Search results

TotalEnergies’ discovery of light oil with associated gas on its Venus prospect could prove another galvanising movement in a critical year for Namibia’s nascent oil and gas industry, with more drilling planned by IOCs.

Shortly after selling up its Angolan upstream interests, Portugal’s Galp Energia is fielding reports that it wants to sell its 10% interest in Mozambique’s highly prospective Rovuma LNG project.

Chariot Energy sees its Anchois gas discovery as a potential new gas province in Morocco’s Atlantic offshore zone, where many other upstream players have previously failed to make a definitive commercial find. A farm-in opportunity beckons.

Australia’s Woodside Energy has confirmed the date it expects to produce first oil from Senegal’s Sangomar field. According to Woodside, development of the 100,000 b/d capacity project is 77% complete.

Shareholders in London AIM-listed Wentworth Resources have approved a $73.4m takeover by French independent Maurel & Prom (M&P). Some 75.26% of shareholders voted in favour across two polls; a 75% vote was required.

London Stock Exchange-listed Tullow Oil has appointed Roald Goethe as an independent non-executive director. Goethe is an oil and gas veteran with expertise in West Africa. Tullow remains the target of considerable industry speculation.

President Paul Biya, who has celebrated his 90th birthday and will soon have completed 41 years in power, takes a hands-off approach to presiding over Cameroon, whose domestic divisions continue to fuel regional conflicts while international supporters help to underpin the economy, writes Paul Melly.

TotalEnergies’ full year earnings of $36.2bn are a company record, even though adjusted net income of $7.6bn in Q4 2022 was down by 23% on the previous quarter.

ExxonMobil reported adjusted net income of $14bn in Q4 2022, beating most forecasts and contributing strongly to the $59bn annual earnings record. This surplus has allowed the ‘Big Unit’ to drive down debt (to the tune of nearly $30bn last year) reducing gearing down to just 5%.

Having undergone leadership changes – Wael Sawan taking over as chief in 2022 – Shell is in the middle of a period of transition, in which the London-domiciled company’s Integrated Gas and Upstream Oil businesses will be combined, to be headed by current Upstream director Zoe Yujnovich. 

With nearly $220bn in 2022 profits, the oil industry’s so-called Big Five supermajors – BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and TotalEnergies – are sitting on a cash pile as rarely before seen. With significantly expanded capital spending, there will be some eye-catching African upstream deals, but the expectation is that shareholders, rather than resource holders, will be the main beneficiaries of this boom, writes James Gavin with African Energy staff.

The local Sociedade Petrolífera Angolana (Somoil)’s deal to pay $830m for Lisbon-based Galp’s entire Angolan upstream assets marks another legacy hydrocarbons position being relinquished to a willing local buyer by a western energy company that says it is looking to “high-grade” its upstream portfolio.

Capricorn Energy announced on 15 February that it had formally ended plans to merge with Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (Tase)-listed NewMed Energy. It represented a victory for activist investment group Palliser Capital and other shareholders that had campaigned against the planned tie-up first mooted on 29 September.

The reshuffle and apparent downgrade of oil minister Gabriel Obiang Lima has brought a close aide of President Teodoro Obiang, former national company GEPetrol head Antonio Oburu Ondo, into the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons. The controversial new minister is also close to Obiang’s favoured son Teodorin, who is ever more strongly placed to eventually replace the octogenarian president in Equatorial Guinea’s most critical succession battle.

Africa Oil Corporation (AOC) said the farm-in process for Block 3B/4B offshore South Africa is advancing, with the aim of securing a new partner by end-Q1 2023. The Vancouver-based company has described Block 3B/4B as “on trend” with the Venus and Graff oil discoveries made by TotalEnergies and Shell in Namibia’s Orange Basin in early 2022.