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The reunification of the management of Libya’s rival national oil corporations after more than a year of division is an important victory for the Tripoli-based chairman Mustafa Sanalla. His authority over Libya’s oil industry is now unquestioned even in Cyrenaica, which until recently was making repeated efforts to set up its own oil export deals and to establish an independent stream of oil revenue.

A joint venture of France’s Sofregaz and Denmark’s Ramboll has won an international tender for the selection of a technical adviser for a planned scheme to import liquefied natural gas to supply new power plants. Office Nationale de l’Electricité et de l’Eau Potable said bids were submitted in December. The government plans to import 5bcm/yr of gas to supply 2.4GW of new combined-cycle gas turbine capacity to be installed in 2020-25 under its gas-to-power road map. With a similar amount to be installed in the following five years, 10bcm/yr will be needed in 2025-30.

Aminex has announced a one-year extension of the Mtwara licence in the Ruvuma production-sharing agreement, which was due to expire in December 2016. Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) has also agreed for the company to transfer drilling obligations in the norther Lindi licence to the southern Mtwara licence, which contains the Ntorya discovery. Aminex intends to drill the Ntorya-2 appraisal well and, if it is successful, to apply for a 25-year development licence.

Eni has announced a gas discovery in the Baltim South licence in the offshore Nile Delta. The Baltim South West 1X well penetrated approximately 120 metres of gross gas column and 62 metres of net pay in Messinian-age sandstones. The well was drilled in a water depth of 25 metres, 12km from the coast and 10km north of the Nooros field, discovered in July 2015. Production from Nooros reached 65,000 boe/d in May and is expected to reach 120,000 boe/d by year-end.

Schlumberger subsidiary OneSubsea has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction contract worth more than $170m from Belayim Petroleum Company (Petrobel) to supply the subsea production systems for the first stage of the Zohr gas field development. Petrobel, a joint venture between Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation and Eni, is responsible for development and operations at Zohr.

Petroceltic International’s new management – which is replacing the board that resigned following the takeover by activist shareholder Worldview Capital Management – faces an urgent task of re-establishing the company’s relationship with the Algerian authorities. The Dublin-based company’s most important asset is its stake in the Ain Tsila gas field, which is in development and expected to produce first gas in 2018.

The governments of Mauritania and Senegal have agreed on an offshore site about 8km from the coast on the maritime boundary as the location for gas processing and liquefaction facilities for the Tortue development. A statement from Mauritania’s oil, energy and mines ministry said minister Mohamed Salem Ould Bechir and his Senegalese counterpart, Thierno Alassane Sall, had discussed the project by telephone on 9 June.

Oando plc hopes to complete asset sales by end-July to reduce its debt to more manageable levels and enable it to focus on developing its upstream business following the acquisition of ConocoPhillips’ Nigerian assets. “We are optimising our balance sheet by restructuring our existing debt facilities and deleveraging an estimated $350m in asset value,” Oando Energy Resources chief executive Pade Durotoye told African Energy in an interview. He said the company was selling 60% of the downstream business, 75% of its gas and power business, and the entire rigs operation.

National oil company Office National des Hydrocarbures (Onhym) has issued a tender inviting international companies to partner it in finding and developing onshore gas reserves in the Rharb Centre permit, previously licensed to Gulfsands Petroleum. The area has produced gas over many years since Société Chérifienne des Pétroles made its first find in 1949, and benefits from established infrastructure piping gas from several Rharb Basin fields to Kenitra.

The faster-than-expected decline of gas output in 2015, highlighted by petroleum minister Tarek El-Molla in a recent speech, may be a misleading indicator of where Egypt’s energy sector is heading. The low level of production today and the minister’s muted expectations for production in 2019 have provoked widely varying assessments of whether the country can ever attain self-sufficiency, let alone start exporting again. In the long term, there is a chance that fresh reserves may be found in the prospective but unexplored parts of the deep-water Nile Delta – a western segment of which may be offered in a licensing round by Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (Egas) this year.

Angola LNG (ALNG) said on 6 June that production has resumed at its liquefaction plant at Soyo and the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo since its April 2014 shutdown has been loaded. The cargo is being sold by an international tender. Reuters quoted traders as saying the cargo was loaded between 3 and 5 June on board the Sonangol Sambizanga tanker and bid submissions are due on the morning of 13 June.

The UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has begun investigations into Rolls-Royce’s operations in Nigeria, following accusations that the London Stock Exchange-listed engineering group filtered payments through intermediaries such as Unaoil to win deals in Indonesia, China, India and Brazil. As with previous investigations, the deals under scrutiny were transacted by Rolls-Royce’s previous management, headed by Sir John Rose. The Times newspaper reported on 20 May that the Nigerian deals involved Rolls-Royce’s alleged use of an intermediary company, PSL Engineering and Control, to influence the sale of gas turbines.

President Paul Kagame on 16 May officially inaugurated the KivuWatt methane-to-power plant at Kibuye. The plant has been operating since December, supplying 25MW to the grid from three Wärtsilä 34SG engines running on methane gas extracted from Lake Kivu. ContourGlobal said the technology was working better than expected and it aimed to be producing 34MW by year-end. “Our design and technology are performing even better than expected and we are pleased to announce today that the gas extraction facility will support at least an additional 9MW of power generation.

Australian mining company Magnis Resources announced on 16 May that it has signed a power development agreement with the US’ Symbion Power to provide a 30MW gas power plant, substation and 132kV transmission line for the Nachu graphite project. Symbion will be responsible for funding, developing and building the electrical infrastructure. Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) has given its approval in principle for the deal to proceed. Magnis will now complete an environmental impact assessment and technical and economic feasibility studies.

Senior officials and some notable international investors are optimistic that Egypt’s upstream sector is back on track, but this does not mean that some casualties have not been left by the wayside. The announcement of a new licensing round and the prospect of others later this year is the latest indication of the opportunities now on offer. Field developments are under way on and offshore, but Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) has not paid back arrears owed to international oil companies (IOCs) as quickly as it said it would, and a number of IOCs have suffered because of this.