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The issue of land ownership is a major factor in the Ugandan oil and politics equation. During the grilling of National Resistance Movement grandees in parliament on 12 October, Buliisa MP Stephen Biraahwa Mukitale named a senior agent of the government’s Internal Security Organisation, Major Herbert Asiimwe Muramagi, as one of those accused by locals of attempting to illegally acquire land near the Taitai well in Kigorobya.

The party’s over in Juba following South Sudan’s independence day on 9 July, but the new, officially English-speaking state carved out of the Republic of Sudan remains under intense scrutiny, from international organisations and business groups, as well as from international oil companies which must come to terms with the region’s new political configuration (AE 213/1).

Normally good relations with the International Monetary Fund have been restored after a brief hiatus. The IMF had announced in February, in language dry even by its standards, that Uganda “did not complete the first review under the three-year Policy Support Instrument (PSI)”.

Uganda’s dynamic new parliament has hit out at the perceived lack of transparency in the oil sector, demanding full disclosure of contracts seen as controlled by the president’s inner circle.

Hundreds of businesses, including many oil service providers, engineering and construction companies, are preparing to make billions of dollars-worth of claims against the new Libyan government for losses and damage sustained during the six-month revolution.

An Algiers court has reduced some of the remaining charges against state energy giant Sonatrach’s former president director-general (PDG) and vice presidents (VPs), suggesting that the dramatic corruption crisis is being wound down.

The unions don’t like it and neither do many northern politicians. But publicly, at least, a majority in government and business are behind the president’s efforts to remove subsidies on petrol, writes Leonard Lawal in Lagos

There will be opposition from across Nigerian society, but key measures to restructure the hydrocarbons industry and channel windfall oil earnings are among a raft of measures the Jonathan government expects to push through in the coming months, the country’s senior economic minister told Jon Marks in Washington.

The race for the few spots of remaining unclaimed territory in the East African Rift System is gathering pace, but environmental, operational and sovereignty issues could delay progress, writes Adrian J Browne

There is speculation that Rachid Ghannouchi’s Islamist Ennahda (Renaissance) party will gain a big slice of the vote when Tunisia goes to the polls on 23 October to elect the constituent assembly that will draw up a new constitution, and that polling will be followed by significant changes in the interim government ahead of an elected administration emerging by H2 2012.

Fresh details of the machinations surrounding the sale of Heritage’s Ugandan oil acreage have emerged in the latest batch of WikiLeaks releases, writes Adrian J Browne.

As the new regime in Tripoli establishes its authority, Libya urgently needs to restart oil production.  A potentially divisive mix of old and new faces is emerging to take charge of the sector, writes John Hamilton

Emergency plans were pushed through in August to help to alleviate the worst of Tanzania’s power rationing.  But there are understandable concerns about cost and corruption, and fears that larger projects will not come to fruition any time soon, writes Adrian J Browne.

National Transitional Council oil commitee chairman: Mustafa El-Huni, Omar Shakmak, Ali Tarhouni, Nouri Berouin

Geneva-based oil trading firm Vitol’s fuel supply deal to the National Transitional Council during its six-month uprising against Colonel Muammar Qadhafi’s regime has attracted admiration, criticism and envy.