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Bids were due by 15 May for a European Development Fund-financed programme to improve the corporate governance of power utility Zesco. Zesco has obtained European Investment Bank funding for two projects – upgrading the existing 220kV Kafue-Muzuma-Livingstone transmission line to 330 kV, and the Itezhi Tezhi hydro project and related transmission infrastructure. According to the tender notice: “Zesco has expressed its desire and commitment to strengthen good corporate governance and compliance procedures within the company.” The winning consultant will help the utility develop and implement a corporate governance framework.

Israeli diamond magnate Beny Steinmetz’s BSG Resources (BSGR) is preparing arbitration proceedings against the government of Guinea and President Alpha Condé, after Conakry revoked its licence for the Simandou iron ore deposit. BSGR said in a statement that it was initiating arbitration with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. Guinea stripped BSGR and its joint venture partner Vale of their rights to part of Simandou in April after a government committee concluded that BSGR had paid bribes. BSGR has denied any wrongdoing.

Karim Wade, son of former president Abdoulaye Wade, is to go on trial in June on charges of corruption. Karim, a former minister for international co-operation, infrastructure, air transport and energy, was accused in 2013 of amassing a personal fortune of some $1.4bn, accumulated while his father was in office between 2000 and 2012. He has been in prison on remand for over a year. Abdoulaye Wade, who went into self-imposed exile after his 2012 election defeat, arrived in Senegal on 25 April after two years in Versailles, to show support for his son, and to campaign in upcoming local elections on behalf of his Parti Démocratique Sénégalais.

The New York-based Revenue Watch Institute has given a positive assessment of Ghana’s Stabilisation Fund and Heritage Fund, saying they met 13 of 16 good governance fundamentals. The two funds, established under the Petroleum Revenue Management Act of March 2011, were described as featuring” clear deposit, withdrawal and investment rules, effective oversight, and other essential attributes of good governance”. The government published a reconciliation report in March this year detailing the sums passing through the Petroleum Holding Fund, from where oil money is allocated to Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, the annual budget, and the two petroleum funds.

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) notified Hyperdynamics on 24 April that the company had fallen below its continued listing standards. The Houston-based company’s average global market capitalisation had been less than $50m over a consecutive 30 trading-day period and its stockholders’ equity is less than $50m. The company moved to the main NYSE from the NYSE Amex exchange in July 2011 after Ray Leonard took over as president and chief executive (AE 213/15), but shareholder enthusiasm has evaporated.

The Italian government has named exploration and production head Claudio Descalzi to succeed Paolo Scaroni as Eni chief executive. Scaroni is stepping down after serving three terms. Descalzi is credited with heading the E&P division when it discovered huge gas resources offshore Mozambique, as well as avoiding risky ventures in unconventional resources such as shale and oil sands.

The Petroleum Exploration and Production Bill has received cabinet approval and will shortly be presented to parliament, four years after it was first drafted. The new law, which will update the previous 1984 legislation, contains provisions for blocks to be awarded through open licensing rather than direct negotiation. There has been criticism of recent licence awards approved by parliament under a certificate of urgency before the bill becomes law (AE 274/15), but this has been dwarfed by a bizarre series of developments involving the Offshore Cape Three Points South licence.

The US Treasury Department said on 17 April its sanctions office had targeted a Zimbabwean government official, an Angolan businessman, a Singaporean lawyer and a Zimbabwe-based entity for their role in undermining Zimbabwe’s democracy and/or facilitating public corruption. The sanctions freeze their US assets and bar Americans from dealing with them. Those targeted included registrar general Tobaiwa Mudede, and Hong Kong businessman Sam Pa, described by the treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) as “a well-known supporter of the Mugabe regime”.

African Petroleum Corporation has applied for a listing on Oslo’s junior Axess market, following the appointment of new management in recent months. Controversial former chairman Frank Timis stepped down in October. “Due to historical events related to other listed companies where he has been involved, Mr Timis will not be employed by the company nor hold board positions nor play any governance role going forward,” the company said. Before founding African Petroleum, Timis was chief executive of Regal Petroleum, whose directors were fined £600,000 in 2009, after a Financial Services Authority investigation, for misleading investors on the viability of an oil well in the Aegean Sea in 2003. African Petroleum and its sister company International Petroleum listed on Australia’s National Stock Exchange in 2010 after the main Australian Stock Exchange declined to have Timis involved.

Netherlands-based oil services company SBM Offshore on 2 April released the findings of an internal investigation of the company’s use of agents. The investigation, carried out by independent external counsel and forensic accountants (Paul Hastings LLP, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP) starting in Q1 2012, found that SBM paid some $200m in commission to agents during the period 2007 to 2011: $18.8m to Equatorial Guinea, $22.7m to Angola and $139.1m to Brazil. “In respect of Angola and Equatorial Guinea there is some evidence that payments may have been made directly or indirectly to government officials,” the company said.

Eni chief executive Paolo Scaroni has received a three-year jail sentence and a ban on holding public office for environmental violations at an Italian power plant while he was head of Enel. Scaroni denies wrongdoing and has said he will appeal. The court threw out a more serious charge of causing an environmental disaster, but ruled that the diesel-fired Porto Tolle plant had posed a risk. Franco Tato, another former Enel chief executive who denies the charges, was also found guilty, while Enel’s current chief executive Fulvio Conti and six other defendants were acquitted.

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) approved Ethiopia’s application for EITI candidature at a board meeting on 19 March, much to the anger of several parties, including Human Rights Watch (HRW). The country now has three years to achieve compliance with the EITI Standard, which was upgraded last year. “Some opposed this decision, but it should be remembered that becoming a candidate does not mean that any country has met the EITI Standard. In the case of Ethiopia, the decision shows that the Board was convinced by the government’s commitment to the EITI’s principles,” EITI chair Clare Short said in a statement.

Having suddenly declared force majeure in Guinea, nearly six months after the US Department of Justice launched a corruption probe into its partner Hyperdynamics, Tullow is playing up its transparency credentials. Its annual report published on 24 March includes project-by-project reporting of payments, making it the first oil company to disclose such detail in every country in which it operates. The significance of this is huge. The American Petroleum Institute (API) in September 2012 sued the US Securities and Exchange Commission in an attempt to avoid disclosing project-level payments, and API members are lobbying against tougher reporting standards in the EU and elsewhere.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Working Group on Bribery released its Phase 3 report on South Africa in mid-March. The report evaluates and makes recommendations on implementation and enforcement of the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions and related instruments. The OECD said it was “seriously concerned” by the lack of foreign bribery enforcement actions in South Africa. “Despite South Africa’s economic links to a number of countries with corruption risks, only ten foreign bribery allegations have surfaced since it became a party to the Convention in 2007,” the OECD said.

Hyperdynamics Corporation said on 12 March that Tullow Oil had declared force majeure over its Guinea acreage. The announcement followed a guilty plea by French national Frédéric Cilins to obstructing a US criminal investigation in connection with a bribery probe into how Beny Steinmetz’s BSG Resources (BSGR) acquired mining rights in Guinea.On 30 September, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) issued a subpoena asking Hyperdynamics, the original licence holder, to produce documents relating to its business in Guinea. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a similar subpoena in January this year.