Search results

Cairo-headquartered African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) announced on 2 October it had extended a $300m loan to Trident OGX Congo.

French geoscience firm CGG has started a 3D reimaging programme in the offshore Tano Basin, close to the deep-water Baleine field where Italian major Eni recently started production.

Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) has been busy shedding assets elsewhere in Africa, but the Malaysian national oil company has expanded its footprint in Angola, via its Petronas Angola E&P subsidiary.

Houston-based Noble Corporation’s Noble Voyager drillship  has spudded the Panna Cotta-1 exploration well in Mauritania’s Block C10 for a group led by UK-registered supermajor Shell.

Discussing progress and slippages in its major development offshore Mauritania and Senegal, BP says its Greater Tortue Ahmeyim project is focused on a ‘sustainable’ production start, rather than racing to dispatch its first LNG cargo. The British supermajor is also focused on completing phase one of the $4.8bn cross-border development prior to advancing with Phase II work, which it said would provide confidence to Dakar, Nouakchott and investors alike

Equatorial Guinea is seeing more dynamism in its upstream oil and gas sector, with independents planning drilling programmes across a number of blocks. Further phases are being planned for the Regional Gas Mega Hub project, amid renewed interest in natural gas resources, writes James Gavin.

Trading in Afentra’s shares resumed on 18 September, as the London AIM-listed company pushed on with plans to expand its interests in the Group Sonangol-operated shallow-water blocks 3/05 and 3/05A.

Former Lundin Energy executives denied charges of any complicity in Sudanese atrocities as their trial opened in early September, with hearings in the Stockholm District Court that fit into a growing trend for prosecutors to target companies and senior personnel for war crimes and similar outrages, no matter when they were committed, writes Chris Stephen in Stockholm.

Shell and TotalEnergies are preparing appraisal drilling campaigns in Namibia as the country continues its progress towards becoming a global production hotspot.

The long-awaited signing of the Simandou iron ore development infrastructure agreement is a watershed moment for Conakry, which has also set in motion ambitious plans for domestic alumina processing. Both industries will require significant investment in gigawatts of energy and power capacity, write Marc Howard and a Special Correspondent in Conakry.

President Tinubu aims to double Nigeria’s crude output by 2027, but while a series of oil and gas projects are moving forward – and should arrest the slide in production of recent years – analysts suggest the new government may find it is being overly-ambitious, writes James Gavin.

The abrupt end to the Bongo family’s decades-long rule seems to have caused barely a ripple among Gabon’s international and commercial partners – in contrast to the impact of the spate of coups d’état further north – as General Brice Oligui Nguema’s takeover is seen as an inside job that is generally supported across the population. While Gabon’s elite jockeys for position, the critical oil sector appears to have been largely unaffected – for now.

Sorely-needed investments in the power, mining and energy sectors have been hampered by the putsch in July. With the government heavily dependent on foreign funding, Niamey’s new prime minister will likely struggle to balance the books as sanctions bite, writes Marc Howard.

A $3bn emergency loan secured by Nigerian National Petroleum Company from Cairo-based Afreximbank has reinforced Nigeria’s tight relationship with one of the few multilateral lenders still willing to support oil and gas spending, and underlined Abuja’s urgent need for financial support to underwrite President Bola Tinubu’s reform agenda.

Namcor’s glitzy headquarters are an indication of its growing influence, following major offshore finds, but there are also signs of an increasingly bitter power struggle, with the suspension of the national oil company’s managing director and the arrest of its chair, writes Our Namibia Correspondent.