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Of all the assorted regional infrastructure projects jostling for supremacy in East Africa, the growing credibility of the Lamu Corridor project raises the possibility of a new East African power axis of Kenya and an emergent Ethiopia.

Fuel distributor Petro Ivoire is seeking to raise €5m ($7m) with a bond issue on the NYSE Euronext market. The company listed a token 0.02% of its capital in Paris on 30 September, enabling it to issue the eight-year bond to fund an expansion of its business.

The New York-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) constituted a tribunal in March to hear the arbitration claim brought by Maersk Olie Algeriet against the Peoples’ Democratic Republic of Algeria.

South Africa’s Sasol has announced a joint prefeasibility study for a large-scale gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant, based on gas from the Rovuma Basin. The study, which is being conducted in conjunction with Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos and Area 4 operator Eni, will assess the viability and benefits of such a plant to the region.

Germany’s RWE Dea has signed a gas sales agreement with Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (Egas) to deliver natural gas to the domestic market from its North Idku offshore concession in the Nile Delta.

Algeria’s long-awaited hydrocarbons law revisions were finally approved by parliament on 21 January, five months after the law was adopted by the government and Council of Ministers. Some international oil executives gave them a cautious welcome, while others said the new terms were too little too late. The revised text was passed by an overwhelming majority of deputies, who voted to amend 58 articles and introduce nine new ones to Law 05-07.

A new blockade of Marsa al-Harigah port in eastern Libya by an armed group that has not been involved in previous disruptions has prevented tankers from loading crude and caused a sharp drop in exports, which had previously been running at about 360,000 b/d. The protesters, from a faction of the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG), are seeking payment of five months’ back wages rather than any major political concessions. But the action shows how easily production and exports can still be disrupted by relatively small groups.

South Africa’s SacOil and Nigeria’s Energy Equity Resources on 22 April announced a memorandum of understanding with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to explore oil and gas opportunities in Nigeria, plus a 12-month term contract for the purchase of Nigerian crude.The two companies have established a joint venture called SacOil Energy Equity Resources Limited (SEER), which is the contracting party to the agreement for the sale and purchase of Nigerian crude with NNPC.

London’s Commercial Court has upheld a $536m award in favour of Norway’s Statoil and against Algeria’s Sonatrach in a dispute over the non-delivery of liquefied natural gas (LNG). The ruling is a further embarrassment to Sonatrach after a year in which it has lost a series of arbitrations with gas offtakers, mostly related to pricing. At first sight, the ruling appears to confirm concerns about Algeria’s ability to meet its international gas supply commitments. However, a closer analysis shows that the dispute is also the result of dysfunctional management at the most senior level in both Sonatrach and the Ministry of Energy and Mines.

Following concessions on the pricing of Algerian gas taken by Tunisia through the Trans-Mediterranean Gas Pipeline, Sonatrach and Société Tunisienne d’Electricité et de Gaz (Steg) have agreed to renew their offtake agreement through to 2027, with a possible extension of the contract to 2029. Unlike recent agreements with European clients, which have involved lower liftings, Sonatrach on 17 June said the draft agreement anticipated a 20% rise in the contracted volumes to be taken from 2025, “with a view to securing the expected increase in consumption in this strategic market”.

PetroSA is confident that its planned new $11bn oil refinery at Coega in Eastern Cape Province will go into operation processing 400,000 b/d of crude from 2014. But the refinery still has major question marks hanging over it, particularly its cost and the lack of an equity partner to help develop the project and supply crude.

Seven years after discovering oil in Uganda, Tullow and its partners have still not agreed a development plan with the government. Talks on the details have dragged on for years, stalling mostly over how big a refinery the development should include, and the parties are still only at the stage of discussing a memorandum of understanding (MoU). Tullow, Total, CNOOC and the government have now agreed on an export pipeline and a refinery sized initially at 30,000 b/d, with the potential to expand to 60,000 b/d. The partnership has completed the concept stage of pipeline studies and discussions with the government on pipeline co-operation are continuing, Tullow said.

Angolan oil minister José Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos invited PetroSA to take a stake in the future 200,000 b/d oil refinery in Lobito during a meeting with South African energy minister Elisabeth Dipuo Peters in Luanda on 11 October. According to Angolan Oil Ministry sources, construction should begin by year-end for completion by

Norway’s Yara International has established its joint venture with National Oil Corporation and the Libyan Investment Authority to create Libyan Norwegian Fertiliser Company (Lifeco) to own and operate the fertiliser facilities at Marsa El Brega.

An explosion at Naftal’s butane gas bottling plant in the Skikda industrial zone on 5 January hospitalised 17 people with burns, one of whom is understood to have died from his injuries. The incident appears to be a consequence of inadequate safety measures in the operation of the plant – said to be a widespread problem at Sonatrach’s downstream facilities. In a statement released through Algérie Presse Service, the official state-owned newswire, Naftal said that “the incident has no consequences for the effective supply of the wilaya and the eastern region, which is carrying on as normal”.