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Africa-focused downstream giant Vivo Energy has finalised the acquisition of Indian Ocean liquid petroleum gas (LPG) player, Société Industrielle et Gazière de Mayotte (Somagaz). The move follows Vivo’s 2023 purchase of stakes in African LPG businesses in Namibia and Réunion.

Miners have intensified uranium extraction and prospecting in Africa over the past two years as market prices surged after a decade of post-Fukushima lows.

Renewed momentum for nuclear energy was underlined by a COP28 climate summit pledge to triple global capacity by 2050 – although huge capital costs pose daunting obstacles to the several African countries who are looking at potential atomic power developments. A new generation of small reactors, while not yet commercially viable, may offer a solution for some to add significant capacity, writes Marc Howard.

Following several gas discoveries at the Mukuyu-2 well on the ambitious Australian minnow’s Cabora Bassa project, Invictus Energy and local partner One Gas Resources have revised a 2019 gas memorandum with local developers planning to build a 500MW gas-fired power plant.

Italian major Eni has blazed a trail back into Libya that numerous international oil companies are now following. Even if the risks on re-entry remain severe at many levels, the lure of unprecedented, if controversial, opportunities may be impossible to resist.

Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) is set to double its stake in the Mnazi Bay gas development from 20% to 40%, under a new agreement signed with Maurel & Prom (M&P).

Project sources have told African Energy that the liquefaction plant for the estimated $42bn Tanzania Liquefied Natural Gas development will have a larger than expected capacity.

Equinor’s proposed sale of its Nigerian operations to a local buyer adds to a growing trend for IOCs to withdraw from the  upstream sector, allowing domestic players to step in, even if access to finance and other obstacles may still need to be overcome, writes James Gavin.

Petralon Energy founder and chief executive Ahonsi Unuigbe has told African Energy he is on a mission to boost the role of indigenous companies in an oil and gas sector that accounts for 90% of Nigeria’s exports.

The final COP28 communiqué included – for the first time – a commitment to eventually phase out fossil fuels, going beyond previous declarations that focused on coal. However, there are few signs that Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) members and their Opec+ allies, led by Russia, have any intention of allowing their core source of revenues to disappear anytime soon. So what can we learn from recent statements by oil producers – including Opec+’s quota commitments at a meeting on 30 November – and from leaks and comments made during COP28?

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) was not the only national oil giant to lever its agenda into the climate discussions at COP28 in Dubai. Among the other interlopers was National Oil Corporation (NOC), whose chairman Farhat Bengdara told journalists that Libya will increase oil production from 1.2m b/d now to 2m b/d in the next three to five years.

Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has jump-started dormant plans to build South Africa’s first new nuclear capacity since 1985, with an international tender to be issued in March, writes Marc Howard.

London AIM-listed Helium One has said it will spud the Itumbula well in early January 2024, marking the start of a 30-day drilling programme.

Chevron could sign a production-sharing contracts for offshore blocks EG-06 and EG-11 with national oil company GEPetrol in the coming weeks, the government said as Equatorial Guinea prepares for its biggest US investor to pull out.

Hyphen Hydrogen Energy and Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) have agreed a finance package for engineering, environmental and socio-economic development work on Hyphen’s multi-billion-dollar green hydrogen (GH2) project. The agreement was signed at the COP28 summit in Dubai.