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The Odum well on the West Cape Three Points licence offshore Ghana has found a commercial light oil accumulation separate from the Jubilee field (AE 132/12). The discovery is a stratigraphic trap in a Campanian age fan system and opens a second new play fairway in the Tano Basin, Tullow said, adding that further prospectivity in this new Campanian play had already been identified in both

Sonatrach has secured a revised deal with Norway’s StatoilHydro that underlines the Algerian state company’s determination to build up a much greater international profile by working in tandem with IOC partners, with a 1 March agreement to extend a liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply accord and give it access to a US east coast regasification terminal.

Presidential advisor Rilwanu Lukman used CWC Associates' Nigeria Oil & Gas Conference 2008 to set out his stall for the reforms the Yar'Adua administration is piloting through the political system - while not revealing all the goodies he is trying to sell Nigeria and the global industry, as outlined in the draft programme seen by African Energy and reported in.

Agreeing to a higher price for gas sold by IOCs to the government should improve production capacity as companies are encouraged to invest, but it will also increase Egypt’s spiralling subsidy bill, writes Nadine Marroushi.

Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil has considerably added to the complexity of the planned licensing round, to be run for the first time by regulator Agence Nationale pour la Valorisation des Ressources en Hydrocarbures (Alnaft), by announcing via a Financial Times interview that for some blocks at least bidders will be required to “swap assets” to gain access to attractive acreage (AE 131/17).

The ratification of BP’s $900m gas exploration contract with National Oil Corporation (NOC) returns British relations with Libya to an even keel. As African Energy exclusively reported in November, Libyan Leader Muammar Qadhafi halted the deal to pressure the UK into allowing Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohammed Al-Megrahi to be repatriated (AE 126/1).

Tullow Oil plans a busy year of exploration and appraisal on its Ghana and Uganda discoveries, either of which could more than double the super-indie’s reserves base. Meanwhile, it has sold off its minority stake in a much-hyped field in Congo-B as it prunes its assets, writes Thalia Griffiths.

EG has become a major player in Gulf of Guinea E&P, but the next phase of its emergence as an oil and gas exporter may prove more difficult, judging from the pace at which most projects are moving.

India’s Essar Energy Overseas has agreed to buy a 50% stake in Kenya Petroleum Refineries Ltd (KPRL) from Shell Petroleum, Chevron Global and BP Africa. The government holds the other 50% equity in the 4m t/yr Mombasa refinery. The shareholders had been looking to sell up because they were reluctant to finance a planned upgrade.

Among the larger Saudi-controlled companies active in the African resources boom is Stockholm-based Svenska Petroleum, which belongs to Saudi/Ethiopian magnate Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi – one of that group of Saudi businessmen born into non-Saudi or marginal communities who have emerged as very significant players, usually by being linked to senior Saudi princes as ‘men of business’ during part, at least, of their careers.

Circle Oil and partners have failed to find oil with the Zita-1 well on the Ras Marmour permit, but have approved a location for a first well on the Grombalia permit

Noble Energy and its partners have announced a new gas and condensate discovery on Block I, on trend with its Belinda discovery on Block O, enabling it to raise reserves estimates by 60%. The I-4 exploration well encountered a high quality Miocene reservoir that tested at flow rates of 1,634 b/d of condensate and 28.9m ft3/d of natural gas, equivalent to some 6,450 boe/d.

Tanzania is proving a draw for Gulf companies looking to invest in Africa.

South Perth-based Cooper Energy has received formal notification that the Bargou prospecting permit in the Gulf of Hammamet has been converted to an exploration licence.

Doha-based Sphere Petroleum was launched in January 2007 as the first 100% foreign-owned company in Qatar. It was created out of the Perth-based Sphere Investments’ oil and gas assets, which were spun off. Sphere Investments – which took a secondary listing on Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX) last July – is an Australian Stock Exchange-listed company with mining interests in West Africa, which has physically and financially shifted into the Gulf. Sphere Investments said “Qatar was selected as the preferred location for the new company due to the strong support from the Gulf region for our oil and gas strategy, oil and gas expertise and access to capital.”