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The European Investment Bank has agreed $500m of finance for the Egyptian Refining Company as part of the largest project financing transaction in Egypt.

Royal Dutch Shell, Vitol Group and Africa-focused private investment firm Helios Investment Partners have entered into exclusive negotiations for the potential joint acquisition by Vitol and Helios of equity in Shell’s downstream businesses in 19 countries in Africa.

Scottish engineering contractor Motherwell Bridge has announced a $22m contract with Liberian Petroleum Refining Company for the building and refurbishment of oil storage tanks

The controversial Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), designed by the previous government to implement the largest energy sector shake-up in recent Nigerian history, will be passed into law by the end of August, according to petroleum minister Diezani Allison-Madueke. The PIB is nearing completion after months of delays and several re-writes. “All the strategic work has been done and there is only a little bit of fine

Recent events at state utility Sonelgaz Holding seem to point to the limits of radical thinking on major Algerian energy sector problems. In June, the government converted Sonelgaz’s burdensome AD200bn ($2.72bn) overdraft into capital, effectively wiping out the debt (AE 190/9).

ANGOLA: Top crude supplier to China; LIBERIA/NIGERIA: Crude supply deal

EGYPT: IFC invests in Egyptian Refining Company; EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Refinery progress; KENYA: Enoc enters downstream; MAURITIUS: Products supply deal renewed; NIGERIA: Lagos seals refinery deal

The sale of the latest block of Royal Dutch Shell’s African distribution assets – of which the Anglo-Dutch major’s Moroccan network comprising 322 service stations is by far the biggest component – and speculation about a new round of downstream investment in the kingdom is driving speculation about the intentions of Berber entrepreneur turned politician Aziz Akhannouch.

France’s GDF-Suez has given Foster Wheeler’s Global Engineering and Construction Group a contract to carry out the pre-front-end engineering and design (pre-FEED) for the development of an onshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant and offshore gas-gathering infrastructure.

Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) is discussing a bid for Aberdeen-based Dana Petroleum, which would give the Asian company exploration and production acreage in North and West Africa and the North Sea. KNOC said on 2 July it was “in very preliminary

Building a pipeline from South Sudan through Kenya would not make economic sense, Sudan’s new national petroleum minister, a leading southerner, has said.

Angola is expected to export more crude oil in August than in July, with 1.80m b/d set to load in 58 cargoes, provisional loading programmes show

Former Sonatrach vice president (downstream) and interim president Abdelhafid Feghouli has been appointed president and chief executive of the Algerian energy giant’s subsidiary Tassili Airlines (Tal).

Two new committees to spearhead and monitor reform and efforts to unify contracts reveal the president’s focus on achieving stable power supply.

Despite the disappointment of Chinguetti, International oil companies are looking again at Mauritania, where Dana Petroleum and Petronas plan to drill this year. Tullow Oil exploration director Angus McCoss told African Energy that Mauritania had been “off the industry radar screen for a couple of years, which has given Tullow a great opportunity to do a regional geological review of the plays that may exist in that area”. Previous exploration led by Australia’s Woodside drilled down into the Miocene, finding the Chinguetti field, which causes great initial excitement but then proved geologically complex and expensive to develop.