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The Gharabi-1 commitment well on offshore Block 6 has been plugged and abandoned after failing to find hydrocarbons. The well was drilled by operator Petronas, which is planning to pull out of Mauritania as part of a general withdrawal from Africa

Continuing violence involving renegade militias, international oil companies and their security contractors, and government forces in the Virunga National Park area of eastern Congo highlights the wider region’s chronic instability and the problems that poses for IOCs who are entering Central Africa excited by its hydrocarbons potential.

Gas player Bowleven has announced a discovery at a deeper than expected level in the Sapele-1 well in the Douala Basin.

Zambia has finalised its first exploration licence, following the country’s first licensing round held in 2009. The local Barotse Petroleum Company was awarded its licence on 14 January.

Kosmos Energy has announced a hydrocarbon discovery with the Teak-1 well on the West Cape Three Points block. The well, drilled updip and northeast of the Jubilee oil field, encountered oil, gas-condensate and natural gas in multiple pools over a 576-metre interval.

Maersk Oil has agreed to acquire a 15% interest in Block 16 from Devon Energy for an initial payment of $70m, subject to government approval.

Several oil majors are putting bids together for the new deep and ultra-deep blocks that will enable Gabon to explore its pre-salt potential. The government announced last November that it was

In Kenya, Tullow is hoping to replicate its success in Uganda, while Anadarko Petroleum Corporation is hoping to repeat its success offshore Mozambique.

Controversy is growing over the award by President Joseph Kabila of an oil exploration permit in the Virunga National Park, home to some of the world’s last few mountain gorillas. But while international organisations are urging the government to protect the park, MPs from North Kivu want exploration to go ahead in the hope of bringing development cash to the region.

Sonangol has awarded 11 blocks in a restricted bid round for pre-salt blocks in the Kwanza Basin. The round was never publicly announced and 13 companies were invited to bid. Sonangol will have an average 35% stake in each block, while the China

The Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy has finalised a contract with KBR to provide a conceptual study and associated project management services for the development of a low complexity, modular 20,000 b/d refinery at Mbini.

Royal Dutch Shell and BP have offered the South African government a stake in the jointly owned Sapref refinery in Durban, according to reports from Johannesburg.

South Africa-based Engen Petroleum formally acquired Chevron’s interests in Tanzania on 1 February, under one of seven agreements to take over downstream interests in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands.

Ras Lanuf refinery operator Libyan Emirati Refining Company (Lerco) is achieving excellent financial results, production department manager Lebna Ali Al-Beid was quoted on National Oil Corporation (NOC)’s website as saying.

With just two weeks until polling day, Kampala is plastered with election posters,most of them showing President Yoweri Museveni in his trademark straw hat. He is widely expected to defeat his main opponent Kizza Besigye in the first round but, whatever the outcome, the elections will be followed by a lengthy interregnum before the new president is inaugurated and the new parliament in place. This means that much government business will effectively be suspended until at least May, including resolving the protracted dispute over tax due on Heritage Oil & Gas’ sale of its assets to Tullow Oil.