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Samsung Engineering’s $800m contract with Groupement Timimoun to complete the south western field development jointly owned by Sonatrach, Total and Cepsa is the latest indication that progress is underway in this area after years of disappointment and false starts. The other companies developing gas fields nearby are GDF Suez at Touat and Repsol, RWE and Edison at Reggane Nord. All these projects have suffered years of delay as Sonatrach changed its mind on the routing of the planned GR5 gas pipeline to the Hassi R’mel hub.

Oando Energy Resources has extended the completion date for its acquisition of ConocoPhillips’ Nigerian upstream oil and gas business to 28 February from 31 January. Oando said it had secured the necessary funds, and the net purchase price payable to complete the acquisition would be $1.05bn, after deducting the $450m deposit previously paid. Oando describes the deal as a “transformational opportunity” that will add 43,000 boe/d to the company’s production, which averaged 3,900 b/d in Q3 2013 from OML 125 and the Ebendo marginal field

Anadarko Petroleum has signed provisional liquefied natural gas (LNG) sales deals covering about two-thirds of the output of its first planned LNG train. In a statement accompanying its 2013 results, the US company said: “To date, the partners have reached multiple non-binding Heads of Agreement for long-term LNG sales to buyers in premium Asian markets covering approximately two-thirds of the first 5m t/yr train.” A number of Asian companies have stakes in the Anadarko and Eni-led consortia exploring offshore northern Mozambique, including Thailand’s PTTEP, India’s ONGC Videsh Ltd, Oil India and Bharat Petroleum, Japan’s Mitsui, South Korea’s Kogas and China National Petroleum Corporation.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in January announced it had joined HSBC Bank Egypt in a total $100m commitment to support independent exploration and development company Improved Petroleum Recovery (IPR). The EBRD said the facility was “intended to facilitate IPR’s near-term growth strategy”, and had been “structured with an accordion feature to allow additional commitments”. It expected IPR to invest in enhanced oil recovery and other technologies, and to participate in growth opportunities including upcoming bid rounds.

Dana Petroleum has signed concession agreements for the West Dakhla 1 and 2 areas in the Western Desert. The company said the blocks were awarded through the Ganoub El-Wadi Petroleum Holding Company’s 2010 licensing round. Activities in the initial exploration phase of three years include an aeromagnetic survey and 500km of 2D seismic. “These two concessions in the Western Desert are a welcome addition to the exploration portfolio. This, along with the award of the South Wadi Dara Block in the Gulf of Suez we announced at the end of 2013, will help us build our exploration activities in Egypt,” said Egypt managing director Paul Barnett.

As Ophir Energy weighs options for development of its Block R gas, the company has signed a non-binding letter of intent with Petrofac to act as development operator up to the final investment decision. This role is expected to include preparing and issuing a field development plan for the project, and co-ordinating the upstream and midstream elements. Ophir has also held discussions with a number of floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) vessel providers. The company said it had received several proposals, a number of which have been shortlisted for further assessment with non-binding letters of intent signed on 20 February in Singapore.

Diversions of gas to the domestic market forced BG Group on 27 January to issue force majeure notices under its liquefied natural gas (LNG) agreements. In a statement ahead of its 2013 Q4 and full-year results on 4 February, BG said the revised pooling arrangements put in place for 2013 had not been honoured and domestic diversions were at around capacity, close to 1bcf/d. “As a result, BG Group has been unable to meet in full its obligations to deliver gas to Egyptian LNG and, given the current levels of domestic diversions and the continued uncertainty around the level of future diversions, BG Group has served force majeure notices under its LNG agreements to buyers and lenders.

Algeria’s energy authorities have staked their upstream strategy and their international credibility on the largest licensing round ever held in the country. It is the first to be held since amendments to the hydrocarbons law were passed in January 2013, so will test whether commercial terms have been improved enough to attract substantial international interest. The perimeters on offer include a high proportion of frontier and unconventional resources as well as licences in areas which are both more prospective and well-connected to existing pipeline and processing infrastructure.

London Stock Exchange-listed Ophir Energy has announced that its high-impact Mlinzi Mbali-1 well in offshore Block 7 failed to find hydrocarbons. The Deepsea Metro I drillship is now drilling the Sunbird well on Kenyan Block 10A for BG Group. It will then return to Tanzania, where wells are planned on Block 1 and on the Ophir-operated East Pande Block during H1 2014. Broker Investec said that, while Mlinzi was “a disappointment, the well was a high-risk prospect and only the first well in a 2014 programme that now includes up to ten wells, seven of which represent play openers”.

Kosmos Energy has appointed Andrew Inglis as board chairman and chief executive with effect from 1 March, enabling current chief executive Brian Maxted to focus on his exploration role. Maxted, a founding partner of Kosmos, will serve as chief exploration officer and remain on the board, while current board chairman John Kemp will retire. Inglis joined Petrofac in January 2011 after 30 years with BP, most recently as chief executive of its exploration and production business.

Supporters of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood boycotted a 14-15 January vote on a new constitution drawn up following the ousting of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013. The extent to which disgruntled Islamists can defy a military security clampdown to create instability is unclear. But apart from this unquantifiable threat, Egypt’s new rulers led by interim defence minister General Abdel Fattah El-Sisi have taken steps to neutralise other problems challenging their domination. During 2013, one of the government’s core weaknesses was its failure to maintain adequate foreign currency reserves or to guarantee fuel supplies for power generation and domestic use.

Nigeria’s Oando says it has raised the necessary funds for its $1.65bn acquisition of ConocoPhillips’ Nigerian assets, due to close at end-January. Oando describes the deal as a “transformational opportunity” that will add 43,000 boe/d to the company’s production, which averaged 3,900 b/d in Q3 2013 from OML 125 and the Ebendo marginal field. The deal is being funded by a combination of bank loans, a 30.7bn naira ($191m) private placement, and the $250m sale of its East Horizon Gas Company affiliate to Seven Energy International. Oando paid a $435m initial deposit and an additional $15m in December.

Operator BG Group has begun drilling the Sunbird-1 deep-water exploration well on Block L10A offshore Mombasa. The well is being drilled by the Deepsea Metro 1 drillship to a target depth of 3,000 metres below sea level in water depths of 721 metres, with an option to extend to 3,700 metres. Partner Pancontinental Oil & Gas said Sunbird-1 was the first test of a Miocene Pinnacle Reef offshore East Africa

Upstream operator Sunbird Energy has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Eskom to study the viability of supplying gas from the Ibhubesi field to the 1,300MW Ankerlig power station. “This MoU sets the framework under which Eskom and Sunbird will jointly investigate the development of the Ibhubesi gas project for the delivery of an indigenous gas supply to the energy-constrained west coast of South Africa,” said Sunbird chairman Kerwin Rana. Eskom is keen to convert Ankerlig from diesel to natural gas, and is developing plans to convert the plant from an open cycle to a closed cycle facility.

Victoria Oil & Gas (VOG) operating subsidiary Gaz du Cameroun (GDC) has announced agreements with power utility AES-Sonel and with cement manufacturer Dangote, as well as an initial cash-call payment from RSM Production Corporation. GDC and AES-Sonel have agreed to work on a technical and operating plan to progressively replace fuel oil with gas in power generation stations. The plan is for GDC initially to supply temporary units with gas, with a combined capacity of 45MW. This first stage is expected to be on line during Q2 2014, with anticipated gas consumption in the range of 2.6-5.9mcf/d.