez plans LNG plant; KBR wins Lobito refinery FEED; Chevron sells downstream ops to Total; Foster Wheeler to oversee Zwara refinery

As debate intensifies about what form East Africa’s oil infrastructure should take, Uganda’s government has made its intentions clear by issuing tenders in support of its controversial refinery plans

The presidents of Sudan and South Sudan have agreed (again) to the establishment of a demilitarised buffer zone critical to the resumption of oil exports, but the details have yet to be elaborated. Negotiations in Addis Ababa on 4-5 January reached some conclusions but failed to resolve some critical issues, including the future of Abyei

Cape Town-based LPG retailer PayGas plans to open six new refilling stations in Cape Town’s low-income townships. The new stations had been planned for the end of May, though timelines are likely to be affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Chief executive and founder Philippe Hoeblich plans to establish PayGas across sub-Saharan Africa using digital pay-as-you-go technology to permit low-volume purchases.

Uganda has decided to build an export pipeline from Lake Albert to Tanzania’s Tanga port, rather than the route through northern Kenya to Lamu previously agreed by President Yoweri Museveni and his Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta. A communiqué issued at the end of a one-day summit of the Northern Corridor Integration Projects in Kampala on 23 April said Museveni and Kenyatta had agreed that two crude oil pipelines be constructed. “The oil pipeline from Lokichar to Lamu in Kenya and another oil pipeline from Hoima to Tanga in Tanzania will be developed by the countries respectively,” the communiqué said.

Oilinvest Group’s new chief executive Isam Zanati has sought to dampen speculation that the state-owned group is looking for a new strategic investor for Tamoil.